Modularity has emerged as a relevant approach to managing the increasing complexity of products and production systems. It promotes flexibility and supports environmental sustainability. In this context, companies seek reliable tools to assess the degree of modularity to compare different designs and identify areas with high assembly complexity, thereby guiding and prioritizing corrective actions. This study aims to develop indicators for evaluating both the modularity level of a product and the complexity of its assembly line. The approach begins with a literature review to establish the theoretical foundations. Then, new metrics for modularity and complexity are proposed and empirically tested on both hypothetical and real assembly processes. Finally, the results are validated through correlation analyses between the rankings generated by the metrics and those provided by domain experts. Tests on modularity show strong correlations, reaching 97.3% for simple case studies and 90% for complex ones. Comparisons among existing products also yielded the expected rankings. However, the proposed complexity indicators show insufficient correlation levels, except for the multiplicative model, which achieved a 45% correlation—considered inadequate for operational adoption.
| Date | 6 Aug 2025 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Antoine Tahan (Supervisor) & Lucas Hof (Co-supervisor) |
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Mekazi Mokue, P. A. (Author),
Tahan (Supervisor) &
Hof (Co-supervisor),
6 Aug 2025Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Engineering