Adaptability-oriented Planning Method for Robust Product Platform

Abstract

To quickly respond to customers' individual needs and markets demand diversification,the concept of product platform architecture for adaptability is defined,and an adaptability-oriented planning method for robust product platform is presented. Due to the conceptual consistency on promoting the adaptability to environmental change,considering design changes and improving product quality with low costs,it is therefore natural to unify robust design and adaptable design. In initial phase of product platform plan,the robustness and design adaptability should be considered to avoid rework. The axiomatic design theory is utilized as framework to "zigzaging" mapping between functional requirements and design parameters. According to the analysis on functional requirements,the functional requirements are divided into basic functional requirements,expectable functional requirements and adjunctive functional requirements. The design characteristic parameters are extracted reasonably and the functional requirements matrix and design parameters matrix are established respectively. The grey system theory is made use into robust design of product platform,the platform parameters and variety parameters are identified through the experimental design and analysis of variance for the grey relational grade. Then a two –stage method for robust optimization problem of product family is proposed to determine the best design scenario for product platform and product variety. Finally,an example of flexible product configuration for drum is used to demonstrate the feasibility and practical value of the proposed method.