The paper discusses increasing demands on product architecture and the resulting requirements and implications for organizational structure. Due to the rising conditions, the product architecture is increasingly developing into a complex construct in which transparency must be increased to continue developing products effectively. The approach of this paper is, based on the method of Design for Variety, a matrix-based modularization with the DSM and its extension to a cross-discipline multi-domain matrix to establish a reference to the organizational structure and to align it in a value-added way to good product architecture. This is done by an exemplary Investigation of the product family generation of a vacuum robot.

This paper analyzes the potential of crossdisciplinary collaboration in the methodical development of Modular Design by harmonization asynchronous mechatronic system structures. Subsystem boundaries in multidisciplinary development processes are set disciplinespecific, resulting in inconsistencies in module fitting. Based on a case study, harmonization of disciplines is elaborated as a solution. This aligns discipline structures and reduces effects on the variety in system structures.This implementation shows support for modular design and enables an integrated view as a systems-in-system.

This paper considers the orientation of product development structures towards interdisciplinary system architectures using the example of a tool machine manufacturer. Due to the change from simple mechanical products to extensively designed systems, whose successful development requires the integration of all disciplines involved, it is analyzed which requirements there are for these interdisciplinary system architectures in today's development environment. In addition, it is validated on the basis of the investigation environment that interdisciplinary system structures are necessary for the development on the different levels of the system view. In doing so, the investigation environment addresses the concept of extracting customer-relevant features (systems) from a physical-tailored modular system (supersystem) in order to develop and test them autonomously, as well as to transfer them to the entire product range in a standardized manner. The elaboration identifies basic requirements for the development of a knowledge base in interdisciplinary system structures and places them into the context of an agile modular kit development.

This paper addresses the question of how Modular Design methods can support the development of complex products. The goal of selected Modular Design methods is to improve transparency in the development of modular systems to be able to structure these systems in a way that adds value to the observed company and to derive optimized product architectures from the conducted procedures. The problem addressed here is that existing methods can develop increasingly less transparency within the development of complex products, since the extent of these products rises increasingly. This increases the complexity of the work steps and scope of work, which results in a reduction of the immediate transparency in observing the underlying product architecture. To address this pain points, two selected methods in the context of Modular Design are exemplary adapted to agile approaches and principles. These adaptations are applied to two underlying case studies, each of which has to do with the development of complex products in various aspects. In the case studies, different process perspectives are depicted, which offer both a development process (further development of an existing system) of a laser cutting machine tool of a mechanical engineering company, as well as a development project (new design of a system with a high degree of novel development) of a smart industrial valve of a medium-sized engineering manufacturer with, in addition, an unknown proportion of new development as an investigation environment. The results show the integration of agile aspects in selected Modular Design methods as a successful support in generating transparency in the development of complex products and systems, in different process perspectives. At the same time, the research also shows that adaptations to the studied methods are necessary, such as continuous and centralized concept documentation, to apply them in an agile context.