Modularity analysis and commonality design: a framework for the top-down platform and product family design

Abstract

With a highly fragmented market and increased competition, platform-based product family design is recognised as an effective method for constructing a product line that satisfies diverse customer demand while keeping design and production cost-and time-effective. Recognising the need for modularity and commonality in platform development, this paper presents a systematic framework to assist in implementing top-down platform and product family design, which aims to achieve system-level modularity for variety generation, and rationalise the commonality configuration for module instantiation. In the first phase of platform development, a robust and flexible product family architecture is constructed to accommodate variations by analysing the external varieties of the generic product architecture, and provide a modularity design space, wherein the design tasks are further decomposed into module instantiation. The second phase of detailed platform development aims to enhance commonality in terms of engineering efficiency by coordinating with the backend product realisation stage. A tractable optimisation method is used to capture and resolve the trade-off between commonality configuration and individual product performance. A family of power tool designs is used to demonstrate the potential and feasibility of the proposed framework at the system level and detailed design stages.

Transitioning of Urban Water Distribution Systems

“…In turn this reduces costs due to impacts of pipes and pipe cohorts on future transitions. This is consistent with literature on product platforms that demonstrates the capability of the concept to reduce cost and performance when developing products within an uncertain environment Liu et al (2010). Using the UWDS platform enables early elimination of components that are likely to cause relatively large transition costs and impacts.…”

New product development for mass customization: a systematic review

“…Nevertheless, this topic is frequently treated superficially in the proposals analyzed. The proposals by Voss andHsuan (2009), Johnson andKirchain (2010), and Liu et al (2010) contribute to this objective. The other stages of NPD proposed by Ulrich and Eppinger (2000) are not supported by the tools in this cluster.…”

“…With this characteristic, Fung, Chong, and Wang (2004) propose an analysis of tangible and intangible needs of customers about the product, directing the formation of the product platform and modules. The proposals by Kong et al (2009), Xu, Ong, andNee (2007) and Liu, Wong, and Lee (2010) initiate the project of the platform considering the analysis of customer needs, its clustering, and association to product subsystems.…”

Modularization strategy: analysis of published articles on production and operations management (1999 to 2013)

“…It is also necessary to analyze the relationship between modularity in modularity and modularity in production to reduce the negative impacts of possible delays and interruptions in the supply of materials [78]. Some authors [75] suggest a trade-off between the increase in the common configurations (modules) of a product and their individual performance.…”