A module is a set of some disassembly and/or non-disassembly components or parts. It usually is used not only in supporting or carrying out the same function, but also in decreasing the complexity of a system in maintenance. Traditionally, the module form of a system is created according to either the function requirements or the manufacturing considerations. It is determined mainly depending on the individual condition of systems in designing, and has no concrete and scientific approach to progress system modularity. To overcome the faults in traditional modularity, the present paper presents a method of modularity based on the consideration of system maintenance policy for constructing the system modules. First, the correlations in designing the functions/components within a system are analysed according to four input/output parameters--geometry constraint, mechanical strength, energy flow and signal flow--to build the hierarchy structure of system in combination. Second, the parameters of reliability and cost of these functions/components are then investigated to describe the degradation in usage and to calculate the maintenance cost of each possible module. Third, the aged-maintenance model is used to evaluate the ideal maintenance intervals and the total maintenance costs of these modules so that the optimal module type of the system can be established. Finally, a hydraulic system used in squeezing machinery is adopted to depict the process of system modularity. Ideally, the result in modularity may feedback to designers to modify the design and to ensure the achievement in designing for maintainability.
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Tsai et al. (2003) studied this question.