Product Family Development Based on a Flexible Product Platform

Abstract

This paper discusses product family development on a flexible product platform. It firstly analyses furniture product market positioning,product type and future trends, then, by depth analysis of furniture product market development trends, draws the predictable part in the development trends to guide the design of furniture product,at the same time, analyses potential consumer needs and trends in unpredictable direction to identify future design attributes and design parameters, creates a design parameter matrix to obtain main design parameters,through the main parameters mapped to the physical structure (shape and structure of furniture product),and finds out core shape and furniture structure. By above analysis of a flexible product platform,based on this platform, combining the optional elements with variant design elements, we can design a series of furniture product family.