Platform Commonization With Discrete Design Spaces: Introduction of the Flow Design Space

Abstract

Many companies have adopted the usage of common platforms to support the development of product families. The problem addressed in this paper deals with the development of a common platform for an existing set of products that may or may not already form a product family. The common platform embodies the core function, form, and technology base shared across the product family. In this work, we focus on configuration aspects of the platform commonization problem to determine which components are in the platform and the relationships among these components. Configuration design spaces are discrete and combinatorial in nature, but not necessarily purely combinatorial, as certain combinations represent infeasible designs. By carefully forming discrete design spaces and applying constraints to them, feasible design regions can be found and their sizes predicted. The purpose of this paper is to outline our approach to defining configuration design spaces for engineering design, with an emphasis on the mathematics of the spaces and their combinations into larger spaces that more completely capture design requirements. A new design space that models flows among components is introduced. Other design spaces that model physical connectivity, functionality, and assembly considerations are summarized. An example of a family of rechargeable flashlights illustrates the application of the discrete design space approach to develop a common platform.