Progressive sharing of modules among product variants

Recent market transition from mass production to mass customization forces manufacturers to design products that meet individual requirements. In order to address the high cost of this practice, manufacturers develop product families with a common platform, whose variants are designed to meet different customer demands. Parallel to this transition, the dynamics of the market forces designers to develop products composed of modules that are standardized as much as possible across products, thus can be more resilient than complete designs in a changing world.Starting from an original set of different components, our method designs a modular common platform and additional modules, shared by subsets of the designs, from which variants are composed.We applied the method to the layout design of a set of products. Consequently, the geometric aspect of the product family optimization is emphasized, but functional aspects related to the product features and to customer needs are also addressed due to their manifestation in the layout. The design search space is explored using shape grammar rules that alter component geometry and therefore, functionality. The search for optimal design is performed using simulated annealing. Given different objective formulations or parameter settings, the method can be used to explore the solution space. A simple example problem demonstrates the feasibility of the method.     

A methodology for brand feature establishment based on the decomposition and reconstruction of a feature curve

For creative products, maintaining original brand elements and features in a new product is an important issue in the design process as brand features are conceived and generated for longevity. However, current methods rely on designers’ abilities, and the size of forms is easily affected when shape morphing is applied, causing limitations in computer-aided design. In order to focus on design while preserving key features, a systematic method for presenting brand features is proposed in this article. In this method, the feature curves of the brand features of a company are decomposed with defined feature parameters, which were then used to reconstruct the feature curve of the designed product in the design stage by using a residual modified gray prediction model. A classic vehicle configuration design is taken as an example to show the implementation procedure of the proposed method. With residual modification, this method can also assimilate other forms from the original form database, and generate new forms based on gray prediction. The results show that brand features can be retained in the newly designed product based on the proposed method. Though vehicle design is taken as the example, this method can also be used to develop designs for many other the brand features. For classic products with historical value, this method can generate new forms that maintain original brand features, thereby satisfying customers’ needs for brand authenticity.     

Economical green product design based on simplified computer-aided product structure variation

Environmental issues have become an imperative concern for most companies in relation to modern product development. Special procedures have to be taken during the product development process to comply with recent green directives. Product structure is recognized as a critical factor that provides effective means for reducing environmental impact in product end-of-life. However, most previous studies failed to leverage the vast latitude at the design stage due to the assumption of a fixed product structure. To overcome this deficiency, we propose a CAD-based approach that allows automatic variation of 3D product structure by means of changing the combination of parts, selecting the assembly method, and rearranging the assembly sequence. A computing scheme uses Genetic Algorithm (GA) techniques to produce an optimal product structure from the design alternatives generated by the approach. This corresponds to lower assembly/disassembly costs, while complying with specified recycling and recovering rates. The scheme also chooses a smaller set of parts that needs to be disassembled and determines an economical disassembly process. Implemented in a commercial CAD system, the test results demonstrated the effectiveness of this scheme in green product design in a cost-effective manner.     

A quantitative aesthetic measurement method for product appearance design

Product appearance is one of the crucial factors that influence consumers’ purchase decisions. The attractiveness of product appearance is mainly determined by the inherent aesthetics of the design composition related to the arrangement of visual design elements. Hence, it is critical to study and improve the arrangement of visual design elements for product appearance design. Strategies that apply aesthetic design principles to assist designers in effectively arranging visual design elements are widely acknowledged in both academia and industry. However, applying aesthetic design principles relies heavily on the designer’s perception and experience, while it is rather challenging for novice designers. Meanwhile, it is hard to measure and quantify design aesthetics in designing artefacts when designers refer to existing successful designs. In this regard, this study aims to introduce a method that assists designers in applying aesthetic design principles to improve the attractiveness of product appearance. Furthermore, formulas for aesthetic measurement based on aesthetic design principles are also developed, and it makes an early attempt to provide quantified aesthetic measurements of design artefacts. A case study on camera design was conducted to demonstrate the merits of the proposed method where the improved strategies for the camera appearance design offer insights for concept generation in product appearance design based on aesthetic design principles.     

基于本体的产品设计知识表示方法

针对产品设计知识的多样性、动态化和相关性等特点,提出了一种基于本体的产品设计知识表示方法。建立了以客体、概念集、属性集、命题集和函数集为核心的知识单元,并设计了五者之间的联系,在此基础上引入了输入输出模块,以增强产品设计知识表示的全面性和灵活性。最后以圆柱形螺旋弹簧设计为例,验证了所提方法的有效性。     

Integrated product line design and supplier selection: A multi-objective optimization paradigm

Product line design is commonly used to provide higher product variety for satisfying diversified customer needs. To reduce the cost and development time and improve quality of products, companies quite often consider sourcing. Conventionally, product line design and supplier selection are dealt with separately. Some previous studies have been attempted to consider product line design and supplier selection simultaneously but two shortcomings were noted. First, the previous studies considered several objectives as a single objective function in the formulation of optimization models for the integrated problem. Second, positions of product variants to be offered in a product line in competitive markets are not clearly defined that would affect the formulation of marketing strategies for the product line. In this paper, a methodology for integrated product line design and supplier selection is proposed to address the shortcomings in which a multi-objective optimization model is formulated to determine their specifications and select suppliers for maximizing the profit, quality and performance as well as minimizing the cost of the product line. In addition, joint-spacing mapping is introduced to help estimate market share of products and indicate positions of product variants. The proposed methodology can provide decision makers with a better tradeoff among various objectives of product line design, and define market positions of product variants explicitly. The results generated based on the methodology could help companies develop product lines with higher profits, better product quality and larger market share to be obtained. A case study of a product line design of notebook computers was performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The results have shown that Pareto optimal product line designs and the specifications of product variants can be determined. Suppliers of components and modules can be selected with considerations of minimum sourcing cost, and maximum performance and quality of product variants. Prices and positions of the product variants can also be determined.     

Macro level product development using design for modularity

Modular design is an engineering methodology that will organize and structure a complex product, process or system into a set of distinct sub-systems and components that may be developed independently of each other and then assembled together. Modular design aims at identifying independent and standard units that could be used to create a variety of products. A structured methodology is proposed for identifying components that can be developed in parallel. In the proposed methodology the needs and product functional requirements are first established. The product is then decomposed based on its functional and physical characteristics. Next, a similarity index is introduced to measure the associativity between the basic components. Finally, a clustering technique is used to integrate the basic components into design modules based on their similarity index.     

A systematic data-mining-based methodology for product family design and product configuration

Product family design and product configuration based on data mining technology is identified as an intelligent and automated means to improve the efficiency of product development. However, few of previous literatures have proposed systematic product family design method based on data mining technology. To make up for this deficiency, this research put forward a systematic data-mining-based method for product family design and product configuration. First, the customer requirement information and product engineering information in the historical order are formatted into structural data. Second, principal component analysis is performed on historical orders to extract the customers' differentiated needs. Third, association rule algorithm is introduced to mine the rules between differentiated needs and module instances in the historical orders, thus obtained the configuration knowledge between customer needs and product engineer. Forth, the mined rules are used to construct association rule-based classifier (CBA) that is employed to sort out the best product configuration schemes as popular product variants. Fifth, sequence alignment technique is employed to identify modules for popular product variants, so that the module instances are divided into optional, common and special module, respectively, thereby the product platform is generated based on common modules. Finally, according to new customer needs, the CBA classifier is used to recommend the best configuration schemes, and then popular product variants are configured based on the product platform. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by the product family design example of desktop computer hosts.     

Machine learning and CBR integrated mechanical product design approach

Many works based on case-based reasoning (CBR) and rule-based reasoning (RBR) have been done to obtain a product concept intelligently, but researches on automatic and intelligent methods for the detailed design process are still lacking. To achieve the intelligent design of the whole process for mechanical product development, an approach based on cases and knowledge is proposed. First, considering that the actual product cases sample is small, correlations among product features and relationships between product features and requirements are evaluated based on design knowledge. According to these correlations and relationships, a design problem is decomposed into multiple parallel small-scale sub-problems not only to increase data samples but reduce data dimensions. Moreover, a hybrid method that combined Hamming distance with Euclidean distance is generated to retrieve similar cases, which can address both numerical and encoding factors. In addition, K-Nearest-Neighbor (KNN) algorithm and Linear regression are adopted to adapt the classification and numeric parameters, respectively, so that the detailed design process can be achieved without fixed knowledge template. Finally, a tool design software is developed based on Visual studio 2015 to verify the practicability of the proposed method.     

Optimal concurrent design based upon distributed product development life-cycle modeling

This research introduces an optimal concurrent design approach based upon a previously developed distributed product development life-cycle modeling method. In this approach, the product realization process alternatives and relevant activities are modeled at different locations that are connected through the Internet. Relations among these alternative activities are described by an AND/OR graph. The optimal product realization process alternative and its parameter values are identified using a multi-level optimization method. Genetic programming (GP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are employed for identifying the optimal product realization process alternative and the optimal parameter values of the feasible alternatives, respectively.     

A process simulation based method for scheduling product design change propagation

It is expected by enterprises that design changes that occur in a complex product development process can be resolved in a cost-effective way so that products modified for new customer requirements or new technology can be launched into the market without increasing much cost and time. Usually there are different solutions or methods for design changes, which may have different impacts on the whole process. Since a complex product development process consists of many design tasks and different relationships among these tasks, it is not easy to analytically compute the completion time when change propagation finishes. In this paper a process simulation based method is proposed to select the most economic propagation path for each design change, which can reduce the total process time for changes occurring in the complex product development process. “And/Or” graph nodes are used to represent the input and output logics of each task in the design process. Mathematic models are developed to calculate the completion time of the change propagation process. Monte Carlo based simulation algorithms for finding feasible output paths and calculating impacts of input changes on tasks are developed in order to simulate the change propagation process. The objective function for scheduling design change propagations is obtained by the regression analysis of simulation results. And the best change propagation paths, which usually are not the real optimum of the original design process model, are given by optimizing the regression model with a commercial optimization package. The effect of the method is demonstrated with a study of change propagations in the motor cycle engine design process.     

基于DSP5402的雷达测速系统硬件、软件设计

文章主要研究了一种基于DSP5402的测速系统,说明了雷达测速的原理,并设计了相应的具体实现方案,包括硬件设计和软件设计以及它们的实现。雷达测速是一种直接测量速度的方法,可以得到列车实际的运行速度。根据多普勒频移效应原理,在发射波和反射波之间产生频差,通过测量频差可以计算出机车的运行速度。该系统以DSP芯片作为数据处理核心,最终实验结果表明：该系统方案稳定可靠,满足雷达测速系统的准确以及实时性要求。     

产品概念设计可制造性评价方法研究

随着新产品开发技术的发展,人们对产品使用性能和外观艺术的要求越来越高。但概念设计不仅仅体现艺术性,更应符合工业产品的制造特点和使用特性。认为产品概念设计方案的可制造性决定于概念设计的工业设计阶段,并针对工业设计因素建立概念设计评价体系。认为产品概念设计可制造性评价是一个多层次、多属性的决策问题,建立概念设计评价模型,并基于多属性决策的理论知识给予了解决。     

Incorporating customer personalization preferences in open product architecture design

Open product architecture is a key enabler for product personalization, as it allows the integration of personalized modules in a product architecture to satisfy individual customer needs and preference. A critical challenge for integrating personalized modules into a product architecture is determining the optimal assembly architecture when considering market expectations and manufacturing constraints. In this paper, an optimization method is proposed for determining the personalized product design architecture that incorporates individual customer preferences. First, a decision hierarchy is presented to describe the integrated design decisions of the product architecture, including product variety determination, module variant selection, and personalized module configuration. Next, a profit model is formulated as an overall performance metric that incorporates customer preferences and manufacturing cost. The systematic patterns and randomness of diverse customer preferences are modeled by combining conjoint analysis and market segmentation with a multivariate normal mixture model. Individual customer product utilities in the target market and their product purchase intent probability are estimated through Monte-Carlo simulation, which is incorporated into the profit calculation. Manufacturing limitations on processes and materials are included as they influence manufacturer’s planning on candidate module variants and production strategies of personalized modules. These models are used to determine a product family architecture that maximizes profit by optimally determining its offering of product variants, module combinations, and personalized module configuration through a genetic algorithm. The proposed method is demonstrated by a personalized bicycle architecture design example.     

User values based evaluation model to assess product universality

Unlike the conventional design methodology, the universal design aims to integrate various user groups within the design space to benefit the user of all ages with distinct abilities. The objective of this work is to ensure universality of the designed product with the help of user-values based evaluation model. In the proposed model, users are classified into three groups based on their abilities and needs. This classification analyses the values associated with the individual needs of a different group of users. The universality of the product is analyzed by using the proposed model and accordingly the product can be improved by incorporating the values that have been overlooked by the designer. The frequently neglected values can be identified to modify universal design principles.Relevance to industry.Providing functional and usable products to all sets of users is the most important goal of industry, in today's marketplace. To achieve this goal, universal product design evaluation model has been proposed in this work. With the help of evaluation model, design firms and designers can ensure the universality of the product at an early phase of design and also while redesigning of the existing products.     

Data management of green product development with generic modularized product architecture

Many manufacturers are facing a complex situation in the mixed production environment, in which green and non-green products are fabricated simultaneously. They are losing competitiveness as a downstream supplier due to lacking of a cost-effective approach to managing product variations compliant with different green directives. This paper presents a methodology based on generic modularized product architecture that facilitates data management of green product development. The four-level architecture allows one unified representation for multiple product models. An option control mechanism enables a quick generation of their BOMs (bills of material). A procedure consisting of seven steps is proposed to accomplish this. PDM functions are implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology using a real LCD TV family as an example. This work complements the past studies on green product development, which mainly tackled the problem from design, process, and supply chain improvement. In contrast, from a management perspective, the proposed methodology provides a simple but useful tool for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to perform green product development in an economical manner.     

基于混合模式的农产品质量安全可追溯系统集成方法*

为了提升农产品质量安全管理水平,提出一种基于混合模式的农产品质量安全可追溯系统的集成方法。该方法采用C/S和B/S混合模式来构架系统,采用射频识别（RFID）和条码技术对产品进行标志、信息采集和传输,使用组件技术开发系统关键模块;最后以蔬菜为例,在对某企业实地调研的基础上,应用此方法开发了一套蔬菜质量安全可追溯系统。运行结果表明系统将供应链各部分有机联系,保证了农产品在整个供应链流动时信息流的准确、通畅和实时,实现了农产品的质量安全可追溯功能。     

A computerized team approach for concurrent product and process design optimization

Concurrent product and process design (CPPD) can be handled by developing a computerized team approach. In the team approach, CPPD at the top-level abstraction is treated as a two-objective optimization problem with a view to two teams: design and manufacture. The design team aims to optimize the overall product functionality (or performance) and the manufacture team to minimize the total manufacturing cost. Satisfaction metrics are used to characterize the degree of how each team prefers a design in seeking the most favorite that best fulfills the goal of a team. Using min and geometric mean operators as a baseline, the satisfaction levels of two teams can be aggregated with respect to strategic team paradigms derived from game theory. With satisfaction metrics, three dual-team based CPPD models are developed, along with the computational algorithms, in an attempt to reveal team activities in the context of design. The procedures to simulate and implement various team design models are demonstrated through a design example.     

Design change propagation routing in the modular product

In product engineering, design changes are unavoidable because of the evolution of customer requirements and key technologies. Modularization has been extensively applied as an effective strategy for the development of complex products. In a modular product, although modules are supposed to be functionally independent, the design change in a module can still propagate to other modules because of the interfaces between modules. This propagation leads to numerous potential propagation paths and uncontrollable change in costs. Thus, it is valuable to consider the impact of the modular structure during the optimization of design change propagation. This research offers a glimpse into design change propagation routing in modular products to accelerate design change propagation within the modules. First, the relationships between components were determined to construct the product network model. Subsequently, an optimization model of the design change propagation path was established to minimize the change propagation intensity, which includes the importance of the components, change in cost, and path length. To decrease the number of modules that the design change propagates into, the correlation between the modules was explored as penalties, considering the dependencies of a module on the interface(s) that are defined from aspects of the topological characteristics, change in the propagation characteristics, and cost of design changes. A multiple-population genetic algorithm was developed to solve this model. Finally, a case study of the design change propagation routing of a potato lifter was implemented to expound on the utility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.