Key Technologies Of Product Configuration Implementation Based On Requirement Modeling And Its Application In Elevator

Mass Customization (MC) has been used more and more widely in the manufacturing industry, and the product configuration implementation is very important to the realization of mass customization. Being combined with the actual projects, some of the key techniques about the product configuration implementation were studied in this paper, such as the technique of customer requirement modeling and mapping for configuration design, the technique of configuration design based on back propagation neural network (BPNN) and case-based reasoning (CBR), and collaborative product configuration design with customers'participation. According to the theories and methods presented in this dissertation, a collaborative product cofiguration design system is developed. The system is applied successfully in the configuration design of elevators, and good results are achieved.The frame of this dissertation is as follows:In chapter 1, the problems that exist in product configuration implementation are analyzed. The existing modeling methods for customer requirements are summized. The concept and main methods of product configuration design are discussed, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method for product configuration design are analyzed at the same time. The concept and the basic features of networked collaborative design are discussed, and then the research status of the application of the networked collaborative design in the area of product customization is discussed, and the shortages of research status of the application are proposed. Finally, the research backgrounds, main contents and structure of this dissertation are given out.In chapter 2, aiming at the problem of configuration design requirement elicitation for product configuration design, study on the customer requirement modeling and mapping for configuration design is carried out. Firstly, the customer requirement unit, which is the formal description of customer requirements, is introduced. The method for customer requirement unit decomposition is described. And the method for building the customer requirements model based on topology is discussed. And then, the feasibility of the QFD method being successfully used on the mapping of the customer requirements is analyzed. And the HOQ for the mapping from the customer requirements to the configuration design requirements is constructed. Finally, the passenger elevator is taken as an example to illustrate the whole process of customer requirement modeling and mapping.In chapter 3, aiming at the subjectivity and randomness existing in the available product configuration design methods that based on case-based reasoning, a new method for product configuation design, which is based on CBR and BPNN, is proposed. Firstly, the product configuration unit (PCU) is defined, and then the product configuration template (PCT) is established according to the recurrence relation between the PCUs. Secondly, the method based on BPNN for obtaining the similarity matching weights of PCU is put forward. For several types of similarity matching, the calculation formulas for the similarity between the requirement feature value and the corresponding value of the instances are given. And then the process of configuration design based on CBR and BPNN is presented. Finally, the elevator is taken as an example to analyze the application of the configuration design method that based on CBR and BPNN.In chapter 4, under the environment of mass customization, the method of collaborative product configuration design, in which the customers are involved, is employed to complete the work of product configuration design that based on the premise that the customer requirements are acquired with accuracy. Firstly, the strategy of customer's participation in the collaborative product configuration design is illustrated, and then the operation mode of the collaborative product configuration design is presented. Secondly, the steps of collaborative product configuration design are characterized. Finally, a platform for the implementation of the collaborative product configuration design is established.In chapter 5, according to the theories and methods discussed above, a collaborative product configuration design management system is developed for an enterprise project, the system consists of two subsystems, one is the collaborative interaction management system for product configuration design, the other is the product configuration design management system. A simple introduction of the project isgiven at first, then the architecture of the collaborative product configuration design management system is given out, and then the two subsystems are introduced in detail respectively. The application and implementation of the collaborative product configuration design in elevator configuration design have proved the effectiveness and practicability of the theories and methods proposed.In chapter 6, conclusions are given along with recommendations for future research.