Description & planning of configurable product family model oriented to mass customization

Methods of describing and planning the Configurable Product Family Model(CPFM) were proposed.The structure and configurable features of product family were described based on Extended Entity Relationship(EER) language.Then different types of individualized modules,and the use of configurable attributes in the product configuration design process were analyzed.To support a high efficient configuration process,and keep the maximum commonness in the product family,the general principles of module planning and the method of configurable attributes planning in CPFM were presented.A case study on the worm gear reducer was used to illustrate the major steps to build CPFM as well as its advantages.