Design project management involves sophisticated task planning that needs to streamline a number of design activities while properly allocating resources associated with these activities. In the field of product family design, there is a lack of comprehensive modeling and analysis formalisms for design project management. In this respect, this paper proposes a modular design project approach to support design project modeling and planning for product families. Design activities are identified as project modules according to the activity sequences, along with the players and resources involved in each activity. A generic variety structure is introduced to characterize the differentiation of design activities among various project variants of the family. Based on the identified modules of activities, design project planning is formulated as a project reconfiguration problem, for which genetic algorithms are employed for configuration evaluation. A case study of truck cab family design in an automobile company demonstrates that design project modularization enhances the coordination of multiple design projects of product families and contributes to the achievement of economy of scale through reusing proven elements.
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e-mail: qlxu@ntu.edu.sg
e-mail: roger.jiao@me.gatech.edu
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July 2009
Research Papers
Design Project Modularization for Product Families
Qianli Xu,
Qianli Xu
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
e-mail: qlxu@ntu.edu.sg
Nanyang Technological University
, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore, 639798
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Jianxin Roger Jiao
Jianxin Roger Jiao
G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: roger.jiao@me.gatech.edu
Georgia Institute of Technology
, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405
Search for other works by this author on:
Qianli Xu
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University
, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore, 639798e-mail: qlxu@ntu.edu.sg
Jianxin Roger Jiao
G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405e-mail: roger.jiao@me.gatech.edu
J. Mech. Des. Jul 2009, 131(7): 071007 (10 pages)
Published Online: June 24, 2009
Article history
Revised:
March 26, 2009
Published:
June 24, 2009
Citation
Xu, Q., and Jiao, J. R. (June 24, 2009). "Design Project Modularization for Product Families." ASME. J. Mech. Des. July 2009; 131(7): 071007. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3149844
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