The theme of this newsletter is product modularity, which is a key feature to enable the evolutionary development of physical products.
In fact, the monolithic product requires its complete rethinking every time you want to evolve it.
By the term decomposability, I am mainly referring to the architecture of the product, in terms of modularity.
By modules I mean subsystems or elements of the product that can be combined with each other to configure it according to customer requirements.
An extension of the modular architecture is the platform product, which enhances these features because in addition to being a set of modules that can be integrated with each other, it forms the basis for the development of a large number of product elements.
A modular architecture allows incremental product development through separate development of a single module, which can integrate with the remaining ones or replace an existing one.
In this way, the product can come out with minimal functionality and later be upgraded with increasing functionality.
When possible, it is appropriate to develop cross-product modules.
I am thinking of the industrial machinery sector, where some functional elements of a product, such as an electrospindle, a loader or other, can be thought of as common to multiple products.
Modularity does not fully express the concept of product breakdown.
In fact, I am thinking of elements that, by themselves, do not constitute a function of the product itself.
In my business experience, I am referring, for example, to the IoT units needed to make industrial machines compatible with the Industry 4.0 paradigm.
Another example may be the technical solutions such as thermal insulation, or vibration damping systems that we can find distributed in many of the modules that make up the product.
I like to call these elements of the product technology blocks.
Many of these technological blocks may have to do with new technologies, not owned by the company, and their development is a real applied research activity.
This approach is extremely advantageous because it allows the identification of elements of greater development complexity from those that are easier to implement.
The development of a single technology block or module can pose a far greater challenge than the realization of the final product as an integration of already developed elements.
Modules and technology blocks enable organic product development with multiple parallel teams, giving rise to forms of scaled development similar to those of large software product development
The ‘modular architecture also allows the company to introduce innovative product elements to the market incrementally.
In this way, the company has feedback on the innovations introduced and can correct the direction of subsequent developments.
At the same time, it allows the company to continually present real innovations, instead of the most trivial cosmetics of an existing product.
This decomposability of the product also promotes ecological transition through the gradual replacement of elements with others having less environmental impact.
In this regard, an example I have experienced with my teams is the increasing use of high-efficiency electric actuators to replace other types of traditional actuators that are much less efficient or have a high impact during their life cycle.
Product breakdown therefore is particularly effective in enabling agile development, for later releases, of a physical product.
This makes the development of hardware products closer to the development process of software products, which are introduced to the market with releases following one after another.
The difference, compared to software, is in this case the expense or unaffordability of ‘upgrading existing products, already installed or already delivered to customers.
These will mainly be paid upgrades of existing products, or new product proposals.
