A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies
This article presents a method (the cross-functional architecture matrix, CAM) for identifying the most business-critical architecture decisions for companies applying product architectures to support the design and production of customised and highly engineered products. Although the product archit...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/4/1998 |
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| author | Mikkel Sohrt Willads Blinkenberg Niels Henrik Mortensen Anders Haug Lars Hvam |
| author_facet | Mikkel Sohrt Willads Blinkenberg Niels Henrik Mortensen Anders Haug Lars Hvam |
| author_sort | Mikkel Sohrt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article presents a method (the cross-functional architecture matrix, CAM) for identifying the most business-critical architecture decisions for companies applying product architectures to support the design and production of customised and highly engineered products. Although the product architecture literature describes the value of product architectures and suggests concepts and methods for modelling product architectures, existing methods tend to focus on a select few parts of the value chain or a few functional disciplines despite engineer-to-order (ETO) companies being highly cross-functional. Furthermore, the literature suggests that the practical implementation of product architectures is hindered by the complexity of the architecture models and the large number of decisions involved in the implementation and maintenance of the architecture. In this article, we test the suggested method in a case of a company that designs manufacturing plants (usually an investment in excess of 200 M€) and where three major equipment systems were chosen. For each system, cross-functional architecture matrices were applied. In each case, we found that only five architecture decisions had to be made to achieve significant improvements in the system’s performance, including a 30% reduction in installation hours, 76% of commissioning activities moved from the site to workshop, a 6% faster time to production, and a 12% total cost reduction. Practitioners in ETO companies can use the CAM method to support their product architecture development, while researchers can utilise it for future studies on the implementation of product architectures across functional domains and value chains. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9acfb8ac61ba4a4391cd97792346bca4 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-9acfb8ac61ba4a4391cd97792346bca42025-08-20T02:44:33ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-02-01154199810.3390/app15041998A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order CompaniesMikkel Sohrt0Willads Blinkenberg1Niels Henrik Mortensen2Anders Haug3Lars Hvam4Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Business and Sustainability, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, DenmarkDepartment of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkThis article presents a method (the cross-functional architecture matrix, CAM) for identifying the most business-critical architecture decisions for companies applying product architectures to support the design and production of customised and highly engineered products. Although the product architecture literature describes the value of product architectures and suggests concepts and methods for modelling product architectures, existing methods tend to focus on a select few parts of the value chain or a few functional disciplines despite engineer-to-order (ETO) companies being highly cross-functional. Furthermore, the literature suggests that the practical implementation of product architectures is hindered by the complexity of the architecture models and the large number of decisions involved in the implementation and maintenance of the architecture. In this article, we test the suggested method in a case of a company that designs manufacturing plants (usually an investment in excess of 200 M€) and where three major equipment systems were chosen. For each system, cross-functional architecture matrices were applied. In each case, we found that only five architecture decisions had to be made to achieve significant improvements in the system’s performance, including a 30% reduction in installation hours, 76% of commissioning activities moved from the site to workshop, a 6% faster time to production, and a 12% total cost reduction. Practitioners in ETO companies can use the CAM method to support their product architecture development, while researchers can utilise it for future studies on the implementation of product architectures across functional domains and value chains.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/4/1998engineer-to-ordermodularisationproduct architecturessystems engineeringproduct platformsvalue chain |
| spellingShingle | Mikkel Sohrt Willads Blinkenberg Niels Henrik Mortensen Anders Haug Lars Hvam A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies Applied Sciences engineer-to-order modularisation product architectures systems engineering product platforms value chain |
| title | A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies |
| title_full | A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies |
| title_fullStr | A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies |
| title_short | A Method for Modelling Business-Critical Architecture Decisions in Engineer-to-Order Companies |
| title_sort | method for modelling business critical architecture decisions in engineer to order companies |
| topic | engineer-to-order modularisation product architectures systems engineering product platforms value chain |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/4/1998 |
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