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Foreign trade policy --- Belgium --- China

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Nowadays consumers want a greater variety of products, preferably tailored to their individual needs, but still at affordable prices. This can be achieved with mass customization through a commonality and/or modularity approach. These two approaches are however not always beneficial and the costs that will result from their implementation should first be investigated into detail. Since different cost types evolve in different directions compared to a traditional design and depend on different parameters, a good total cost model is required to determine if commonality and/or modularity is beneficial in a particular case. This thesis proposes a clear and comprehensible model to do this. Secondly, this thesis investigates which product design methodologies are available to a designer that wants to implement commonality and/or modularity. Modular design methods were found to be divisible according to the objective they try to achieve (e.g. the reduction of life-cycle costs). According to the designer's objective and the information available the right method can be chosen. Methods that help to search for common components are often based on the cost reductions commonality can lead to but often do not incorporate the potential performance degradation commonality can have as a result.