Appropriate consideration of interfaces in product development

The development of modular product families depends on correctly implementing appropriate interfaces. They exert a significant impact on the configurability of products, the interchangeability of modules, and the production processes and respective equipment. This paper analyses interfaces of modular product architectures from a strategic perspective and discusses the impact of these interfaces on sustainability and module-wise product modification of modular product families. In this context, it presents an enhancement of the module interface graph (MIG) for more effective treatment of interfaces in product development, based on two case studies in different fields of application.