scholarly journals A Probabilistic Design Reuse Index for Engineering Designs

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gokula Vasantha ◽  
Jonathan Corney ◽  
Struan Stuart ◽  
Andrew Sherlock ◽  
John Quigley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Component ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
Component Reuse ◽  
Probabilistic Measure ◽  
Customer Expectations ◽  
Leibler Divergence ◽  
Engineering Designs ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Many companies offer a range of related products that are constructed using similar components and processes. This enables them to meet customer expectations of product variety while minimizing the overheads (e.g., development and manufacturing costs). To support the management of product variety several indices have been proposed in the literature that measure the degree to which component use is standardized across products within the same product family. However, the derivation of some of these statistics can be laborious to calculate due to the effort required to assemble the necessary information. In this paper, we develop an index more suited to the automated data-mining of a company’s product portfolio, which is derived from the Kullback–Leibler divergence. The new measure provides an easily computed probabilistic measure that can be used to characterize the degree of component reuse within a single product, across a family of products, and at the individual component family level. To illustrate their applications, the indices and several existing measures are calculated for two contrasting product types; using the non-differentiating components of two flat-pack furniture ranges and the components of a range of bicycles.

Managing Variety in Product Families Through Design for Commonality

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sridhar Kota ◽  
Kannan Sethuraman
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
New Product ◽  
Product Line ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
Product Complexity ◽  
Product Families

Abstract Majority of companies develop a family of products and many new product variations are added to the product portfolio regularly to meet changing market needs and/or to attract new customer base. Although, the core functionality remains essentially unchanged across all products within a family, new functions, new feature combinations and new technologies are incorporated into each new product. The component variations, commonly referred to as “complexity”, grow exponentially resulting in loss of productivity and/or quality. The challenge lies in effective management of product variations in the design studies and on the manufacturing floor. The key is to minimize non-value added variations across models within a product family without limiting customer choices. Although the benefits of standardization are widely known and most companies do standardize stock components such as fasteners, they are far from standardizing their product -specific core components and thus fail to reap significant benefits in quality and cost. Through this research, we are developing new methodologies for improved management of product variety to achieve higher productivity. In this paper, we discuss the factors that contribute to product complexity in general, and present an objective measure, called the Product Line Commonality Index, to capture the level of part commonality in a product family. Through our Walkman case study, we illustrate robust design/manufacturing strategies, including modularity and postponement of product differentiation, that help minimize non-value added variation across models within a product family1 without limiting customer choices. Finally, we present a simple and yet a powerful method of benchmarking product families or companies in their ability to share parts effectively (modularity) and reduce the total number of parts (multi-functionality) used in product families.

A Genetic Algorithm Based Method for Product Family Design Optimization

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brayan S. D’Souza ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Optimization Method ◽  
General Aviation ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Individual Product ◽  
The Family ◽  
Gradient Based ◽  
The Individual

Increased commonality in a family of products can simplify manufacturing and reduce the associated costs and lead-times. There is a tradeoff, however, between commonality and individual product performance within a product family, and in this paper we introduce a genetic algorithm based method to help find an acceptable balance between commonality in the product family and desired performance of the individual products in the family. The method uses Design of Experiments to help screen unimportant factors and identify factors of interest to the product family and a multiobjective genetic algorithm, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm, to optimize the performance of the products in the resulting family. To demonstrate implementation of the proposed method, the design of a family of three General Aviation Aircraft is presented along with a product variety tradeoff study to determine the extent of the tradeoff between commonality and individual product performance within the aircraft family. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by comparing the family of aircraft against individually optimized designs and designs obtained from an alternate gradient-based multiobjective optimization method.

Robust Supplier Selection for Changing Product Architectures

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhanumathi Tenneti ◽  
Venkat Allada
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supplier Selection ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Planning Horizon ◽  
The Us ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Individual

Today, a noticeable trend in the US industries is the growing reliance of companies on their supply chain to provide competitive components/sub-assemblies with the desired functionality to not only meet current needs and demands but also the anticipated ones of the future. Supplier consolidation through reduction of the total number of suppliers is being widely practiced by many companies. The increasing dependence on a few key suppliers makes supplier selection critical to a company’s success. Another distinct industry trend is shortening of product and technology lifecycles along with market demands for greater product variety. The direct implication of these trends is continually changing product architectures, which the manufacturers and their suppliers have to manage effectively. Thus, manufacturers need to base their supplier selection process on the robustness of suppliers to deliver components that are compatible with changing product architectures along with the other criterion such as price, reliability, quality, delivery time, etc. Supplier robustness, in the context of this paper, is defined as supplier ability to effectively cater to varying product architectures at minimum supplier costs. The current paper proposes an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based methodology for robust supplier selection by extending the robust engineering techniques to the supply chain domain. Taguchi’s quality loss concept is used to evaluate how well the individual components/subsystems supplied by the suppliers’ cost-effectively meet the customer needs. The objective is to select suppliers capable of meeting varying product architecture needs over a given planning horizon at optimal costs. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using an example of a cell phone product family.

scholarly journals SUPPORT FOR MANAGING PARTLY CONFIGURABLE MODULAR SYSTEMS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2791-2800
Author(s):  
Jarkko Pakkanen ◽  
Teuvo Heikkinen ◽  
Nillo Adlin ◽  
Timo Lehtonen ◽  
Janne Mämmelä ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Modular System ◽  
Product Management ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
Modular Systems ◽  
Engineer To Order ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe paper studies what kind of support could be applied to the management of partly configurable modular systems. The main tasks of product management, product portfolio management and product variety management are defined. In addition, a partly configurable product structure and modular system are defined. Because the limited support in the literature for managing partly configurable modular systems, the article reviews previous product development cases in which authors have been involved on lessons learnt basis, i.e., if the methods and tools used in the cases could provide support for the research objective. As a result, the existing definition of the modular system should be extended by the concepts of non-module and design decision sequence description when dealing with partly configurable modular systems. This is because engineer-to-order should be made possible in cases where it brings clear added value to the customer compared to completely pre-defined solutions that may limit the customer's interest in the offering. Tools to assess the impact of changes to the product offering are required. These should be taken into account in frameworks that are used in method and tool development.

scholarly journals Design of Personalized Devices—The Tradeoff between Individual Value and Personalization Workload

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Juliane Kuhl ◽  
Andreas Ding ◽  
Ngoc Tuan Ngo ◽  
Andres Braschkat ◽  
Jens Fiehler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Customer Value ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Flow Diverter ◽  
New Method ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Value

Personalized medical devices adapted to the anatomy of the individual promise greater treatment success for patients, thus increasing the individual value of the product. In order to cater to individual adaptations, however, medical device companies need to be able to handle a wide range of internal processes and components. These are here referred to collectively as the personalization workload. Consequently, support is required in order to evaluate how best to target product personalization. Since the approaches presented in the literature are not able to sufficiently meet this demand, this paper introduces a new method that can be used to define an appropriate variety level for a product family taking into account standardized, variant, and personalized attributes. The new method enables the identification and evaluation of personalizable attributes within an existing product family. The method is based on established steps and tools from the field of variant-oriented product design, and is applied using a flow diverter—an implant for the treatment of aneurysm diseases—as an example product. The personalization relevance and adaptation workload for the product characteristics that constitute the differentiating product properties were analyzed and compared in order to determine a tradeoff between customer value and personalization workload. This will consequently help companies to employ targeted, deliberate personalization when designing their product families by enabling them to factor variety-induced complexity and customer value into their thinking at an early stage, thus allowing them to critically evaluate a personalization project.

A Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method for a Family of Cordless Drill Transmissions

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn G. Conner ◽  
Joseph P. De Kroon ◽  
Farrokh Mistree
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Individual Product ◽  
Alternative Product ◽  
Per Se

Abstract In this paper we present the Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method for assessment of alternative product platforms in product family design. The Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method is an attention-directing tool for evaluating tradeoffs between commonality and individual product performance for product platform alternatives with differing levels of commonality. We apply the Product Variety Tradeoff Evaluation Method to a case study in transmission redesign for a family of cordless drills. The emphasis in this paper is placed on the method rather than on the results, per se.

scholarly journals The Composition of Cigarette Smoke. An Historical Perspective of Several Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 384-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Rodgman ◽  
LC Cook
Keyword(s):  
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons ◽  
Melting Point ◽  
Cigarette Smoke ◽  
Aromatic Hydrocarbons ◽  
Tobacco Smoke ◽  
Individual Component ◽  
Complex Mixtures ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cigarette Mainstream Smoke

AbstractBecause of the significant advancements in fractionation, analytical, and characterization technologies since the early 1960s, hundreds of components of complex mixtures have been accurately characterized without the necessity of actually isolating the individual component. This has been particularly true in the case of the complex mixtures tobacco and tobacco smoke. Herein, an historical account of a mid-1950 situation concerning polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in cigarette smoke is presented. While the number of PAHs identified in tobacco smoke has escalated from the initial PAH, azulene, identified in 1947 to almost 100 PAHs identified by late 1963 to more than 500 PAHs identified by the late 1970s, the number of PAHs isolated individually and characterized by several of the so-called classical chemical means (melting point, mixture melting point, derivative preparation and properties) in the mid-1950s and since is relatively few, 14 in all. They were among 44 PAHs identified in cigarette mainstream smoke and included the following PAHs ranging from bicyclic to pentacyclic: Acenaphthylene, 1,2-dihydroacenaphthylene, anthracene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, chrysene, dibenz[a, h]anthracene, fluoranthene, 9H-fluorene, naphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene, 2-methylnaphthalene, phenanthrene, and pyrene. One of them, benzo[a]pyrene, was similarly characterized in another study in 1959 by Hoffmann.

Identifying Product Portfolio Architecture Modularity Using Function and Variety Heuristics

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik J. Zamirowski ◽  
Kevin N. Otto
Keyword(s):  
Product Variety ◽  
Product Portfolio ◽  
Functional Constraints ◽  
Function Structure ◽  
Customer Needs ◽  
Product Use ◽  
Individual Product ◽  
Product Function ◽  
Target Values ◽  
Function Structures

Abstract This paper proposes a method for identifying product portfolio architecture alternatives based upon customer needs and product function. Customer needs and uses are interpreted according to the variation in performance target values across the market and within the set of individual customer uses. Product uses are represented by function structures consisting of the functions necessary for achieving the use. These individual product use function structures are combined into a monolithic function structure to represent the entire product portfolio. This monolith is then partitioned according to function and product variety heuristics into function clusters that anticipate product modules. This candidate modularity can then be used to deliver product variety across the product portfolio given functional constraints. A portfolio of xerographic products is used as the working example.

The Impact of Varying Feature Dimensions on Substrate Reliability Risks

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayleen L. E. Helms ◽  
Qing A. Zhou ◽  
Charles Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Individual Component ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Structural Performance ◽  
Local Geometry ◽  
Thermomechanical Loading ◽  
Future Design ◽  
Linear Material ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

A sensitivity study is undertaken to characterize the impact of varying feature dimensions in emerging electronic packaging technologies. Specifically, the overall structural performance of the substrate under use conditions (thermal and combined thermomechanical loading) is investigated. The study consists of both modeling and experimental efforts. Modeling approaches are employed within the framework of a finite element code to simulate performance of different design geometry combinations in the known failure mode of solder resist layer cracking. In the models, two levels of complexity are used to better identify the impact of the individual features on the overall substrate reliability. First, local geometry is captured by including each substrate layer. Individual component geometries like microvias and PTHS are also explicitly modeled to capture synergistic failures modes. Second, more realistic non-linear material properties are used to characterize time, temperature, and rate-dependant constitutive behavior of individual substrate materials such as buildup, core, metal, etc. In the experiments, substrate warpage and reliability data is collected for validating the predictive modeling capability. From this study, directions for future design guidelines varying feature dimensions while maintaining substrate reliability are proposed.

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