Frameworks for product family design and development
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2007
Abstract
In today's market, products must meet or exceed customers' needs while being competitively priced and developed in the shortest time possible. While product platforms address many of these requirements, they can incur additional development challenges with regards to coordination, time, and cost. Companies therefore need to use a concurrent engineering process to develop product families and product platforms efficiently; however, no concurrent engineering process models exist to support product family development. Based on concurrent engineering principles, four processes are proposed for systematic product family design using two platforming approaches - top-down and bottom-up - and two development drivers: product-driven and platform-driven. The first objective of this study is to propose a consistent product family development process terminology. The second objective is to detail representative frameworks and processes for the four proposed product family design processes based on the two approaches and two drivers. Several industry examples highlight the context and illustrate the four proposed processes. © Sage Publications.
Publication Title
Concurrent Engineering Research and Applications
Recommended Citation
Alizon, F.,
Khadke, K.,
Thevenot, H.,
Gershenson, J.,
Marion, T.,
Shooter, S.,
&
Simpson, T.
(2007).
Frameworks for product family design and development.
Concurrent Engineering Research and Applications,
15(2), 187-199.
http://doi.org/10.1177/1063293X07079326
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/12900