Product-Service Family Enabled Product Configuration System for Cloud Manufacturing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiqiang Yu ◽  
Pai Zheng ◽  
Chunyang Yu ◽  
Xun Xu
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Cloud Manufacturing ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Process Manufacturing ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Configuration System ◽  
Engineer To Order

Rapid responsiveness to diverse customer needs is considered a competitive advantage in manufacturing business. To shrink the inquiry-to-order process, manufacturing firms will benefit a lot from building a product configuration system (PCS) which is the enabler of mass customisation (MC). PCS has matured in consumer businesses for decades but in capital goods industries, typically operating in engineer-to-order (ETO) manner, things differ a lot. It is for the reason that conventional PCS is incapable of extending customisation from order-delivery processes to the design/engineering phase. Cloud manufacturing, which is an emerging service-oriented manufacturing paradigms enabled by cyber-physical system, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Service, is promising to break the bottleneck of “ETO PCS” by the provision of technical infrastructure for product, service and data customisation. With the introducing of manufacturing-as-a-service (MaaS) concept, a product family is extended to a product-service family (PSF) in this paper for implementing in-depth product configuration process with scalable customisation depth (i.e., the degree of customisation freedom). Additionally, an approach of service delegation in product configuration process is proposed to support customer-centric product customisation. At last, the methodology proposed in this paper is validated by a case study in which the product configuration process of a complex ETO product is performed.

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

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 411-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
KARSTEN SCHIERHOLT
Keyword(s):  
Process Planning ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Process Configuration ◽  
Rolling Industry ◽  
Configuration System ◽  
Planning Task ◽  
Product Specifications ◽  
Additional Product

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.

Modular Product Configuration: An Automatic Tool for Eliciting Design Knowledge From Parametric CAD Models

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Raffaeli ◽  
Paolo Cicconi ◽  
Maura Mengoni ◽  
Michele Germani
Keyword(s):  
Product Configuration ◽  
Industrial Practice ◽  
Modular Product ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Cad Models ◽  
Configuration System ◽  
Automatic Tool ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Short Time

The offer of tailored products is a key factor to satisfy specific customer needs in the current competitive market. Modular products can easily support customization in a short time. Design process, in this case, can be regarded as a configuration task where solution is achieved through the combination of modules in overall product architecture. In this scenario efficient configuration design tools are evermore important. Although many tools have been already proposed in literature, they need further investigation to be applicable in real industrial practice, because of the high efforts required to implement system and the lack of flexibility in products updating. This work describes an approach to overcome drawbacks and to introduce a product independent configuration system which can be useful in designing recurrent product modules. To manage configuration from the designer perspective, the approach is based on Configurable Virtual Prototypes (CVP). In particular, the definition of geometrical models is analyzed providing a tool for eliciting and reusing knowledge introduced by parametric template CAD models. Semantic rules are used to recognize parts parameterization and assembly mating constraints. The approach is exemplified through a case study.

A Personalized Attribute Determination Process in a Cloud-Based Adaptable Product Configurator

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pai Zheng ◽  
Shiqiang Yu ◽  
Xun Xu
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Order Model ◽  
Design Attributes ◽  
Determination Process ◽  
Engineer To Order ◽  
Cost Efficient

Product configurator, as an effective tool in mapping customer requirements with company’s existing product attributes, enables customers’ satisfaction and companies’ competitiveness in a cost-efficient way. However, with the tendency towards mass personalization, customers are not only just selecting from each company’s own options in a ‘configure-to-order’ model, but also more actively involved in the product development process to create their own individualized products in an ‘engineer-to-order’ model. Besides, the existing configurators generally apply the same matching procedures to all the customers in the same sequential way, which is tedious and time consuming, especially for the complicated product configuration. Aiming to solve these problems, this paper proposes a personalized product configuration process to determine design attributes in a cloud-based environment, which is based on two assumptions: 1) products need to be adaptable enough for configuration; 2) customers prefer to develop new designs from the existing products in a tangible or visualized way other than design from scratch. The proposed process is capable of handling personalized requirements by adding new modules or upgrading design attributes in the existing product family. An illustrative example shows its advantages in customer-centric product development process.

scholarly journals Integrating Sales, Design and Production: A Configuration System for Automation in Mass Customization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Wehlin ◽  
Olle Vidner ◽  
Leon Poot ◽  
Mehdi Tarkian
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Order Entry ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Delivery Times ◽  
Final Design ◽  
Configuration System ◽  
Customized Products ◽  
Engineer To Order

Abstract Companies manufacturing customized engineer-to-order (ETO) products are decelerated by repetitive work, misinterpretations and uncoordinated processes which prohibits the achievement of mass customization. Being able to deliver customized product with low costs and fast delivery times, the concept of mass customization, is a prerequisite for maintained competitiveness with the demands from the market today. This paper presents a product configuration system (PCS) for customized products using design automation enabled by knowledge-based engineering (KBE) and enterprise-wide optimization (EWO). With this approach, the process from sales to delivery of customized products can be extensively rationalized. The PCS consists of two modules. The first being a configurator for use in the sales quotation stage. Here, customer requirements are captured, and used to generate alternatives feasible for the customer context. Thereby, correct quotations can be generated at the sales instance. The second module is the enterprise-wide configurator where accepted orders are concurrently optimized for their detailed and final design, considering the current state of the production and concurrent sales cases in the company. In other terms, instead of adapting the supply chain according to the design of the products in the order entry, the design of the products in the order entry are adapted according to the state of the supply chain. Thereby, resources can be efficiently utilized to the benefit of both the customer and the company, with reduced costs and delivery times. An implementation of the PCS in a case concerning spiral staircases, an ETO product, has shown potential of substantially reducing resources and errors and enable a reliable process supporting achievement of mass customization.

Design and Implementation of a Broker for Cloud Additive Manufacturing Services

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkata P. Modekurthy ◽  
Xiaoqing F. Liu ◽  
Kenneth K. Fletcher ◽  
Ming C. Leu
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Service Oriented Architecture ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Service Selection ◽  
Cloud Manufacturing ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Service Broker ◽  
Service Ranking

With increasing number of cloud additive manufacturing (AM) service providers, cloud AM services are becoming decentralized and it is difficult for consumers to discover cloud AM services according to their personal preferences and tradeoffs. Existing frameworks of cloud manufacturing either do not have brokers between cloud manufacturing service providers and consumers or do not support personalized preference and tradeoff based brokerage. In this paper, we present a cloud-based service broker system for cloud AM to provide consumers with a single point of access to a large number of cloud AM services from many cloud AM service providers over the Internet based on a service oriented architecture using web services. This broker system uses an innovative cloud AM service selection method which considers consumers' preferences and tradeoffs on service attributes like price, material, and accuracy in the ranking process. It is also based on a new integrated representation for both exact and varied matches in cloud AM service selection. We present an application case study to show how the cloud AM service broker system is used to select cloud AM services based on personal preferences and tradeoffs. It demonstrates feasibility of brokerage in cloud AM and effectiveness of the cloud AM service ranking method based on personalized preferences and tradeoffs.

Case Study: User Adoption of a Product Configuration Management System at a Modular Playground Equipment Producer

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany M. Byron ◽  
Steven B. Shooter
Keyword(s):  
Management System ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Information Management System ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Product Configuration Management ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
User Adoption

Product platform and product family strategies place tremendous demands on the efficient capture, storage, and retrieval of information in the form of product data. The user’s adoption of an information management system for product families and mass customization is critical for allowing the system to perform as it ought. The following is a case study at a major modular playground equipment producer undergoing the implementation of a new graphical-based configurator for managing its mass customized products. The case study examines the proliferation of software packages to perform configuration and the flow of information in the configuration process. Next, the new configurator is evaluated on its new features to capture, store, and reuse configurations and its visual appeal. Last, the paper addresses the personal behaviors and training methods used for increasing adoption and their success.

scholarly journals SERVICE-ORIENTED BUSINESS MODELS IN MANUFACTURING IN THE DIGITAL ERA: TOWARD A NEW TAXONOMY

2020 ◽  
pp. 2040002
Author(s):  
TOR HELGE AAS ◽  
KARL JOACHIM BREUNIG ◽  
MAGNUS MIKAEL HELLSTRÖM ◽  
KATJA MARIA HYDLE
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Service System ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Product Service System ◽  
Performance Orientation ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Embedded Case Study

A stream of servitisation research has focused on the construction of taxonomies and typologies of product–service system business models (BMs). However, their relevance in the context of increased utilisation of digital technologies may be questioned. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically revisit the existing product–service system BM taxonomies to explore the following research question: How can the BMs of servitised manufacturing firms be categorised in the digital era? The question is addressed through an embedded case study of five servitised firms. We found that the firms’ BMs varied with regard to the degree of the suppliers’ ownership of delivered products, degree of smartness of the services provided and degree of performance orientation of contracts. Based on these findings, we derived a new product–service system BM taxonomy with eight categories, presented in a 2 × 2 × 2 matrix, that significantly extends earlier taxonomies.

scholarly journals A New Classification Analysis of Customer Requirement Information Based on Quantitative Standardization for Product Configuration

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Xiao ◽  
Zude Zhou ◽  
Buyun Sheng
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Customer Requirement ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Classification Analysis ◽  
Data Formats ◽  
Subsequent Application

Traditional methods used for the classification of customer requirement information are typically based on specific indicators, hierarchical structures, and data formats and involve a qualitative analysis in terms of stationary patterns. Because these methods neither consider the scalability of classification results nor do they regard subsequent application to product configuration, their classification becomes an isolated operation. However, the transformation of customer requirement information into quantifiable values would lead to a dynamic classification according to specific conditions and would enable an association with product configuration in an enterprise. This paper introduces a classification analysis based on quantitative standardization, which focuses on (i) expressing customer requirement information mathematically and (ii) classifying customer requirement information for product configuration purposes. Our classification analysis treated customer requirement information as follows: first, it was transformed into standardized values using mathematics, subsequent to which it was classified through calculating the dissimilarity with general customer requirement information related to the product family. Finally, a case study was used to demonstrate and validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the classification analysis.

Dynamic Supply-Demand Matching for Manufacturing Resource Services in Service-Oriented Manufacturing Systems: A Hypernetwork-Based Solution Framework

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Cheng ◽  
Fei Tao ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Dongming Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Cloud Manufacturing ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Industrial Internet ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Manufacturing Resource ◽  
Manufacturing Platform ◽  
Product Service Systems

Nowadays, service-oriented manufacturing (SOM) systems (e.g., cloud manufacturing (CMfg), product service systems (PSS), etc.) have attracted more and more interesting and attention of researchers from many different fields. However, because of the complex and dynamic environment, one of the most important issues need to be addressed for the promotion and application of SOM system is the dynamic supply-demand matching and scheduling of manufacturing resource services. In this paper, the issue of supple-demand matching in the typical SOM system is carried out at first. Then the dynamics and different models facing different users and different demands are analyzed respectively. As a result, a hypernetwork-based solution framework of this issue and the cloud manufacturing platform adding with the related functions are proposed with consideration of multi-objects, statistical characteristics and evolution. Finally, some future works with big data and industrial Internet of things are pointed out in the summary.

Research on the module configuration of complex products considering the evolution of the product family

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 4577-4595
Author(s):  
Zhenhua Liu ◽  
Mengting Zhang ◽  
Yupeng Li ◽  
Xuening Chu
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Programming Model ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Pareto Frontier ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Future Market ◽  
Complex Products ◽  
Configuration Scheme

The evolution of the product family is the essential driving force for the development of a complex product. Only customer satisfaction is emphasized in the traditional module configuration methods, which is not beneficial for product family evolution that is due to non-customer factors such as the emergence of new technology. In this study, the intuitionistic fuzzy number is employed to quantify the degree of correlation between each module and configuration targets, namely customer satisfaction and the degree of evolution of the product family, respectively. The bi-objective integer programming model is constructed by maximizing the degree of customer satisfaction and product family evolution. An improved Pareto ant colony optimization (P-ACO) is designed to solve this model and subsequently the Pareto frontier is obtained. The radar chart is adopted to represent the performance of each configuration scheme in the Pareto frontier. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are expounded by a case study and result comparison, showing that this method can provide a more competitive product configuration scheme to customers in the future market.

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