Modular deployment using TRM and function analysis

Modularity has played an important role in providing a variety of products, allowing companies to deliver new technologies and occupy new markets. However, its potential is not fully addressed in the early stages of the product development process. In this paper, we present a method for transforming technology roadmap outputs into a module-based plan. The proposed method combines two methods of modular design to transform the products listed on the roadmap into a list of modules, providing a new roadmap based on module releases. A new set of module drivers is provided to deal with the market side of TRM. The proposed method was applied to the planning of a stove platform, using the strategic information provided by a company with expertise in the development of modular products. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method since a strong alignment with the modules proposed and the ones actually used by the company was achieved.