TY - GEN
T1 - Improving an existing product family based on commonality/diversity, modularity, and cost
AU - Alizon, Fabrice
AU - Shooter, Steven B.
AU - Simpson, Timothy W.
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge Mike Haile, Hansen Lukman, and Drew Wetzel for their participation on this project. We also acknowledge the National Science Foundation through Grant Nos. IIS-0325321 and IIS-0325402. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - As product life cycles become shorter and shorter, stakes are higher in terms of sales and profits, making it an imperative for companies to enhance existing product families as much as possible. Redesigning a family of products can become a difficult task when considering the number of variables (products, modules, components, etc.), competing objectives (diversity-commonality, cost-variety, etc.), and actual technical solutions (cost value, architectural constraints), etc. In this paper, a methodology using the Design Structure Matrix flow (DSMflow,), Value Analysis (VA), and the Commonality versus Diversity Index (CDI) is proposed to improve an existing family of products. These three tools enable the assessment and the improvement of (1) commonality and diversity within the family, (2) feature satisfaction through design, and (3) definition of new modules/components and their interfaces. A case study based on a family of refrigerators (including CAD models) is detailed in this paper to demonstrate the methodology. The proposed methodology supports both the reengineering of an existing family and can also be extended to benefit the early development stages when designing a new family of products.
AB - As product life cycles become shorter and shorter, stakes are higher in terms of sales and profits, making it an imperative for companies to enhance existing product families as much as possible. Redesigning a family of products can become a difficult task when considering the number of variables (products, modules, components, etc.), competing objectives (diversity-commonality, cost-variety, etc.), and actual technical solutions (cost value, architectural constraints), etc. In this paper, a methodology using the Design Structure Matrix flow (DSMflow,), Value Analysis (VA), and the Commonality versus Diversity Index (CDI) is proposed to improve an existing family of products. These three tools enable the assessment and the improvement of (1) commonality and diversity within the family, (2) feature satisfaction through design, and (3) definition of new modules/components and their interfaces. A case study based on a family of refrigerators (including CAD models) is detailed in this paper to demonstrate the methodology. The proposed methodology supports both the reengineering of an existing family and can also be extended to benefit the early development stages when designing a new family of products.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33751325022&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33751325022&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1115/detc2006-99536
DO - 10.1115/detc2006-99536
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:33751325022
SN - 079183784X
SN - 9780791837849
T3 - Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
BT - Proceedings of 2006 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information In Engineering Conference, DETC2006
PB - American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
T2 - 2006 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information In Engineering Conference, DETC2006
Y2 - 10 September 2006 through 13 September 2006
ER -