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Society awareness and environmental goals are forcing the aerospace industry to develop new sustainable system architectures. The components in the new system have to meet new functional requirements using alternative technologies and design solutions while ensuring that the physical performance of the component is maintained. However, design space exploration of both domains is challenging due to the intrinsic differences and nature of each: functional domain exploration deals with alternative means to solve functions, while physical exploration deals with parametric values, such as geometric dimensions and material types. Here, we present a method that enables concurrent exploration of the functional and physical design space. The method is based on a review of existing design space exploration methodologies. It has been developed in collaboration with industry and validated within a use case. We expect that this method will be useful for designers in conceptual phases where there are several functions containing multiple design alternatives and incompatibilities among them. The results of the method will allow designers to narrow down the design space to a few architectural candidates, including a baseline of physical dimensioning for each candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Redesigning existing parts is challenging without keen insights into capabilities afforded by AM and with the absence of systematic design methods for the early product design stage. Therefore, this study proposes a systematic design method to leverage fully AM design benefits for reconceptualizing product architecture, which leads to consolidate parts and simplify product architecture. The proposed design method consists of four steps to achieve the goal. First, a baseline product architecture should be identified as a starting point of reconceptualization. Second, candidates for reconceptualization are identified by design principles for AM. Third, AM design benefits are recommended by the developed knowledgebase and query language, which can replace functions of the candidates. AM design benefits are applied to reconceptualize existing part design and lead to more efficient product architectures. Lastly, the reconceptualized product architecture is evaluated. To demonstrate usefulness of the proposed method, a case study is performed on an electric motorcycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a method to support product architecture design considering the supply chain. Previous studies on product architecture design include methods to realize modularization and product family design based on the relationships among components. From the supply chain perspective, mathematical models and simulation models have been proposed to improve the supply chain of modularized products. However, there has been little research on design support that simultaneously considers product architecture and supply chain. In particular, there is little consideration given to the impact on the supply chain caused by the connection between components. To address this issue, this study proposes a design methodology for the simultaneous design of both product architecture and supply chain from the perspectives of economy, environment, quality, and transportation. This paper newly proposes an evaluation model that incorporates the production capacity of each supplier, the delivery capacity of each transportation mode, and the on-time delivery rate with consideration of above component connections. The proposed method supports the selection of an architecture and its supply chain by visualizing the characteristics, such as the trade-off between evaluation indicators depending on the degree of modularization. As a result of applying the proposed method to the architectural design of a laptop computer, we confirmed that the proposed method can suggest to the designer an appropriate architecture and its supply chain according to the number of products to be manufactured and their means of transportation.

Society awareness and environmental goals are forcing the aerospace industry to develop new sustainable system architectures. The components in the new system have to meet new functional requirements using alternative technologies and design solutions while ensuring that the physical performance of the component is maintained. However, design space exploration of both domains is challenging due to the intrinsic differences and nature of each: functional domain exploration deals with alternative means to solve functions, while physical exploration deals with parametric values, such as geometric dimensions and material types. Here, we present a method that enables concurrent exploration of the functional and physical design space. The method is based on a review of existing design space exploration methodologies. It has been developed in collaboration with industry and validated within a use case. We expect that this method will be useful for designers in conceptual phases where there are several functions containing multiple design alternatives and incompatibilities among them. The results of the method will allow designers to narrow down the design space to a few architectural candidates, including a baseline of physical dimensioning for each candidate.

A key enabler for personalised product design is an open product architecture that allows the integration of personalised modules to create unique products. Decisions regarding product variety, module combinations, and configurations for personalised modules need to be coordinated with the decisions of manufacturing process and supplier selection when developing personalised product architectures. Conventionally, product architecture, processes, and suppliers are independently determined at different product development stages. However, this sequential design process lacks connection between product architecture, process, and supplier, and may lead to suboptimal or even infeasible design solutions with compromised performance. In this study, a concurrent optimisation approach is proposed to integrate manufacturing process and supplier selection into personalised product architecture design. A cost model is developed as a nexus of product architecture, process, and supplier. Then, a mixed-integer optimisation model is established to maximise the potential profit of a product family based on a profit formulation that incorporates customer preference, process resource, supplier, and manufacturing cost. A genetic algorithm is utilised to solve this optimisation problem. The method is demonstrated on the architecture design for a family of personalised bicycles. The result shows that concurrent optimisation can achieve design solutions with higher profitability compared to sequential design strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modularity of a product architecture with standard, variant, and optional modules can be measured by the characteristics of commonality and combinability. Positive and negative effects of a more communal or more combinable structure are summarized and visualized in an impact model. However, due to the megatrend of personalization, the solution space of a modular product architecture needs to be extended to include personalizable modules. What remains unclear till now is how personalization impacts the different life phases. Therefore, this article derives an impact model considering product personalization. First, the modularity property of personalizability is derived, in order to then specifically investigate the effects occurring in the different life phases. Therefore, a literature review is conducted. New effects are found, and the existing effects of commonality and combinability are examined for their validity for personalizability. The findings are then combined with the known effects of commonality and combinability to create a holistic impact model of modular product families. This new model takes personalizable modules into account and can support companies in defining the goals and focus of a modularization project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of a product in the market is largely defined by the quality of design decisions made during the early stages of development. The product design requires designers to balance multiple objectives such as functionality, cost, and user satisfaction, while addressing the challenges posed by increasing product variants and customization demands. To tackle these challenges, one approach is to structure a comprehensive model that incorporates design for assembly (DFA) guidelines during the formulation of product architecture in the conceptual phase of development. While numerous strategies have been proposed in the literature, information is often scattered, making it difficult for readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic. This paper systematically reviews the role and impact of DFA in product development, consolidating and presenting the information coherently. The review provides an overview of the methods developed, along with their potential benefits and limitations. A common framework is identified that defines the structure of the models, helping designers integrate assembly consideration into their design processes, thus reducing assembly time, cost, and complexity. The framework describes the operational setting, including the domain and context in which models operate, and offers a classification of possible methods and desired outputs. Additionally, the review identifies the industry in which case studies have been most frequently presented, and the software used to facilitate the process. By connecting with such a framework, future models can be created following a structured approach, and existing models can be classified and upgraded accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of environmental impacts from the early stages of product and system design is a major challenge. Thus, traditional ecodesign methods are not appropriate because they reason by fixing the functional definition of products/systems and address the complexity of these new systems in a simplistic way, which leads to a marginal reduction of impacts. Moreover, these methods do not consider the attractiveness for users, leading to an optimization oriented towards functional reduction. In this paper, a comprehensive ecodesign approach is presented suggesting a paradigm shift, which involves a hybrid ecodesign approach based on constraint modeling of systems based on the constraint satisfaction problem formalism (CSP) with more traditional environmental assessment methods to decide which design choices to make. This approach was applied to generate and characterize product and life cycle architectures of a serial hybrid vehicle powertrain focusing on the use and end-of-life phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for both quality improvement and design efficiency is required to meet diversifying customer requirements and human resource development. Especially in the case of production approach with customization, such as in industrial equipment, a design method that can appropriately develop product architecture and evaluate the diversity of modules in advance is necessary to suppress customization. Currently, such evaluation is implicit, and technical transferability is also a challenge. This paper proposes a method that combines a bottom-up approach and a top-down approach. In the bottom-up approach, modularization is implemented through the clustering of the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) to restructure the modular structure of existing products. The top-down approach considers variation design strategy by incorporating the diversity of customer requirements into the diversity of modules. A case study of servo motors is demonstrated. It is confirmed that the bottom-up approach is useful for organizing design considerations and generating ideas during new development because the module structure can be visualized. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the variation design strategy derived from the top-down approach is similar to the empirical view in current models. These results show that the proposed method is promising for formalizing tacit knowledge and supporting standardization of the design process to achieve both quality improvement and design efficiency.

Product architecture represented the arrangements and combinations of physical components. It might promote innovation of product diversity, component sharing, and meet customer's personalized needs. Open design might support customers to participate in product development, and open product architecture provided platform strategy for personalized product development. To further study the theory and applications of product architecture, the concept and effect of product architecture were introduced, as well as the characteristics, association and difference between single product architecture, product family architecture and open product architecture were expounded. The evolution processes of product architecture and their internal motivation were analyzed from the aspects of architecture topology, architecture development strategy, architecture organization and management. The concept, connotation, function and mechanism of product architecture were reviewed. The dependence of customers personalized needs, product architecture and enterprise's open innovation strategy were discussed, and then open design strategies of product architecture were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering changes (ECs) are inevitable for businesses due to increasing innovation, shorter lifecycles, technology and process improvements and cost reduction initiatives. The ECs could propagate and cause further changes due to existing system dependencies, which can be challenging. Hence, change management (CM) is a relevant discipline, which aims to reduce the impact of changes. EC assessment methods form the basis of CM that support in assessing system dependencies and the impact of changes. However, understanding of which factors influence the changeability across value chains (VCs) is limited. This research adopted a VC approach to EC assessment. Dependencies in products and processes were captured, followed by risk (i.e. likelihood x impact) assessment of ECs using change prediction method (CPM). Four industrial case studies were conducted (3x automotive, 1x furniture manufacturing) to identify design (product) and manufacturing (process) elements with high risk to be affected by ECs. Based on the case results, characteristics were identified that influence changeability across VC. This contributed to the CM domain while businesses could also use the results to assess ECs across VC, and improve the design of products and processes by increasing their changeability across VC e.g. by proactive decoupling or reactive handling of system dependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by servitization, an increasing number of manufacturing companies are transforming from being a pure product provider to a provider of Product–Service Systems (PSS). PSS offer unique benefits to both providers and customers by combining physical products and intangible services. However, this results in an increase in variety for the provider, which causes an increase in variety-induced complexity and, finally, also in costs. This correlation is proven based on the literature; possible approaches to manage the complexity are presented and the current research gap is addressed. To address the gap, a method for the development of modular architectures for PSS is presented in this paper. The method comprises five phases and supports companies from identifying PSS-based business models up to modularizing product components and service components. To validate this method, it is first applied to the example of a product family of pressure-reducing valves and then its results are discussed afterwards. It is proven that this method is suitable for the development of modular PSS architectures, but there is also a need for further research, which is described in the Conclusions section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complexity management is an increasing challenge for industrial companies. To address this issue, this paper develops a procedure to reduce the complexity of products and processes. This procedure includes five steps: (1) definition of the scope of the products and processes to be included in the analysis, (2) grouping of products into A,B, and C categories, (3) identification and quantification of the most important complexity cost factors, (4) identification of initiatives for the possible reduction of complexity costs and the quantification of possible cost savings, and (5) evaluation and prioritisation of initiatives. To test the usefulness of the suggested procedure, it was applied at a globally leading manufacturer of mechanical consumer products. The case study demonstrated the usefulness of the proposed procedure in (1) supporting the allocation of complexity costs in relation to individual product variants, (2) achieving a better understanding of the cost structure of product assortment and business processes, and (3) providing a basis for generating and evaluating initiatives aimed at reducing the complexity of products and processes. The case study also showed that the use of the procedure can produce considerable financial benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modelling of the functional level of technical systems can be supported by the analysis of machine usage data. By creating an understanding of the actual use of provided functions of offered machine configurations, the definition of module scopes in modular development can be optimized. Characteristics of specific machine usage can be assigned to physical elements using model-based systems engineering. Analyses on a purely functional system level can thus be placed in context with each other via the connection to physical elements. Consequently, critical elements in the system design can be systematically uncovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the climate crisis an urgent need for solutions to reduce the human impact on the global ecosystem is indispensable. The mobility sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and the demand for sustainable mobility systems is rising rapidly. While battery electric passenger cars are rising in popularity, the application of zero-emission technology in other means of transport is not common yet. This is based on still existing physical limits, but also on the high complexity of rethinking such systems, taking their individuality into account, and creating solutions that can be quickly adapted and widely used. A common approach to solve this conflict is modularisation. Widespread methods to modularise products based on the functional architecture cannot successfully be used for complex mechatronic systems such as ships. During the development of a customized method for the modular design of a ship it became obvious, that the requirement definition of not only one ship but a complete ship class is a major challenge. This paper therefore presents a three-step procedure which analyses the customer needs and specifies the requirements as first phase of an overlaying method for designing a modular ferry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product systems no longer consist merely of discrete components that can be designed and developed independently. Instead, the product systems take on an increasingly complex shape, reflected in product architecture development. Various stakeholders in this product architecture must collaborate across life phases and disciplines to an increasing extent. To support the exchange in multi-disciplinary product systems in the context of modularization, the visualization tool of the "Module Harmonization Chart (MHC)" is presented in this paper. The "MHC" enables the representation of components in a multi-disciplinary system, thus supporting cross-disciplinary collaboration in developing an integrated modular design. Aspects such as discipline-specific module drivers and targeted sub-system segments can be used to address a holistic module design and improve overall system integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenges in variety management of modular product families is to prevent continuously generated variants of design elements. This paper aims to provide guidance on how manufacturing companies can reduce a large number of variants that have already increased from the existing product architectures. This paper introduces a new concept of architecture named variation architecture (VA) in which relationships between variants in the market, design, and production domains are arranged explicitly for planning variety of a modular product family. Since the VA includes two perspectives which are domain mapping and variant-level planning, it can help companies to systematically establish complex relationships between variants across the domains. This paper describes elements of the three domains, relationship types between elements, and four categories of relationship rules called management rules at the variant-level planning. A framework is proposed for reducing variants through the VA to demonstrate its applicability. In the case study, we apply the framework to a front chassis family having a large number of variants and show that the VA significantly reduces unnecessary variants compared to the currently being produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trend toward modularization, which has been evident in electronic products since the 1990s, is usually seen as a form of architectural innovation. However, the relationship between technology and the customer/market has been characterized by disruptive innovation wherein 1) the level of technology and the value of the product have been downgraded, and consequently, 2) conventional legitimacy has become invalid. Accordingly, although the current leading Japanese companies have not been negligent in their innovation, they have lost their share of the market to new products born from modularization, which had initially been thought of like toys.

Any novelty in product architecture design will condition key aspects of production systems and production networks and will involve facing different challenges when implemented. Through a longitudinal case study (2013–2020) in the European production networks of three automobile manufacturers, this paper analyses the implementation process for their new modular platforms. The results show that production network performance is not derived from product design per se. It is mainly conditioned by the production network structure and strategic roles assigned to plants in the implementation process. Networks resulting from the implementation of the new modular architecture are characterized by their geographical dispersion and high number of alternative plants for production, which allow greater operational flexibility to transfer and share manufacturing resources internationally. The implementation of automobile modular platforms has been characterized by a shareable production system, the same value-added activities distribution in the production network and the assignment of a strategic role to some plants as production hubs for specific models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modularity literature proposes the 'mirroring hypothesis': firms achieve better product development performance when their organisational design and scope of knowledge at the firm level correspond to product architecture. For component firms, it is difficult to adapt architectural change from the modular phase to the integration phase because they specialise in a limited component area. Recent studies have suggested that 'partial mirroring' or 'misting' can be efficient for coping with a change in product architecture, proposing that firms should hold broader knowledge boundaries beyond their firm's boundaries. However, the R&D organisational structure that enables component firms to acquire a broad knowledge base that extends beyond their component business is unclear. We conducted a case analysis of the hard disk drive industry, investigating the R&D activities of single-component firms that have survived architectural change. We used patent data focusing on three levels of analysis: organisation, group, and individual. The results showed that partial mirroring in component firms can be realised based on boundary spanning structures in R&D organisations. Integrating engineers occupy a central position in the collaboration network and coordinate component knowledge based on their understanding of technology that had a common foundation among components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]