Fabrice Alizon

Reuse of Manufacturing Knowledge to Facilitate Platform-Based Product Realization

Product platforming is a technique for exploiting commonality across a family of prod-ucts. While utilizing a common platform can have many advantages when developing andmanufacturing products, the approach places greater demands on collaboration, in par-ticular, the sharing and reuse of knowledge and information. Repositories are intended tofacilitate information sharing across organizational groups and geographically distrib-uted collaborators. A particular challenge in utilizing repositories is culling a search forthe most appropriate information for the problem at hand. The Reuse Existing Unit forShape and Efficiency (R.E.U.S.E.) method facilitates the search of information in a re-pository through three stages that consider similarity, efficiency, and configuration. Au-tomated search and filter techniques are implemented with interaction with the user toeffectively obtain the desired results. The similarity study uses thresholds to clarify dif-ferent opportunities for reuse. The user can then select alternatives for further examina-tion based on efficiency of satisfaction of desired characteristics. The degree of modifi-cation of the similar alternatives is reported to assist in the configuration of the newdesign. This method contributes to the field by (a) accounting for the variety of theproduct family during the reuse of existing process design information; (b) integrating anefficiency assessment for retrieval by considering characteristics beyond cost; and (c)addressing the search with a multicriteria method. The implementation of the R.E.U.S.Emethod is supported with an example of assembly line design for an air conditionermodule in automobile production.

An Index-based Method to Manage the Tradeoff between Diversity and Commonality during Product Family Design

The competitiveness in todays market forces many companies to rethink the way they design products. Instead of developing one product at a time, many manufacturing companies are developing families of products to provide enough variety for the marketplace while keeping costs relatively low. Although the benefits of commonality are widely known, many companies are still not taking full advantage of it when developing new products or redesigning existing ones. One reason is the lack of appropriate methods and useful indices to assess a product family based on commonality and diversity. Although many component-based commonality indices have been proposed in the literature, they emphasize commonality at the expense of diversity in a product family. In this study, the design for commonality and diversity method based on two new commonality indices — the commonality diversity index and the comprehensive metric for commonality — is introduced to help designers manage the inherent tradeoff between commonality and diversity during the product family design process. To illustrate the proposed method, an example application involving a family of single-use cameras is presented. The proposed method provides useful recommendations at both the functional and component levels during product family design.

Using product family evaluation graphs in product family design

Product family design and platform-based product development have garnered much attention. They have been used to provide nearly customised products to satisfy individual customer requirements and simultaneously achieve economies of scale during production. The inherent challenge in product family design is to balance the trade-off between product commonality (how well the components and functions can be shared across a product family) and variety (the range of different products in a product family). Quantifying this trade-off at the product family planning stage in a way that supports the engineering design process has yet to be accomplished. In this paper, we introduce a graphical evaluation method, the product family evaluation graph (PFEG), that allows designers to choose the ‘best’ product family design option among sets of alternatives based on their performance with respect to an ideal commonality/variety trade-off determined by a companys particular competitive focus, and guides designers towards a more desirable trade-off between commonality and variety in an existing product family. Two necessary supporting pieces for developing the PFEG are also proposed. One piece is the development of commonality and variety indices to quantitatively capture the degree of commonality and variety in a product family and its functions and components. We introduce two sets of commonality and variety indices–the CDI (commonality versus diversity index) for commonality (CDIC) and variety (CDIV), and the CMC (comprehensive metric for commonality) for commonality (CMCC) and variety (CMCV)–to achieve this. The other supporting piece is the development of a quantitative representation of the ideal trade-off between commonality and variety in a product family, known as the commonality/variety trade-off angle α, based on the elements that characterise a companys competitive focus and their industry-wide competitors. A linear regression model is used to link the qualitative competitive focus to a quantitative engineering perspective, and then to estimate the ideal trade-off angle. The commonality/variety trade-off angle can then be applied to the PFEG to help designers evaluate a product family or compare product family design alternatives. Most importantly, the PFEG is not just the graph of the two sets of indices; it is the representation of the commonality/variety trade-off relative to the desired competitive focus. Four families of power tools are used to illustrate how the computation of such indices supports product family design evaluation in the PFEG. In this paper, we only use the CDI in the example application, but the CMC can be computed using the same approach.

Three Dimensional Design Structure Matrix With Cross-Module and Cross-Interface Analyses

Many companies that struggle with product variety and configuration management issues turn to a module-based design approach. Although this approach is well-known to be efficient for managing variety of a product family, current methods do not enable designers to handle both modularity and variety within a product family. The Design Structure Matrix (DSM) has been widely used to identify modules within a product, but its use to identify modules across a family of products has been limited. In this context we propose two tools based on an extension of the basic DSM to manage variety of an entire product family. The Variety Design Structure Matrix, DSMV , handles variety of the product family and 3D Design Structure Matrix, DSM3D , enables visual analysis of across the entire product family. These two tools, combined into a single approach, enable analysis of the product family at many levels — family product, module, and interfaces — to better specify modules and interfaces across all of the products in the family. A case study involving a family of three single-use cameras is used to demonstrate the application of these new DSMs and accompanying cross-module and cross-interface analyses. This new approach can be applied during detailed studies as well as in the early stages of the design process.Copyright

Recommending a platform leveraging strategy based on the homogeneous or heterogeneous nature of a product line

Platform-based product development depends on many factors, including technology, cost, competition, and life cycle considerations. Many companies would benefit from knowing more about the nature of their product families and how they impact platform-based product development. We assert that the development of a product platform and its derivative family of products is also impacted by the homogenous or heterogeneous nature of the products being developed, which has received little attention in previous engineering literature. The current study introduces an original metric for assessing the degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity in a given family: the homogeneity versus heterogeneity ratio (HHR), which works at two levels of abstraction, namely, family and function. This study focuses on the platform leveraging strategy and takes into consideration two other aspects of platform development: the specification of the family and the necessity of differentiation. To support platform design, the HHRfamily and HHRfunction metrics quantify the ratio of homogeneity to heterogeneity in the family to recommend a platform leveraging strategy by highlighting homogeneous functions that support platform leveraging. Reverse engineering helps us to retroactively study three types of families (power tools, single-use cameras, and blue jeans) using HHRfamily and HHRfunction. In particular, we demonstrate: (1) quantification of the homogeneity/heterogeneity of a family of products based on their functions; (2) recommendation of a leveraging strategy based on HHR; (3) a new leveraging strategy, the combined leveraging strategy via cross leveraging; (4) how HHR can help designers to validate the product family specification; and (5) how HHR can highlight needs to differentiate a family of products other than through functions.

A usage coverage based approach for assessing product family design

Computation techniques have provided designers with deeper understanding of the market niches that were neglected before. Usage contextual information has been studied in marketing research since the last century; however, little research in design engineering focuses on it. Therefore, in this paper, we analyzed the relations between usage context information and the design of products. A usage coverage model is established to integrate users and their expected usage scenarios into product family assessment. We map the user’s individual capacity together with a given product into the usage context space. The overlapping between the required usage and feasible usage can be measured. Based on this mechanism, several usage coverage indices are proposed to assess the compliance of a given product family to the expected set of usage scenarios to be covered. The original method is demonstrated on a scale-based product family of jigsaws in a redesign context. Constraint programming technique is applied to solve the physics-based causal loops that determine usage performances in a set-based design approach. Designers can rely on the results to eliminate redundant units in the family or modify the configuration of each product. The contribution of the paper is to provide an inter-disciplinary point of view to assessing the composition and configuration of a product family design.

Optimising material handling costs in an assembly workshop

The intense competition imposed by the current global market, forces companies to implement lean manufacturing techniques. Major progress has already been made in this field and factories continue to reduce costs and lead times. Within this context, the crucial impact of logistics on production efficiency renders the design and planning of the supply chain a key factor in the reduction of costs and the maximisation of product availability. The logistics of an assembly workshop are usually specified empirically, which often generates an overestimation of its needs. Therefore, the current study focuses on these needs and introduces the ACW (assignment of components in warehouses) method for optimising the assignment of components to storage areas. This original method is based on a successive resolution of cost assessments, shortest path problems and generalised assignment problems. It takes into account congestions in the network of aisles that appear during the loading/unloading stages of material handling. A case study of Renaults Flins factory is detailed to validate the proposed method.

Improving an Existing Product Family Based on Commonality/Diversity, Modularity, and Cost

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.Copyright

HENRY FORD AND THE MODEL T: LESSONS FOR PRODUCT PLATFORMING AND MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Henry Ford is recognized as the father of mass production, but his contributions extend well beyond that, offering valuable lessons for product platforming and mass customization. In this paper, we study Ford’s Model T and its many variants in depth and describe insights into Ford’s vision and his car. In particular, we examine how the platform was built, leveraged and dynamically maintained with continuous improvements to maximize learning and economies of scale. Finally, we compare Ford’s approach to more current approaches for platforming and mass customization. October 2008 marked the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the Model T. In some aspects this old car still outperforms us, and we can learn valuable lessons from its past to avoid future mistakes and improve current practices. 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Assessing and Increasing Product and Family Differentiation in the Market

To help guarantee profit and stability in today’s global market, companies must focus on the differentiation of their products. Successfully differentiated products will attract customers, generate revenue and benefit the brand image, whereas a banal product can lose money and leave a bad impression in the market. Many large companies have recently lost significant market share in part due to poor product differentiation. This paper introduces four indices to assess this differentiation at two levels—family and market—based on product function and function attributes. At the family level, the Product Differentiation Index (PDI) assesses the differentiation between a product and other products in the rest of the family and also the differentiation within the family. At the market level, the Family Differentiation Index (FDI), Family Coverage Index (FCI), and Family Un-coverage Index (FUI) assess the differentiation, the coverage, and the un-coverage of a family with another, and/or with the rest of the market, respectively. These indices help designers and marketers evaluate the positioning of their products and support product family planning. A case study involving two competitive single-use camera families is presented.Copyright