A Design Method for Product Family under Manufacturing Resource Constraints

Product variety is required for satisfying customer needs, and at the same time, efficient usage of manufacturing resources is mandatory for competitive and environmentally conscious manufacturing. For coping with these requirements, product family concept is effective, which enables variety of products based on well designed similar product property with associated manufacturing processes. In this study, a modeling framework for relationship between product functionality and manufacturing resources is discussed. Based on this framework, a design method is investigated for product family structure which realizes required product functional variety with efficient utilization of manufacturing resources. Application examples are discussed for automotive components.