Conceiving modular solutions in early conceptual design activities

Literature acknowledges modular architectures to give rise to a series of positive effects, and advantages given by considering modularity early in the design process have also been inferred. As a matter of the fact, many attempts have been made to develop modularization methods and tools. However such methods mainly support redesign tasks focused on modifying the architecture of an existing solution, i.e. operate only after, at least, a preliminary conceptual design process. Anyway, it is well acknowledged that product success is strongly influenced by the quality of the underlying concept. Such an observation leaded the authors of this paper towards a research activity aimed at the development of new design tools, for supporting the designer in facing modularity issues during the conceptual design phase. In particular, the present paper shows some preliminary results concerning the development of a new design approach capable of taking into account modularity issues since early concept generation activities.