Modularity in design or popularly known as the modular design is a specific form of design comprising specific theory as well as practice and basically an approach which encourages to divide a task into several smaller tasks or modules. These modules in modular design are supposed to be independently created or made, should be independently functioning, can be independently modified, exchanged or replaced with various systems. In addition to this, the modular design is also characterised by practically functioning divisions into reusable and scalable modules. The modular designs normally use technically defined modular interfaces which are often of the standards of the industry interfaces.
The modular design with its limited modularity is known as platform system which ultimately uses the respective modular components. The modular designs are popularly used in many sectors including home construction as well as interior designing. In every sector, the designers of modular design use a distinct modular system which ultimate incorporate dimensional modularity. However, modular design systems do not have a specific lifetime and lack flexibility in a minimum of three dimensions. In this context, modular systems are seldom found in the market such as mero architectural system which deals with hard products in the market. Similarly, another example of a modular system is the aerospace weapons platforms which need to be upgraded multiple times in their lifetime as per the requirement.
The modularity in a modular system refers to numerous benefits such as cost reduction, minimum learning time, interoperability, designing flexibilities, updating new solutions through just plugging in a new module etc. In addition to this, the modularity in a modular system also offers benefits like reduced cost of product development, reduced costs of Q&M, and provides sufficient to market especially in a modular platform system.
However, the biggest demerit or drawback in the modular system is the engineer or the designer. It has been noticed that most engineers of modular systems are not trained on modular designing and most designers of modular system lack proper system analysis understanding. Eventually, the complexity regarding the design of a modular system is higher in comparison to the platform system and requires design and product strategy experts especially in the beginning stages of system development.
This stage of system development essentially needs to incorporate flexibility and direction that are necessary in the system in order to produce the benefits in the modular system. In this context, a modular system can be viewed more in terms of a holistic or complete in comparison to the platform system.
