Exploring modularity's effects on process efficiency in single assembly line balancing

With the growing demand to produce a wider range of products at lower costs, the modularity of assembly lines is becoming a focus of interest for manufacturers. This interest naturally arises from the assumption that modular production is one way to reduce production costs. However, these costs consist of several types of items and are influenced by various factors. For this reason, it is reasonable to replace this indicator with process efficiency. The goals of this study were to determine: (1) whether the efficiency of assembly line task processing is favourably affected by a higher level of relative modularity and (2) whether the efficiency of assembly line task processing is favourably affected by an optimal level of modularity. The results of the research presented in this article revealed that by optimising modularity, it is possible to achieve higher assembly line efficiency. The experimenters found that there is a large positive correlation between optimal modularity and efficiency, since the calculated average Spearman coefficient was 0.764. In addition, the experimental results demonstrated a fundamental difference between the relative and optimal levels of process modularity.