Nan Su

Extension-Based Clustering Method: An Approach to Support Adaptable Design of the Product

Design for product adaptability is one of the techniques used to provide customers with products that exactly meet their requirements. Clustering methods have been used extensively in the study of product adaptability design. Of the clustering methods, the fuzzy clustering method is the most widely in the design field. The three main kinds of fuzzy clustering methods are the transitive closure method, the dynamic direct method and the maximum tree method. The dynamic direct clustering method has been found to produce design solutions with the lowest cost. In this paper, a new approach for obtaining adaptable product designs using the clustering method is proposed. The method consists of three steps. Firstly, the extension distance formula is used to determine the distance between two products in a product database. The product design space and the distances between individuals are used as grouping criteria in this step. Secondly, the minimal distance between products is used to obtain the clustering index. Thirdly, the threshold value is used to divide the products in the database into groups. Customer demands and the results obtained from the adaptable function (based on the extension distance formula) are used to evaluate the fitness of the groups and their corresponding products. The product with the largest adaptable function value to demand ratio is selected product. In order to the show the advantage of using the extension-clustering method, both the extension-clustering method and the dynamic direct method are presented and compared. The comparison indicates that the extension-clustering method leads to quicker evaluations of design alternatives and results that more closely match customers’ demands. An example of the adaptable design of circular saws tools is used to demonstrate that with the extension-clustering design method a high variety of intelligent configurations can be obtained with significant rapidity.Copyright

Product Family Extension Configuration Design: the theory and method

How to solve contradictory problems in product family configuration design correctly and effectively has become a hot focus in the adaptable and rapid design areas in recent years. For this purpose, a survey about the theory system, key technologies and perspective of Product Family Extension Configuration Design (PFECD) and its application in the mass customization is reported. The state-of-arts of PFECD in configuration modeling, product family structures divided, configuration scheme generation, configuration rules transformation, configuration scheme modification as well as system software development are presented. Several problems that need be further studied and developed are also discussed. As a new branch of intelligent design, a new scientific theory is provided by PFECD for solving contradictory problems between mass production and customized.

A Variant Module Division Method on Extension Logic for Assembly Process

The paper’s focus is on the module division dynamically in the virtual assembly sequencing process for the product family, which will affect the module variant quality seriously. Most research merely divides the module on their functions, without paying the attention on which the module division is beneficial for the latter assembly process. Considered assembly relationships as a key constraint, a new variant module division measure based on Extension Logic is presented. Since the tolerances existing everywhere in the assembly process, the connection analysis is employed to build a constraint function on the tolerance. Physical constraints contain mating and combination constraints. After the dynamical position for different parts, the mating constraint is defined as the movement opposition between two mechanical elements including face alignment mating, shaft and hole mating or face against mating. Then the extension radiation model could be generated. According the average value of the relationship function to realize the module division, the product structure is divided into several sub-assemblies. As the main problem in virtual assembly is process collisions, a modified integer coded Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm is used. Here every part is mapped to corresponding particle. The result is performed in the virtual environment of software DELMIA. At last the extension cluster method in this paper is compared with the direct dynamic cluster method. A case study is performed on virtual assembly of high power Light Emitting Diodes automatic sorting machine manufactured by a factory.Copyright

Multilevel Optimization Evaluation of Hardware Product Quality Based on Extension Correlation Analysis

In order to evaluate the quality of hardware products comprehensively and objectively, an evaluation model of extension multilevel optimization about hardware products has been established. The model was based on analyzing the quality management of hardware enterprises and took the hardware valve as an example. The solving process firstly used scale index and the first evaluation in restricting and reducing the scope of evaluation so as to improve solving efficiency. Then the values of correlation function, correlation degree, standard correlation degree and the optimization were calculated. Finally the comprehensive evaluation results could be got objectively through comparative analyzing these values. The results indicated that higher degree of satisfaction program would be obtained by applying the multilevel optimization evaluation method of product. And the products quality largely depended on its production stage. Thereby it aided the production managers to do the right choice.

Extension Case-Based Reasoning for Product Configuration Design

The interface was regarded as standard and not considered in traditional configuration design, which made it difficult to apply to the existence product configuration. The paper proposes an extension case-based reasoning for product configuration design. With matter-elements, reasoning model of Extension Case-Based Reasoning (ECBR) is established, and its corresponding algorithm is proposed. During the configuration design, the solution space of configuration schemes is obtained by the similarity calculation, and then the overall evaluation of similarity and compatible degrees is adopted to form the final configuration scheme. A prototype system of reducer configuration design is successfully developed according to the method, and it proves the proposed method that is feasible and effective.

Common Platform Identification for Product Family on Extension Clustering Method

Common platform design for product families is an important step in the modularity field. It is impossible to find the similar components in alterative design stages for the traditional similarity measure used in module division. So, a new common platform design method on extension-distance is presented. In different design environments, three distance concepts are discussed, namely, feature-to-feature, feature-to-set and set-to-set. The first concept will be employed as the base for extension-cluster method in the platform design on the thought of each structure’ s features between two adjacent structure components, while the second is used to build the tolerance-constraint function in the customized components division for the common platform generation. Last the adaptability measure is used to find the optimal case in the database. The method took the gasoline saw as an example.

A Similarity Measure Based on Extension Distance and Its Application in CBR

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is an effective method that integrates reasoning methodology and represents related knowledge in a domain. The success of a CBR system largely depends on case retrieval, and the similarity and determination of weight for each case features have a significant influence on the efficiency and accuracy of case retrieval. The aim of the research is to improve the efficiency and accuracy of case retrieval. Analyzing the deficiency of similarity measures based on the classical distance, different similarity measures are proposed for different kinds of attribute values based on the extension distance, especially the similarity model between numerical and set considered the customer’s preference. The standard deviation related with the similarity is introduced to distribute the dynamic attribute’s weights which also considered the customer’s interest, but not the traditional methods that the weight is a constant if determined. The presented methods will enable the system to retrieve the more similar case correctly so that reducing case adaptation. In this study, an electric drill is used as a case to verify the usefulness and effectiveness of the similarity measurements and weight assignments. It is demonstrated that this method is more beneficial to case retrieval compared with other methods.Copyright