Modularization of parts — a fairly recent trend in product development — facilitates part definitions in a standardized, machine-readable form, so that we can define a part based on its input(s), output(s), features, and geometric information. Standardizing part definitions will enable manufacturing companies to more easily identify part suppliers in global, virtual environments. This standard representation of parts also facilitates modular product design during parametric design. We will show that this problem of modular product design can be formulated as an AI Planning problem, and we propose a solution framework to support modular product design. Using part specification information for personal computers, we demonstrate the proposed framework and discuss its implications for global manufacturing.
To address emerging issues due to global product development and shortening product development cycles, we propose a modular product design methodology using interface-based module descriptions published through cyber-infrastructure. In this paper, we describe (1) a general way of defining interfaces, partially utilizing a standardized language of product functionality known as the Functional Basis, (2) a formal way of representing components in eXtensible Markup Language that defines a new Module Description Language (MDL), and (3) the application of the proposed methodology to the design of a product family of electronic screwdrivers, a mechanical product, extending previous work with electrical products.
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