Marc Wouters

2014

This paper reviews literature regarding modularity and component commonality in product design, and in particular the implications of both approaches for inventory costs, manufacturing costs, development costs, and after-sales costs. The focus of this paper is to analyze literature from a management accounting point of view. The final set of papers reviewed included 44 papers. These originate from different disciplines and therefore has to be put into context. This review mainly includes on theoretical studies, and a lack of empirical work in this field becomes apparent.