Managing design processes of product families by modularization and simulation

Abstract

Managing multiple design projects of product family design necessitates exploitation of commonalities among various variant projects to achieve reduced time and cost. It is important to establish a design process architecture that captures the relevant design process information and to model the design process so as to integrate the logic of design process planning. This chapter describes a design process modularization approach to establish the design process architecture and an integrated modeling and simulation method based on Petri nets (PNs). This framework adopts a generic variety structure of representing diverse variant design processes. A modular design project planning architecture is structured by identifying design process modules using a fuzzy clustering approach. Based on the modular design process, a timed colored Petri net model is formulated to integrate the planning logic of design process configuration, while evaluating design project performance through simulation. Application of the proposed framework in a car dashboard product family design demonstrates promising results of design process management based on modularization and PN simulation.