A proposal of method for module commonization in product family (Application of diversity analysis method to servo motors and verification of its effectiveness)

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• product family design
• product variety design
• modular design
• product architecture
• design engineering
• design structure matrix