Methodology Of Product Modular Design For Adaptability And Its Implementation

Adaptable design (AD) is a new design methodology based on product life-cycle, and takes the adaptability that can meet various and changeable requirements as an important evaluation criterion. It aims to provide customer flexible, customizable, reusable, extensible and versatile product with a low price, which can satisfy potential requirements through simple replacement of parts. This dissertation focuses on how to improve the adaptability of product with modularization. Base on the hierarchical mapping between the design domains of axiomatic design method, analyses of customer requirements are first performed, design structure matrix is introduced as analytical tool, and modular and adaptable product architecture is researched from bottom to up design parameters with advanced and reasonable optimization algorithm in order to develop new product with high adaptability.Firstly, the state quo of researching on the methodologies of modular design and adaptable design and other relative field is summarized and the connotation. Further on, the relationship of AD and modular design is expatiated.Secondly, several new methods addressing how to design modular product architecture for adaptability are proposed with design domains of axiomatic design as leading clue, including:(1) In view of the problem of that the current evaluation method for adaptability cannot provide effective feedback to product redesign, the corresponding degree of functional requirements and design parameters is analyzed based on axiomatic design and independent matrix of functional modules from parameter and module hierarchy respectively. The adaptability of interfaces and the performance of adaptive requirements are estimated with three criteria and Kano requirement model respectively, and bookbinding machine is selected as an illustration. The results show that the method can not only evaluate the adaptability of product according to architecture, but also reflect the shortcomings in the design and provide valuable reference for redesign.(2) Because most current modularization methods address the problem with unilateral consideration and lack of generality, the design matrix is transformed into design structure matrix of the design parameters utilizing total differential calculation, and correlation matrices of design parameters about function, process and structure are established based on design matrices. The similarity matrix of design parameters about process variable in process domain is also constructed with the consideration of the manufacturing efficiency. At last, genetic algorithm combined with the minimal description length is employed to solve the modularization optimization problem. The modularization illustration of the bookbinding shows that the proposed method is more comprehensive and clear, and the designer can set different weights to each interaction relationship and get reasonable result with quantification means.(3)In order to solve the coupling problem in the modularization process, the quantified design structure matrix of design parameters is obtained based on axiomatic design. Subsequently, work transform matrix model is established to judge whether the design is convergent and identify key coupled parameters that cause design iterations mostly. An illustrative example of the cutting set of bookbinding machine shows that the presented method can judge the given design convergent or not, and identify the key coupled parameters and design modes that mostly lead to long development cycle.(4) Because the two existing product platform design methods both have the disadvantage of limited customization ability, the concept of adaptable platform is presented, and the composing and character also are analyzed. In order to provide reasonable reference for the identification of components of adaptable platform, customer requirements are quantified and clustered with the combination of grey relational analysis and fuzzy clustering. The mathematic condition model for design parameters to be common platform parameters is deduced based on axiomatic design, and sensitivity design structure matrix is adopted to distinguish common platform parameters and customization parameters. The layout illustration of bookbinding machine shows that the presented method can make up the shortcomings of current platform design methods, and can improve the customization ability and adaptability transversely and longitudinally.Then, the support system of MDSA is developed. The system architecture and functional modules are introduced, followed on with the presentation of some main implementation interfaces.Finally, a conclusion is drawn and the trend on AD is anticipated.