Function-means Tree Research Articles

Design Space Exploration and Evaluation Using Margin-Based Trade-Offs

Abstract Design space exploration and margin analysis can inform critical decisions early in engineering design, helping to handle the uncertainties of early design while ensuring design performance. In practice, the complexity of many products makes such decision-making challenging. This paper addresses the challenge with a new design framework that relies on the margin value method to evaluate sets of concepts that are combinatorially generated from an enhanced function-means tree. The basis for concept comparison is the margin value in each design alternative. The margin value method is expanded to address a broad class of design problems by using surrogate models and novel metrics for evaluating different conceptual alternatives. Visualization tools are introduced to support the evaluations. The efficacy of the framework is demonstrated using the design of a structural aero-engine component involving simulation models and uncertain load specifications. Overall, this paper shows how design concepts can be compared objectively and distilled to a set of alternatives that would retain their values throughout product development.

STRUCTURE SHARING AND MULTI-MODE INTEGRATION IN SUCCESSFUL DESIGNS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

AbstractStructure sharing (SS) and multi-mode integration (MMI) are types of sharing in designs that help in resource effectiveness. This research explores their prevalence in successful designs. To do this: (a) 5 award-winning designs from International Design Excellence Awards are chosen, information of these designs is used to construct their Function-Means Tree and this is used to check whether they exhibit SS or MMI, and (b) 250+ award-winning designs are examined via a longitudinal study to check whether they exhibit SS or MMI. The following observations are made: (a) both SS and MMI are seen at systemic and sub-systemic levels, (b) both SS and MMI are and can be present in designs and (c) close to 35% of 250+ designs examined exhibited SS or MMI. These are fundamental insights, have not been reported earlier and build on the existing work on SS and MMI.

A Product Architecture-Based Tool for Bioinspired Function-Sharing

Abstract In this work, we show that bioinspired function-sharing can be effectively leveraged in engineering design by abstracting and emulating the product architecture of biological systems that exhibit function-sharing. Systems that leverage function-sharing enable multiple functions to be performed by a single structure. Billions of years of evolution have led to the development of function-sharing adaptations in biological systems. Currently, engineers leverage biological function-sharing by imitating serendipitously encountered biological structures. As a result, utilizing bioinspired function-sharing remains limited to some specific engineering problems. To overcome this limitation, we propose the reduced function-means tree as a tool to simultaneously abstract both biological adaptations and their associated product architecture. The tool uses information from an existing bioinspired design abstraction tool and an existing product architecture representation tool. A demonstration study illustrates the tool's ability to abstract the product architectural interactions of function-sharing biological systems. The abstracted product architectural interactions are then shown to facilitate problem-driven bioinspiration of function-sharing. The availability of a problem-driven approach may reduce the need to imitate biological structures to leverage biological function-sharing in engineering design. This work is a step forward in analyzing biological product architectures to inspire engineering design. The future work will focus on validating the proposed tool by performing user studies.

KERANGKA KERJA PERENCANAAN PENGEMBANGAN PRODUK SEBAGAI PENINGKATAN DAYA SAING INDUSTRI KECIL MENENGAH

This study developed a new product development planning framework for small and medium enterprise (SME) in creative industry sector to increase the business competitiveness. The development process referred to the stages of design science research. The development stage adapted the first two stages of the modular function deployment (MFD), those are the description stage of consumer need through the house of quality, and functional decomposition. The study explained that the application of MFD adaptation is effective and adequate to the creative SME condition. The technical concepts were able to be screened and scored by using pugh selection matrix. However, every technical concepts could not be described into detailed domain functions and means. Therefore, the addition of methods applied in parallel was carried out, that is the concept decomposition with the function means tree, and the technical solution synthesis with the axiomatic design so that the design process is easier to handle. It’s recommended to eliminate the zigzagging process in axiomatic design, since it has been done on the function means tree and the use of customer relationship management data base to support voice of customer.

Describing and evaluating functionally integrated and manufacturing restricted product architectures

Within manufacturing companies, the architectural description of how a product is built is typically well defined while the architecture of the product from a functional view describing how the functional requirements are met in the product is often less articulated. For products composed of many components (modular products) such descriptions are clear, whereas few representation schemes are available that treat highly functionally integrated components, where all the functions are satisfied by one integral, homogenous physical structure. In this paper, an approach to describe the architecture for integrated components in the aerospace industry is described. Different regions of the component, termed as sections, are assumed to satisfy the functions required of the structure which are often manufactured by joining (welding) different segments. By assigning sectional and functional information to different manufactured segments of the structure, graphs are created that link the functional requirements and sections. Two different methods, one based on set compositions and other on creating an enhanced function-means (EF-M) tree are used to link the functions to the sections of the component, resulting in different graphs for different types of manufacturing splits for the same component. Comparison of the methods is then carried out using properties of the graphs produced. The method that utilises set compositions performs well for entire component descriptions while the method that uses an EF-M tree to create a graph describes sections (regions) of the component well so that functional relationships can be better described (integration of already existing design knowledge). The product descriptions created can help designers to identify how alternative manufacturing splits impact the functionally defined product architecture which in turn enables both improved manufacturing and improved design decisions.

Analysis of the structural efficiency of trees

This paper presents an analysis of the structural features of trees in order to understand how high levels of mass-efficiency are achieved and to identify lessons for engineering designers. Structural features are identified from a literature survey and also by observations and measurements of mature trees in the UK. The functions of the structural features are identified using a function-means tree. The mass-efficiency of the structural features is modelled and assessed using first-order stress analysis. A comparison is made between the structural features found in trees and those used in engineering. There are many similarities between the structural features in trees and engineering. However, there are a few aspects that are mostly unique to trees such as the existence of important non-structural functions in structural members and the presence of adaptive growth. These features may indicate how future engineering structures will be designed.

Improved Function-means Trees by Inclusion of Design History Information

SUMMARY This paper describes a computer-based approach towards enabling a designer to, when designing a product, concurrently document the design history, i.e. the reasons for the design decisions made and the reasoning process that led to the final result. The approach is based on an extended version of the ‘function-means tree’ model of the design process and on the ‘chromosome’ model for product modelling.