An innovative modularization methodology for ETO products: case study on PLET structures

The offshore industry's demand for customized subsea equipment, such as Pipeline End Termination (PLET) structures, challenges traditional Engineer-to-Order (ETO) design and manufacturing process in terms of efficiency and cost.. This paper presents a new approach to identifying modularization oppurtunity in ETO products to reduce lead times and production cost while preserving customization flexibility. The research approach involves gathering detailed design and operational data, followed by applying clustering techniques, such as K-means, to group products based on relevent criteria and support early-stage modular design decisions. The methodology is tested through a case study on PLET systems, focusing on identifying similarities across different clusters. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework improves efficiency in design time, supports designers in making impactful first impressions during the design process, and enhances competitiveness in the tender phase by enabling a more structured and efficient approach to modularization.