Modular Design: Product Design Opportunities and a Case Analysis

In recent decades, modular design has been fully developed due to its important role in the current industrial evolution. The numerous advantages offered by its application to product design has made companies from different sectors opt for its use to solve particular needs. Many authors have studied modular design from a theoretical viewpoint, but it is necessary to learn about its application by studying real cases that allow us to understand what the object of its application is, the different methods used to obtain modular products and the results obtained in each case. Accordingly, we can know modular design’s most characteristic features and benefits, the business of its application, what its evolution has been, and what path it is currently on as part of the current industrial evolution. To do this, a case study research is carried out, which is divided into two parts. The first consists of a bibliographic review that focused on the main authors who studied modular design and documented real cases of its application, especially at the beginning of modular design in industry. The second focused on investigating the current cases that have not been previously documented, which shows how modular design is currently applied and how it evolves.