On the Modularity in Manufacturing Systems

Abstract

The modularity is now considered as the key concept of the current manufacturing systems. The modularity was originally investigated in software engineering and it has never been examined in the context of manufacturing systems configuration. This paper firstly introduces five aspects of modules, which are segmentation, operation, encapsulation, independence, and interface, and then explains five relationships in manufacturing systems, which are cohesion, similarity, continuity, cooperation, and dependece. The concept of modularity in manufacturing systems is redefined by using the conceptual scheme of modularity for manufacturing.