A Systematic Approach to Coupling Disposal of Product Family Design (Part 1): Methodology

In this paper, on the basis of comparison and analysis on the similarities and differences of design coupling between product family and single product, a systematic approach to coupling disposal of product family design is proposed, and coupling disposal flow of two level including strategy level and operation level is given. From strategy level of platform plan, axiomatic design theory is utilized as framework to analyze and classify functional requirements, design parameters are mapped with “zigzagging” mode, and platform parameters are identified. In the view of platform operation level, design structure matrix (DSM) converted by design matrix DSM are clustered and grouped into modules, and coupling correlation matrix of product family design is established, which can realize high cohesion degree in a single module and low coupling degree among all the modules. Then, from the coupling inside platform modules, inside customization modules, and among design parameters with different modules, the corresponding decoupling methods of product family design are presented, and the methods architecture of to coupling disposal of product family design is established.