Decision Support for Strategic Redesign

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew K. Chamberlain ◽  
Janet K. Allen ◽  
Farrokh Mistree
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Constructal Theory ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Performance Levels ◽  
The Family ◽  
A Company

Researchers have paid relatively little attention to the fact that most of what is considered design is more like redesign than original design. Redesign activities are characterized by an attempt to leverage experience, knowledge, and the capital that a company has already invested into existing engineering systems. In this paper, a method for undertaking strategic redesign is proposed and explained. This method includes support for designers making decisions in redesign problems when there exist systems to be leveraged and multiple new systems to be created. In addition, strategy is introduced to the problem through the consideration that new systems may not be offered all at once, as is often assumed in product family design research. In this paper, the aim of the designer is assumed to be a creation, through redesign, of a series of new systems with desirable and distinct performance levels. In addition, a plan is required to involve as little redesign effort throughout the life of the family of systems as possible. The proposed approach is based upon the concepts of Constructal Theory and previous work to create methods for the design of mass customized families of systems. In addition, two metrics are developed to represent considerations unique to redesign as opposed to original design. These metrics for redesign effort and commonality value are utilized in the overall objective formulation for the proposed approach to redesign. Through a simple redesign scenario involving a family of universal motors, it is shown that the overall approach proposed can lead the designer towards promising redesign plans involving leveraging of existing systems, but that the constructal-inspired approach in and of itself has certain limitations when applied to redesign.

A decision support system for product family design

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 ◽  
pp. 113-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elim Liu ◽  
Shih-Wen Hsiao ◽  
Shih-Wei Hsiao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support System ◽  
Support System ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Family Design

Incorporating Security Considerations Into Optimal Product Architecture and Component Sharing Decision in Product Family Design

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro J. Rojas Arciniegas ◽  
Harrison M. Kim
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Common Structure ◽  
The Family

Multiple factors affect the decisions of selecting the appropriate components to share in product family design. Some of the challenges that the designers face are maintaining uniqueness and the desired performance in each variant while taking advantage of a common structure. In this paper, the sharing decision making process is analyzed for the case when a firm knows a priori that some of the components contain sensitive information that could be exposed to the user, third-party manufacturers, or undesired agents; thence, it is important to enclose it and protect it. Two important aspects to consider are defining the architecture of the product while protecting the sensitive information. This paper proposes tools to help the designers to identify components that are candidates for sharing among the family and finds the most desirable component arrangement that facilitates sharing while protecting the sensitive information that has been previously identified. The proposed framework is applied to three printers in which the architecture used for the ink cartridges and printheads are significantly different. Third-party manufacturers and remanufacturers offer their own alternatives for these subsystems (ink cartridges and printheads) since the customer for printer supplies is always looking for a cheaper alternative; meanwhile, the OEMs attempt to secure their products and retain their customers with original supplies. Having identified the sensitive components for each printer, the optimal clustering strategy is found, as well as the set of components that are candidates for sharing, according to their connectivity and the security considerations.

PDSIDES: A Knowledge-Based Platform for Decision Support in the Design of Engineering Systems

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenjun Ming ◽  
Anand Balu Nellippallil ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Guoxin Wang ◽  
Chung Hyun Goh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Adaptive Design ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Rod Rolling ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Computational Platform

We hypothesize that by providing decision support for designers in industry we can speed up the design process and facilitate the creation of quality cost-effective designs. One of the challenges in providing design decision support is that the decision workflows embody various degrees of complexity due to the inherent complexity embodied in engineering systems. To tackle this, we propose a Knowledge-Based Platform for Decision Support in the Design of Engineering Systems (PDSIDES). PDSIDES is built on our earlier work that is anchored in modeling decision-related knowledge with templates using ontology to facilitate execution and reuse. In this paper, we extend the ontological decision templates to a computational platform that provides knowledge-based decision support for three types of users, namely, Template Creators, Template Editors, and Template Implementers, in original design, adaptive design, and variant design respectively. The efficacy of PDSIDES is demonstrated using a Hot Rod Rolling System (HRRS) design example.

Graph Grammar Based Product Variety Modeling

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuehong Du ◽  
Mitchell M. Tseng ◽  
Jianxin Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Graph Grammar ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Order Processing ◽  
Product Features ◽  
The Family ◽  
Feature Values ◽  
Data Transferring ◽  
A Company

Abstract This paper discusses the issue of product variety modeling, i.e. the means to organize the data of a family of products according to the underpinning logic among them. The targeted product families are characterized by providing user-selectable product features and feature values and achieving variety by combining parameterized functional or physical modules. A graph grammar based (GGB) model is proposed for the purpose of enhancing the comprehensiveness and manipulability of the data of product families for different functional departments in a company in order to facilitate effective order processing as well as direct customer-manufacturer interaction. To deal with variety effectively, both structural and non-structural family data are represented as family graphs whereas order-specific products are represented as variant graphs derived by applying predefined graph rewrite rules to the family graphs. The most important characteristics of the GGB model are three folds. While emphasizing the distinctiveness of the information that different users are concerned about, it provides cross view data transferring mechanisms. It also supports data manipulation for variety generation. Finally, taking advantage of the graph grammar based language of PROGRES, GGB is a model to be easily implemented as a visualized computer system. The specification of an office chair product family illustrates the principles and construction process of GGB models.

PDSIDES—A Knowledge-Based Platform for Decision Support in the Design of Engineering Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenjun Ming ◽  
Anand Balu Nellippallil ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Guoxin Wang ◽  
Chung Hyun Goh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Adaptive Design ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Engineering Systems ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Rod Rolling ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Computational Platform

We hypothesize that by providing decision support for designers we can speed up the design process and facilitate the creation of quality cost-effective designs. One of the challenges in providing design decision support is that the decision workflows embody various degrees of complexity due to the inherent complexity embodied in engineering systems. To tackle this, we propose a knowledge-based Platform for Decision Support in the Design of Engineering Systems (PDSIDES). PDSIDES is built on our earlier works that are anchored in modeling decision-related knowledge with templates using ontologies to facilitate execution and reuse. In this paper, we extend the ontological decision templates to a computational platform that provides knowledge-based decision support for three types of users, namely, template creators, template editors, and template implementers, in original design, adaptive design, and variant design, respectively. The efficacy of PDSIDES is demonstrated using a hot rod rolling system (HRRS) design example.

Production Cost Modeling to Support Product Family Design Optimization

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeil Park ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Production Cost ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Decision Based Design

Product family design involves carefully balancing the commonality of the product platform with the distinctiveness of the individual products in the family. While a variety of optimization methods have been developed to help designers determine the best design variable settings for the product platform and individual products within the family, production costs are thought to be an important criterion to choose the best platform among candidate platform designs. Thus, it is prerequisite to have an appropriate production cost model to be able to estimate the production costs incurred by having common and variant components within a product family. In this paper, we propose a production cost model based on a production cost framework associated with the manufacturing activities. The production cost model can be easily integrated within optimization frameworks to support a Decision-Based Design approach for product family design. As an example, the production cost model is utilized to estimate the production costs of a family of cordless power screwdrivers.

Identification of Platform Variables in Product Family Design Using Sensitivity Analysis

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad Hume ◽  
David W. Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Constructal Theory ◽  
Product Platform ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of

Product family design strategies based on a common core platform have emerged as an efficient and effective means of providing product variety. The main goal in product platform design is to maximize internal commonality within the family while managing the inherent loss in product performance. Therefore, identification and selection of platform variables is a key aspect when designing a family of products. Based on previous research, the Product Platform Constructal Theory Method (PPCTM) provides a systematic approach for developing customizable products, while allowing for multiple levels of commonality, multiple product specifications, and balancing the tradeoffs between commonality and performance. However, selection of platform variables and the modes for managing product variety are not guided by a systematic process in this method. When developing a platform with more than a few variables, a quantitative method is needed for selecting the optimal platform variable hierarchy. In this paper we present an augmented PPCTM which includes sensitivity analysis of platform variables, such that hierarchical rank is conducted based on the impact of the variables on the product performance. This method is applied to the design of a line of customizable finger pumps.

Evaluation and selection in product design for mass customization: A knowledge decision support approach

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
XUAN F. ZHA ◽  
RAM D. SRIRAM ◽  
WEN F. LU
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Fuzzy Clustering ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Design Evaluation ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Knowledge Support

Mass customization has been identified as a competitive strategy by an increasing number of companies. Family-based product design is an efficient and effective means to realize sufficient product variety, while satisfying a range of customer demands in support for mass customization. This paper presents a knowledge decision support approach to product family design evaluation and selection for mass customization process. Here, product family design is viewed as a selection problem with the following stages: product family (design alternatives) generation, product family design evaluation, and selection for customization. The fundamental issues underlying product family design for mass customization are discussed. Then, a knowledge support framework and its relevant technologies are developed for module-based product family design for mass customization. A systematic fuzzy clustering and ranking model is proposed and discussed in detail. This model supports the imprecision inherent in decision making with fuzzy customers' preference relations and uses fuzzy analysis techniques for evaluation and selection. A neural network technique is also adopted to adjust the membership function to enhance the model. The focus of this paper is on the development of a knowledge-intensive support scheme and a comprehensive systematic fuzzy clustering and ranking methodology for product family design evaluation and selection. A case study and the scenario of knowledge support for power supply family evaluation, selection, and customization are provided for illustration.

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