The role of product architecture in the manufacturing firm.

Ulrich, K. (1995). The role of product architecture in the manufacturing firm. Research Policy, 24(3), 419-440.

Type

Journal article

Intellectual base

Primary research

Year

1995

Volume

24

Issue

3

Pages

419-440

ISSN

0048-7333

DOI

10.1016/0048-7333(94)00775-3

DOI registrant

Elsevier

Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333(94)00775-3

Cited from

art_aesthetics, computer_science, economics_finance, engineering_design, mathematics, organizational_management, philosophy, systems_cybernetics

Cited by

15 citations across 15 artifacts.

Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.

Primes

• Abstraction

  • This sourceProduct architecture as the mapping of functions to components plus interfaces.

• Boundary

  • This sourceProduct architecture as assignment of functions to physical components.

• Compatibility
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Decomposition
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Dependency

  • This sourceDefines product architecture via the mapping from function to components and the interfaces (dependencies) between them.

• Design for Lifecycle Adaptability
  • The mechanism works because anticipating change during design is vastly cheaper than retrofitting adaptability after deployment; systems designed with adaptability built in can evolve gracefully, whereas systems designed for static conditions become increasingly costly to modify as they age

    This sourceFoundational typology of modular vs. integral product architecture; articulates linkages between architecture and product change, variety, component standardization, performance, and development management.

• Interface
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Layering
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Minimalism
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Modularity
  • The modular redesign increased initial development cost (disciplined interface design), but reduced maintenance cost and enabled faster feature evolution
• Platform Design
  • The specification of explicit, standardized interfaces that abstract the platform internals and enable external development
• Specialization
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Substitutability
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.
• Task Interdependence
  • Listed in the references but not attached to a specific claim.

Mechanisms

• Modular Product Family
  • Its strength is mass customization

    This sourceModular product architecture can combine component standardization with product variety, allowing differentiated configurations from a reusable component set.

Verification

Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.

Does it back the claim? Not recorded. Neither this nor any other of the 15 citations of this work carries a recorded support check.

Support is checked per citation rather than per work — the same source can be cited soundly in one article and wrongly in another. Per-citation recording began recently, so a citation with no recorded check is a gap in the record rather than evidence it went unchecked.

See how references were verified.

Registry ID ref:c53ca774b423 · see in the full table