Representing Product Architecture

Product architecture is the transformation of function to layout. Like much of conceptual design, it is a highly dynamic process whereby engineers must consider a deluge of information in terms of both function and form. One shortcoming of current engineering practice is the absence of representations or abstractions used to aid in developing, refining, and exploiting alternative layout solutions. The purpose of this paper is to present a representation for product architecture that sufficiently captures the design factors relevant to product architecture design which are not taken into account in current practices. An example is given to illustrate the technique, and results of a validation experiment are shown.