Profitability

The SARS-CoV-2 virus poses unexpected challenges for the global economy. Demand for goods collapsed, and supply declined because companies suddenly ran out of employees or intermediate products. As a result, economic indicators turned negative. However, although an economic recovery is now underway, uncertainty about future developments is still on a record high. This is due not least to global value chains. Their disruption was a major factor in the aforementioned distortions, but they are still central to local production.

Additive Manufacturing has become more important for industrial applications. The technology offers the opportunity of high geometric flexibility and no need of product specific tools including short time to market. The aim is to integrate added value into products by exploiting these possibilities. Therefore, in this work a methodology focusing on these aspects is developed and applied to a structural component.

The advancing technological change, the globalization of markets as well as increasing customer requirements have led to a significant increase in complexity in manufacturing companies and their supply chains. Companies and entire value chains are countering this development with product modularization strategies. In this context, however, the investigation of the influences of product modularization on the supply chain receives little attention. This can lead to unused potentials and additional risks, such as the loss of core competencies. Therefore, this article deals with necessary processes and success factors that result from a joint consideration of product modularization along the supply chain. On the basis of a systematic analysis of scientific literature and guideline-supported expert interviews, a process model with different phases and steps was developed and currently necessary success factors were identified.