Showing papers on "Product design specification published in 2001"

Product platform design: method and application

Abstract: In this paper we focus on scale-based product families derived from scalable product platforms that can be exploited from both a functional and a manufacturing standpoint to increase the potential benefits of having a common platform. While many companies have been successful with scalable product platforms, few, if any, have instituted a systematic approach to design (i) the product platform and (ii) the corresponding family of products which are scaled around the product platform. Accordingly, in this paper we address the following question: How can a scalable product platform and its resulting product family be efficiently and effectively modeled, analyzed, and designed?

Developing Products on Internet Time: The Anatomy of a Flexible Development Process

Abstract: Uncertain and dynamic environments present fundamental challenges to managers of the new product development process. Between successive product generations, significant evolutions can occur in both the customer needs a product must address and the technologies it employs to satisfy these needs. Even within a single development project, firms must respond to new information, or risk developing a product that is obsolete the day it is launched. This paper examines the characteristics of an effective development process in one such environment-the Internet software industry. Using data on 29 completed development projects we show that in this industry, constructs that support a more flexible development process are associated with better-performing projects. This flexible process is characterized by the ability to generate and respond to new information for a longer proportion of a development cycle. The constructs that support such a process are greater investments in architectural design, earlier feedback on product performance from the market, and the use of a development team with greater amounts of "generational" experience. Our results suggest that investments in architectural design play a dual role in a flexible process: First, through the need to select an architecture that maximizes product performance and, second, through the need to select an architecture that facilitates development process flexibility. We provide examples from our fieldwork to support this view.

Appropriateness and Impact of Platform-Based Product Development

Abstract: In their quest to manage the complexity of offering greater product variety, firms in many industries are considering platform-based product development. Product platforms, which are component and subsystem assets shared across a product-family, enable a firm to better leverage investments in product design and development. While the platform approach offers a number of benefits, it also imposes certain additional costs that have not received adequate research attention. In this paper, we use an industrial example both to illustrate some of the costs and benefits of platform-based product development and to motivate the development of a mathematical model. The model is formulated to better understand the appropriateness of product platforms and their impact on product-planning decisions. Our results indicate that platforms are not appropriate for extreme levels of market diversity or high levels of nonplatform scale economies. Also, a firm's product positioning and introduction sequence decisions made during the product-planning phase are significantly impacted by the presence of platforms. Specifically, a platform increases the separation among products and offers a multitude of product introduction strategies. We translate our model findings into a managerial framework.

Implementing product line variabilities

Abstract: Software product lines have numerous members. Thus, a product line infrastructure must cover various systems. This is the significant difference to usual software systems and the reason for additional requirements on the various assets present during software product line engineering. It is imperative that they support the description of the product line as a whole, as well as its instantiation for the derivation of individual products.Literature has already addressed how to create and instantiate generic product line assets, such as domain models and architectures to generate instance specific ones [1, 2, 3], yet little attention has been given on how to actually deal with this genericity at the code level.This paper addresses the issue of handling product line variability at the code level. To this end various implementation approaches are examined with respect to their use in a product line context.

Method and apparatus for a product lifecycle management process

Abstract: Techniques, methods, systems and system components facilitate new product development and product lifecycle management in an enterprise. According to a specific embodiment, the invention provides a networked-enabled development software engine that assists users coordinate and keep track of progress and status of development activities. A unifying structure for Business Objects allows the software engine to provide a number of integrated cross-program functions, such as portfolio review and automated resource assignment and allows object portability and allows new objects to be more easily created from old objects.

Architecture of Product Family: Fundamentals and Methodology:

Abstract: The rationale of developing product families with respect to satisfying diverse customer needs with reasonable costs, i.e., mass customization, has been well recognized in both industry and academia. Earlier research often highlights isolated and successful empirical studies with limited attempt to explore the theoretical foundations surrounding this economically important class of engineering design problem. This paper investigates the fundamental issues underlying product family development. The concept of Architecture of Product Family (APF) is introduced as a conceptual structure and overall logical organization of generating a family of products. APF constructs, including common bases, differentiation enablers, and configuration mechanisms, are discussed from both sales and engineering perspectives. Also discussed are variety generation methods with regard to producing custom products based on the modular product architecture and configure-to-order product development. To support APF-based product fa...

Assessing value in platformed product family design

Abstract: A platform is the set of elements and interfaces that are common to a family of products. In this paper, the design of a platform-based product family is formulated as an optimization problem. This optimization is then transformed into a two-step process amenable to industrial product design processes. The first step involves designing the technical aspects of the product family, optimizing an objective (or a set of objectives) subject to technical constraints, with external uncertain factors fixed. We have previously presented such a method for designing product families based on platforms that optimizes performance and cost metrics, using variables and a system model. That approach allows a team of engineers to design and evaluate candidate platforms, given perfect understanding of the designs and requirements. The second step is to quantify the value to the firm for each identified design alternative, while here accounting for external uncertain factors of the product family development. In this paper we present a model to perform this second step of the overall approach. Real options concepts are introduced to model the risks and delayed decision benefits present during product development due to uncertainty in technologies, funding, etc. We develop a quantitative measure of the value to the company for different family designs, and apply it to select the most appropriate design from the possible alternatives. An application to the design of platform-based families of spacecraft is shown.

Balancing commonality and performance within the concurrent design of multiple products in a product family

Abstract: Product family design involves the concurrent design of multiple products based on a common product platform to satisfy a variety of markets. The success of the resulting product family relies heavily on properly balancing the commonality of the product platform with the individual product performance within the product family. To help resolve this tradeoff, we present the Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method for assessing alternative product platform concepts with varying levels of commonality. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the proposed method at both the detailed and the early stages of design. The redesign of a planetary gear transmission for a family of four cordless drills demonstrates the use of the method in the detailed stages of design, while the design of a family of three General Aviation Aircraft demonstrates the use of the method in the preliminary stages of design. The emphasis in this paper is on the effectiveness of the proposed method in evaluating this tradeoff and not ...

Product Line Analysis: A Practical Introduction

Abstract: : Product line analysis applies established modeling techniques to engineer the requirements for a product line of software-intensive systems. This report provides a practical introduction to product line requirements modeling. It describes product line analysis in the context of product line development and shows how a requirements model is built based on object modeling, use-case modeling, and feature-modeling techniques. A running example, based on home automation systems, illustrates concepts and terminology. Two different strategies for creating the requirements model are also presented. The product line analysis work is evolving. This report describes its current status and planned development.

A Structural Equation Model of New Product Design and Development

Abstract: This research uses structural equation modeling to analyze the effects of supplier assessment, Just-In-Time, and quality management strategies on new product design and development. A survey of senior managers who are members of the American Production and Inventory Control Society in the United States was used to test the relationships between the constructs in the model. In general, the survey results supported the proposed structural equation model. The data showed that supplier assessment and Just-In-Time strategies were correlated and affected the quality management strategy used, which in turn influenced the new product design and development strategy. The data also showed that the Just-In-Time strategy directly influenced the new product design and development strategy.

Function-to-form mapping: model, representation and applications in design synthesis

Abstract: Design of a new artifact begins with incomplete knowledge about the final product and the design evolves as it progresses from the conceptual design stage to a more detailed design. In this paper, an effort has been made to give a structural framework, through a set of generic definitions, to product specification, functional representation, artifact representation, artifact behavior and tolerance representation. A design synthesis process has been proposed for evolution of a product from the product specification. The proposed design synthesis method is a mapping from the functional requirements to artifacts, with multi-stage constrained optimization during stages of design evolution. Provisions have been kept to augment and/or modify the product specification and domain knowledge during stages of development to guide the design process. The effectiveness of the proposed design process has been illustrated with a simple design example based on a sample artifact library. An overall design scheme has been presented.

A distributed multi-agent environment for product design and manufacturing planning

Abstract: This paper describes a multi-agent approach to the integration of product design, manufacturability analysis, and process planning in a distributed manner. The objective is to develop a distributed concurrent engineering system to allow geographically dispersed entities to work cooperatively towards overall system goals. In the paper, an agent-based concurrent engineering system concerning product design and manufacturing planning, and its fundamental framework and functions are presented. The proposed model considers constraints and requirements from the different product development cycles in the early development phases and fully supports the concept of design-for-manufacturability. This methodology uses conflict resolution (CR) techniques and design-improvement suggestions to refine the initial product design. The model comprises a facilitator agent, a console agent and six service agents. Each service agent is used to model different product development phases, and the console agent acts as an intera...

Requirements management: a representation scheme for product specifications

Abstract: Product definition processes take a product specification (defining the requirements that the product must satisfy) and transform it into a product definition (defining, at least, the shape and material of the required product so that it can be manufactured). Recent advances in computer aided design technology have allowed product definitions to be captured electronically. Currently the resulting electronic product definitions are centred around representations of physical product structures and shape-related properties. The industrial need is now moving towards a desire to manage requirements in a plausible architecture. From this basis the product's functional requirements can be identified and converted into physical elements which can be related to design intent/rationale; this requires the linking of elements of physical product structure and shape with elements of an electronic product specification. The research reported in this paper is focussed on the realisation of an electronic product specification. Such a specification must be defined in a way that allows relationships to electronic product definitions to be established. A product data model that supports the description of mechanical product specifications is presented and its functionality is demonstrated through a case study.

Effective Design of Products/Services: An Approach Based on Integration of Marketing and Operations Management Decisions

Abstract: This paper presents an integrated framework for designing profit-maximizing products/ services, which can also be produced at reasonable operating difficulty levels. Operating difficulty is represented as a function of product and process attributes, and measures a firm's relative ease or difficulty in meeting customer demand patterns under specified operating conditions. Earlier optimum product design procedures have not considered. operational difficulty. We show that optimum profit, market share, cost, and product profiles are dependent on operating difficulty level. Empirical results from the pizza delivery industry demonstrate the value of the proposed Effective Product/Service Design approach.

Designing a requirement driven product development process

Abstract: This paper presents a technique to obtain a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) from a Design Matrix (DM). This technique enables us to obtain the design information flow pattern at early stage of the design, and apply the DSM system analysis and management techniques at the time when the most important decisions about the system and the design are made. The validity of this method is proven using a case study on the design integration process of an electrostatic chuck used in semiconductor wafer processing. The algorithm underlying this technique is also proven logically and mathematically to be valid. Introduction The product development process of complex products such as cars and airplanes takes the collaborative effort of hundreds even thousands of people over the course of several years. These products themselves usually consist of hundreds or thousands of parts and assemblies, all of which must be designed, tested, integrated, and tested again to meet customer requirements. Two large and interacting systems emerge in this picture—the system of the parts and assemblies forming the product, and the system of people and teams involved in the design process. In order to design a product development process that delivers quality products better, faster, and cheaper, we must address the following three issues. First, we must be able to capture, understand, and manage the interactions occurring in the system of the product and the system of the design teams. Second, we must also be able to capture and analyze the system interactions as early as possible in the product development process, when the most important decisions about the product design and the design process are made, and the cost of changes is at its minimum. Third, we must ensure the product design and the process are closely aligned with the product requirements.

Systems and methods for providing products and services to an industry market

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for providing products and services to an industry marketplace. The systems and methods of the present invention integrate services that are currently provided by multiple entities into a system that may be advantageously provided by a single entity to facilitate the buying and selling of products and services. An embodiment of the present invention as a site on the world wide web provides a consumer, such as a manufacturer, with an efficient method of shopping for a product by integrating, for example, product specifications, availability, ordering, shipment and delivery. An embodiment of the systems and methods of the present invention are particularly advantageous for use in providing products and services to the chemical industry, specifically the paint and coatings and the adhesives and sealants segments of the chemical industry.

Combined parameter and tolerance design optimization with quality and cost

Abstract: The need to remain competitive for survival in the current world market has led manufacturing sectors to consider the low cost and high quality of product and process design. Production of quality products at low cost in today's manufacturing industry requires simultaneous consideration of product design and process planning, particularly in the early stage of design and planning. During product design, parameter design determines the design target (design setting) and tolerance design determines design tolerance. During process design, the parameter design determines the process mean (process setting) and tolerance design determines process tolerance. This study provides a mathematical relationship to link the elements of design target, design tolerance, process mean and process tolerance in one equation. By following this equation, manufacturability for all possible combinations of product and process design can be ensured, which increases the flexibility of both product design and process planning. Wit...

A distributed, open, intelligent product data management system

Abstract: Efficient management of product information is critical to the enhancement of corporate competitiveness. This paper explains the design and development of a distributed, open, and intelligent product data management system. First, the requirements for Product Data Management (PDM) systems are summarized and then explained using a design scenario. Since product data are often managed in distributed computing environments, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is employed to ensure interoperability among distributed objects. Standard formats of data and knowledge, such as STandard for Exchange of Product model data (STEP) and Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML), are used to achieve the openness. A workflow management system has been developed that provides integrated management of task processes and information flows. While designing the system, the main emphasis is placed on dynamic process adaptation which is demanded by product development processes. Use of intelligent agents is ...

Method of exchanging goods by an auction

Abstract: A computerized system and method for auctioning products or services is provided which maintains a set of members, the members including a plurality of buyers of products and/or services and a plurality of sellers of products and/or services. The system supports buyer auctions (in which a buyer solicits bids from a plurality of sellers) and seller auctions (in which sellers solicit bids from a plurality of buyers). The system initiates an auction in response to a request from one of the plurality of members. The request includes product/service specifications for a product/service which the initiator wishes to sell (or in the case of a buyer auction, which the buyer wishes to purchase), a set of alternative payment specifications acceptable to the initiator, a set of alternative shipment term specifications acceptable to the initiator, and an auction specification. The product specifications may, for example, include one or more of a product name, a product grade, packing specifications, product specifications, product quality, product quantity, origin of goods, and destination of goods. The set of payment specifications may, for example, include one or more of a preferred payment term, a set of preferred banks, a preferred set of banks for negotiation, an earliest date to open, a latest date to open, and an auction currency. The set of alternative shipment specifications in turn, may include one or more of an earliest shipment date, a latest shipment date, a preferred shipment term. The auction specifications may, for example, include an identification of sellers (or buyers) authorized to bid.

Process configuration: Combining the principles of product configuration and process planning

Abstract: Product configuration is the process of generating a product variant from a previously defined product family model and additional product specifications for this variant. The process of finding and sequencing the relevant operations for manufacturing this product is called process planning. This article combines the two principles in a new concept of process configuration that solves the process planning task using product configuration methods. The second section develops characteristics for two process configuration concepts, the interactive process configuration and the automation-based process configuration. Following an overview of the implementation of a process configuration system, the results of a case study in the aluminum rolling industry are presented. The main benefits of the process configuration concept are observed in a reduced knowledge-maintenance effort and in increased problem-solving speed.

Multiple abstraction levels in modelling product structures

Abstract: The need for product customisation is driving industrial companies towards a very large product variety, which affects many functions of a company, including the after-sales. Systematic maintenance records of very different product individuals cannot be kept without an abstract view to the population of delivered products. However, the older the product individual, the less systematically recorded information there usually is about it. We defined a novel mechanism based on generic models of product individuals organised into a specialisation hierarchy to support multiple abstraction levels. For creating such hierarchies, we defined a set of transformation operations on models.

Network architecture-based design-to-order system and method

Abstract: A product design server system which forms the heart of a design-to-order product community. The design-to-order product community is an on-line community that provides a dynamic environment in which community participants can interact on the fly and instantaneously respond to product changes. The architecture of the product design server system, and the special product definition data structure utilized thereby, is network-based (e.g., web-based). The product design server system of the present invention goes beyond web-enabled and IP-based architectures by providing a pure internet architecture approach. Interaction with the product definition data, and thus participation in the design-to-order product community, is enabled through browser-application service suites. These application service suites, described subsequently in more detail, enable community participants, as individuals or teams, to use a standard web browser to create, find, access, understand, manipulate, and publish product information (e.g., the product definition data 60) to enhance their unique roles in the product lifecycle.

Incremental requirement specification for evolving systems

Abstract: We propose a technique for hierarchically structuring requirement specifications in a way that simplifies change management. Our technique decomposes the process of requirement specification and va ...

Real world showroom

Abstract: A method of retrieving product information and ordering products is disclosed. A consumer observes a product in its real world usage context and scans an RFID tag embedded in the product. A mobile terminal is used to transmit the RFID tag to a computer connected to a computer network. The computer transmits product specification information to the mobile terminal. The consumer may also be given the option of purchasing the product in real time.