The Effects Of Modularity Design On The Maintainability Of A Domestic Product: A Case Study

This paper reports the study on maintainability of a domestic product from the aspect of design modularity. In the study, the clustering technique was applied to the domestic product, an electric coffee maker in order to identify its functional components and the interactions between the components of the product. The service modes of the product were identified in order to ascertain the level of maintenance difficulty faced by the user. Guidelines in design for maintainability were applied during modification to the existing design, focusing on three components in the main module of the product namely the cover of the base, the spraying unit and the cover of the strainer aperture. Result from the study has shown that considerations on design modularity and maintainability requirements at the early stage of product design, has enabled product maintenance to be identified and planned in more systematic anb effective manner. The proposed new design would certainly enhance the maintainability of the product.