Platform-based product design and development: A knowledge-intensive support approach

This paper presents a knowledge-intensive support paradigm for platform-based product family design and development. The fundamental issues underlying the product family design and development, including product platform and product family modeling, product family generation and evolution, and product family evaluation for customization, are discussed. A module-based integrated design scheme is proposed with knowledge support for product family architecture modeling, product platform establishment, product family generation, and product variant assessment. A systematic methodology and the relevant technologies are investigated and developed for knowledge supported product family design process. The developed information and knowledge-modeling framework and prototype system can be used for platform product design knowledge capture, representation and management and offer on-line support for designers in the design process. The issues and requirements related to developing a knowledge-intensive support system for modular platform-based product family design are also addressed.     

Product platform configuration for product families: Module clustering based on product architecture and manufacturing process

Product family design utilizes platform-based modularity to enable product variety and efficient mass-production. While product platform issues have attracted much attention from both academia and industry, traditional product platform design for product families emphasized the platform-based modularity that focuses on product structure dimension (functional or non-functional) to realize cost reductions during the design stage. Both the design architecture and manufacturing process are objectives that define product family modularity (PFM). They should be closely coupled with each other for the planning and configuration of platforms. This paper focuses on the product platform configuration by recognizing and utilizing shared product modules for product families. Instead of clustering product modules only based on their design structure, this approach differentiates each product variant, and considers the inherent relationship between product architecture and processing activities. The advantage is that similar components can be grouped and produced on a shared platform, thus benefitting from lower cost and shorter production time. First, both the architecture and manufacturing information of the product variety are captured in matrix format. Then, hierarchical clustering is applied over the components to generate PFM. Finally, a set of platforms are constructed to efficiently process most components of variants.     

Optimal platform investment for product family design

Existing models for developing modular product families based on a common platform are either too engineering oriented or too marketing centric. In this paper, we propose an intermediate modeling ground that bridges this gap by simultaneously considering essential concepts from engineering and marketing to construct an alternative model for platform-based product families. In this model, each variant (in the platform-based product family) contributes a percentage to overall market coverage inside a target market segment. The extent to which a specific variant contributes to market coverage is linked to its degree of distinctiveness. On the other hand the cost of development of all variants (that constitute the product family) is also dependent on the degree of commonality between these variants. The objective of the model is to maximize market coverage subject to an available development budget. Based on a conceptual design of the product family, the proposed model suggests the optimal initial investment in the platform, the commonality level between variants, and the number of variants to be produced in order to maximize market coverage using both analytical and simulation techniques. An application example using an ice scraper product family is included to demonstrate the proposed model.     

A manufacturing-oriented approach for multi-platforming product family design with modified genetic algorithm

With highly fragmented market and increased competition, platform-based product family design has been recognized as an effective method to construct a product line that satisfies diverse customer’s demands while aiming to keep design and production cost-effective. The success of the resulting product family often relies on properly resolving the inherent tradeoff between commonality across the family and performance loss. In this paper, a systematic multi-platforming product family approach is proposed to design a scale-based product family. In the light of the basic premise that increased commonality implies enhanced manufacturing efficiency, we present an effective platform decision strategy to quantify family design configuration using a commonality index that couples design varieties with production variation. Meanwhile, unlike many existing methods that assume a single given platform configuration, the proposed method addresses the multi-platforming configuration across the family, and can generate alternative product family solutions with different levels of commonality. A modified genetic algorithm is developed to solve the aggregated multiobjective optimization problem and an industrial example of a planetary gear train for drills is given to demonstrate the proposed method.     

Product platform design to improve commonality in custom products

Many companies find it difficult to maintain commonality and economies of scale in products with strict customer design requirements that may vary greatly from contract-to-contract or piece-to-piece. These strict and varied requirements typically result in highly customized products that are costly to manufacture, involve small production runs, and require long delivery times. In this paper, we discuss how the strategic incorporation of product platforms into the design process can leverage the design effort of individually customized products. The example involves the design of cross-sections for yokes used to mount valve actuators in the nuclear power industry. Through this example we demonstrate the process of creating a market segmentation grid, choosing a targeted segment, creating a product platform for the yoke cross-section, and subsequently defining the yoke product family using the product platform concept exploration method. The end result is a platform-based product family that will improve response to customer requests, reduce design and manufacturing costs, and improve time to market for companies that make small production runs of highly customized products.     

SoC系统级设计方法与技术

介绍了以Y图为中心的系统级设计方法研究主题,从软硬件协同设计技术、设计重用技术以及与底层相结合设计技术3方面探讨了系统级关键设计技术的研究进展.从设计方法和技术路线上,将当前的研究工作归纳为基于SpecC自顶向下细化求精的设计方法、基于组件多处理器核SoC自底向上搭积木的设计方法和基于平台上下结合分而治之的设计方法3类.在此基础上,对各类方法的基本思想、描述语言、设计模型和关键技术等进行了分析与对比,并给出了该领域存在的研究问题及其今后的研究方向和重点.     

RESEARCH ISSUES IN E-COMMERCE AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

The technology changes in computing and communications are starting to allow a greater involvement of suppliers in the design of a product. Such supplier involvement can be called a product development chain. Linking the product development chain through E-Commerce technologies has the potential of reaping substantial benefits. However, this area is relatively unresearched. This article aims to begin the process of addressing this major deficiency by describing the key research issues in E-Commerce and product development. These issues represent a comprehensive research program that is necessary to make E-Commerce in product development both viable and effective.     

The use of fuzzy logic in product family development: literature review and opportunities

Over the past few years, a number of key issues related to the product family design have been addressed, and a great deal of work has been done to improve it. Many different tools have been employed in this effort, such as mass customization, modularity, delayed differentiation, commonality, platforms, product families, and so on. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how fuzzy logic has been applied and how it can help to improve the entire process of product family development. Given its powerful capability to represent aspects that binary variables cannot, we show how fuzzy logic has been used to take advantage by considering the vague parameters related to the human character in different processes. Our aim is to contribute to the understanding and improvement of product family development process by identifying essential applications of fuzzy logic. An extended overview of the product family development process is provided, and also this work highlights the role of fuzzy logic in it. Fourteen fuzzy logic tools and thirteen topics into the product family development process are identified and summarized as a framework to analyze the role of fuzzy logic and at the same time to identify further application opportunities.     

A review and analysis of current computer-aided fixture design approaches

A key characteristic of the modern market place is the consumer demand for variety. To respond effectively to this demand, manufacturers need to ensure that their manufacturing practices are sufficiently flexible to allow them to achieve rapid product development. Fixturing, which involves using fixtures to secure workpieces during machining so that they can be transformed into parts that meet required design specifications, is a significant contributing factor towards achieving manufacturing flexibility. To enable flexible fixturing, considerable levels of research effort have been devoted to supporting the process of fixture design through the development of computer-aided fixture design (CAFD) tools and approaches. This paper contains a review of these research efforts. Over seventy-five CAFD tools and approaches are reviewed in terms of the fixture design phases they support and the underlying technology upon which they are based. The primary conclusion of the review is that while significant advances have been made in supporting fixture design, there are primarily two research issues that require further effort. The first of these is that current CAFD research is segmented in nature and there remains a need to provide more cohesive fixture design support. Secondly, a greater focus is required on supporting the detailed design of a fixture's physical structure.     

Engineering knowledge formalization and proposition for informatics development towards a CAD-integrated DfX system for product design

Target design methodologies (DfX) were developed to cope with specific engineering design issues such as cost-effectiveness, manufacturability, assemblability, maintainability, among others. However, DfX methodologies are undergoing the lack of real integration with 3D CAD systems. Their principles are currently applied downstream of the 3D modelling by following the well-known rules available from the literature and engineers’ know-how (tacit internal knowledge).This paper provides a method to formalize complex DfX engineering knowledge into explicit knowledge that can be reused for Advanced Engineering Informatics to aid designers and engineers in developing mechanical products. This research work wants to define a general method (ontology) able to couple DfX design guidelines (engineering knowledge) with geometrical product features of a product 3D model (engineering parametric data). A common layer for all DfX methods (horizontal) and dedicated layers for each DfX method (vertical) allow creating the suitable ontology for the systematic collection of the DfX rules considering each target. Moreover, the proposed framework is the first step for developing (future work) a software tool to assist engineers and designers during product development (3D CAD modelling).A design for assembly (DfA) case study shows how to collect assembly rules in the given framework. It demonstrates the applicability of the CAD-integrated DfX system in the mechanical design of a jig-crane. Several benefits are recognized: (i) systematic collection of DfA rules for informatics development, (ii) identification of assembly issues in the product development process, and (iii) reduction of effort and time during the design review.     

平台化办公管理系统分析与设计

面对越来越多企业对平台化办公和移动办公的需要,遵循信息系统生命周期理论,运用结构化开发方法,通过系统规划、业务流程分析、数据流程分析及系统设计,给出了平台化办公管理系统设计方案,包含部门职位管理、日志管理、消息管理、项目工作管理、日常申请管理和财务管理等功能模块,该系统设计方案能够满足企业平台化办公和移动办公管理的需要...     

A critical review of Knowledge-Based Engineering: An identification of research challenges

Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) is a research field that studies methodologies and technologies for capture and re-use of product and process engineering knowledge. The objective of KBE is to reduce time and cost of product development, which is primarily achieved through automation of repetitive design tasks while capturing, retaining and re-using design knowledge. Published research on KBE is not very extensive and also quite dispersed; this paper is an effort to collect and review existing literature on KBE. A total of 50 research contributions have been analysed. The main objectives of this analysis are to identify the theoretical foundations of KBE and to identify research issues within KBE, pointing out the challenges and pitfalls that currently prohibit a wider adoption of KBE while suggesting avenues for further research. Key findings include (a) the necessity for improved methodological support and adherence, (b) better transparency and traceability of knowledge, (c) the necessity for a quantitative framework to assess the viability and success of KBE development and implementation projects, and (d) the opportunity to move towards mass customization approaches through distributed deployment of KBE in the extended enterprise.     

基于形状文法的产品形态创新设计研究与实践

为了更好地继承本族群及参考产品的优势设计特征,增强产品形态设计推敲阶段的客观性和科学性,更好满足用户需求,提出基于形状文法的产品形态创新设计方法和模型。此法结合目标产品形态特征,分别从产品族群与可参考产品中提取能够反映用户需求的形态要素,然后应用形状文化规则进行演变推理,以实现产品设计方案自适应进化。并在此基础上,详细探讨了产品研究与形态分析、形态推演、方案生成等关键技术,最后结合具体的某款电动踏板车形态设计过程对该方法进行了说明和验证。     

Cost-effective design for injection molding

It is commonly agreed that a large proportion of the ultimate product cost is determined at product design stage. Therefore, a cost-effective design cannot be obtained unless all cost issues are resolved at early design stage. Therefore, instead of performing cost estimation after design, research presented in this paper aims to provide on-line cost evaluation and advisory to help product designers avoid cost-ineffective design. The objective can be obtained by (1) identifying factors that might affect product cost at each product design stage, (2) developing a design for cost effectiveness methodology that accommodates the concepts of concurrent engineering, and (3) developing a computer-based design for cost effectiveness system based on the proposed methodology. In this research, we focus on injection molding product design due to the advantages of injection molding process, such as high production rates, excellent quality and accuracy of the parts, and very long mold life. This paper first reviews and characterizes the conventional molding product development process with an emphasis on the identification of cost factors. Based on the results of process characterization, a cost model is developed, which depicts the relationships between cost factors and product development activities, as well as their relationships with product geometry. According to the product life cycle activities and the cost model, a design for cost effectiveness process is proposed. The process and the cost model are then employed for the development of a computer-based product design for cost effectiveness as one of the module of an integrated design for injection molding environment.     

具有初始信息素的蚂蚁寻优软硬件划分算法

面向基于平台的系统芯片设计,提出具有初始信息素的蚂蚁寻优软硬件划分算法AOwIP．基本思想是：①利用基于平台的设计方法中已有参考设计的软硬件划分结果作为初始划分解,进行适当变换后生成初始信息素分布．②在所生成初始信息素分布的基础上,利用蚂蚁算法正反馈、高效收敛的优势寻求最优划分解．该算法利用基于平台的设计方法强调系统重用的优势,克服蚂蚁算法在求解软硬件划分问题时缺乏初始信息素的不足．实验表明,AOwIP算法有效提高了蚂蚁算法的最优解搜索效率．     

An assembly oriented design framework for product structure engineering and assembly sequence planning

The paper describes a novel framework for an assembly-oriented design (AOD) approach as a new functional product lifecycle management (PLM) strategy, by considering product design and assembly sequence planning phases concurrently. Integration issues of product life cycle into the product development process have received much attention over the last two decades, especially at the detailed design stage. The main objective of the research is to define assembly sequence into preliminary design stages by introducing and applying assembly process knowledge in order to provide an assembly context knowledge to support life-oriented product development process, particularly for product structuring. The proposed framework highlights a novel algorithm based on a mathematical model integrating boundary conditions related to DFA rules, engineering decisions for assembly sequence and the product structure definition. This framework has been implemented in a new system called PEGASUS considered as an AOD module for a PLM system. A case study of applying the framework to a catalytic-converter and diesel particulate filter sub-system, belonging to an exhaust system from an industrial automotive supplier, is introduced to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed AOD methodology.     

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.     

基于基因工程思想的产品族设计及其关键技术研究

通过分析型材断面的尺寸和形状特征的继承关系及型材模块的结构变异, 将基因工程的思想用于产品族的开发设计中,并将“型材特征”看作是产品结构信息的 “DNA”。借鉴生物学领域基因工程原理,揭示了“型材特征”这种信息流在产品树中的传播规 律,在此基础上提出了一种基于基因工程思想的产品基因编码与重组方法。通过对产品族和 产品基因DNA 的概念以及产品族设计DNA 的内涵和研究内容的探讨,指出了支持产品基 因工程的关键技术,并以门体型材为例,说明产品族基因工程思想的设计效果。     

Extending the framework for mobile health information systems Research: A content analysis

Whilst researchers and professionals recognise that mobile health (M-health) systems offer unprecedented opportunities, most existing work has comprised individual project-based developments in specialised areas. Existing review articles generally utilise medical literature and categories: none investigates M-health from an information systems (IS) design point of view. Identifying application areas, design issues and IS research techniques will demonstrate models, issues, approaches and gaps to inform future research. A comprehensive analysis of the literature from this viewpoint is thus valuable, both for theoretical progression and for guiding real-world innovative system developments.Drawing from key IS and healthcare multidisciplinary journals we analyse recent (2010–2016) articles concerning M-health application developments and their associated design or development issues, with particular focus on the use of contemporary research methods. Our analysis suggests that M-health is an emerging field to which, although underused, contemporary approaches such as design science research are particularly appropriate. We identify eight application categories, eleven design issues (security, privacy, literacy, accessibility, acceptability, reliability, usability, confidentiality, integrity, knowledge sharing and flexibility) as well as the stakeholders and development techniques involved. This goes beyond previous frameworks, and theoretically integrates the central role of IS design within the sub-field.