Product design improvement by a new similarity-index-based approach in the context of reconfigurable assembly processes

Abstract

An increased and ongoing trend to more product variety can be observed in manufacturing industries. This trend implies that enterprises have to deal with more and more differing products which leads to challenges on both sides, the product design and the production. The improvement of production being an important factor, the challenge on the side of the design department is not minor. Between design for manufacturing/assembly and increasing demands in terms of customisation, the management of highly varying products and the generation of coherent product families is of great importance. This article presents a new design improvement methodology based on two physical and functional architecture similarity indices and two assembly technology similarity indices. It aims to guide the designer in the analysis of product similarity, the identification of product subassemblies to optimise and the choice of consistent assembly solutions for an easier product family generation and optimised production. A case study from automotive industry is presented to illustrate the application of this approach.