Technical paper
Optimal adaptable design for creating the changeable product based on changeable requirements considering the whole product life-cycle

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2011.04.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Compared with the traditional design to create multiple products for satisfying different requirements in different life-cycle time periods, adaptable design aims at creating a single product to satisfy these different requirements through adaptation of this product in its different life-cycle time periods. In this research, a method to identify the optimal adaptable product based on changeable requirements is introduced. The changeable requirements are described as functions of the life-cycle time parameter. The adaptable product, modeled by its configurations and parameters, is changed in different life-cycle time periods to satisfy the changeable requirements. An adaptable product is evaluated considering different time periods in its whole life-cycle. Among all possible design candidates, the optimal design is identified through optimization. A case study is conducted to show the effectiveness of the introduced method.

Introduction

With the advances of design and manufacturing technologies, more products with good quality and low costs are produced to satisfy the requirements of customers. The advances of these technologies, however, result in excessive wastes at the ends of the life-cycles of these products. To solve this problem, a new design approach, called adaptable design, was introduced by Gu et al. [1] to create a single adaptable product to replace the multiple products. Different from the traditional products whose expected functions are specified before the design process and these functions are maintained through services and repairs in the stage of product utilization, functions of the adaptable products in their life-cycles can be improved or changed through adaptation activities such as upgrading and reconfiguration.

Since the introduction of this concept, many methods and applications have been developed to implement adaptable design. Sand and Gu [2] developed modularization and upgrade planning methods for adaptable design and implemented a system called AdaptEx based on the introduced methods. Xu et al. [3] employed adaptable design method in the design of gantry-type CNC machines. Shao et al. [4] used the adaptable design method in the design of a product family. Li et al. [5] introduced a guideline for achieving product adaptability through the adaptable design process. Li et al. [6] also developed a method to evaluate the specific product adaptability by considering three types of product adaptation tasks: extendibility of functions, upgradeability of modules and customizability of components. Fletcher et al. [7] developed a method to measure general product adaptability by comparing the actual structure of the product with its ideal structure that can be easily changed. A comprehensive review on the concepts, methods and applications of adaptable design is provided in [8].

Some design methodologies developed prior to the introduction of adaptable design concept can also be used to partially achieve the goals of adaptable design. For example, reconfigurable design approach was introduced to create a reconfigurable machine to achieve the functions of several machines by reconfiguration of the components of this machine [9]. The modular design [10], [11], product platform design [12], [13], [14], product family/portfolio design methods [14], [15], [16], and the mass customization design methods [17], [18], [19], [20] can be used to improve structures of the products, so these products can be easily changed for achieving different functions. Reconfigurable design aims at replacing multiple products with a single one to reduce the product cost. The changes of requirements, product structures and product parameters in the product life-cycle, such as extension of additional functions and upgrade of modules in later stages of the product utilization, are not considered in reconfigurable design. Modular design, product platform design, product family/portfolio design, and mass customization design aims at reducing the manufacturing efforts while providing large variety of products to better satisfy customer requirements. The designed products using modular, product platform, product family/portfolio, and mass customization design methods are usually not adaptable.

Despite the progress, the presently developed adaptable design methods primarily focus on the improvement of product structures to reduce the effort of adaptation tasks. Since the objective of adaptable design is to create a product that can be adapted in different time periods of its life-cycle, study on the creation of an adaptable product considering the changes of design requirements in the whole product life-cycle is needed.

In this research, a new method to identify the optimal adaptable product considering changes of design requirements, configurations and parameters in the whole product life-cycle is introduced. In this method, the design requirements are defined as functions of a life-cycle time parameter. Design configurations, parameters, and evaluation measures are also changed in different life-cycle periods to achieve these requirements. Optimization is employed to identify the optimal product considering the whole product life-cycle.

Section snippets

An optimal adaptable design model

Adaptable design is a new design approach to create a design or a product that can be easily adapted to satisfy the changed customer requirements [1]. In adaptable design, both design adaptability and product adaptability need to be considered. Design adaptability is the capability of an existing design to be adapted to create a modified design based on the changed requirements. Product adaptability is the capability of a physical product to be adapted to satisfy the changed requirements.

Modeling of life-cycle time parameter T

The life-cycle time of a product from its birth to its death is modeled by a parameter T whose value is changed between Tmin and Tmax representing the time at product purchase and the time at product disposal/recycle, respectively.

The life-cycle time T can be assigned with different types of values.

  • Continuous T

  • For example, the time that a battery used in a vehicle can be described by T[0,5] (year).

  • Discrete T

  • For example, the time that a battery of a vehicle needs to be checked can be described

Modeling of design candidates

A design candidate is modeled by design configurations and design parameters considering the product life-cycle span TminTTmax. At each life-cycle time point T, the design candidate is described by a design configuration whose design parameters are assigned with specific values. The life-cycle time T is the only variable for modeling a design candidate. At different life-cycle time points, the design configurations and parameter values could be different.

Many design candidates can be created

A case study and discussions on possible engineering applications

A case study example is provided in this section to demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly developed adaptable design method. Possible applications in different engineering disciplines are also discussed in this section.

Conclusions

A method to identify the optimal adaptable product considering changes of requirements, configurations and parameters in the whole product life-cycle is introduced in this research. In this optimal adaptable design model, the requirements are defined as functions of a newly introduced life-cycle time parameter. Design configurations, parameters, and evaluation measures are also changed in different life-cycle time periods to satisfy these different requirements. Optimization is employed to

Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada through its Discovery Grant, the China Scholarship Council, the Special Research Fund from the North China Electric Power University, and the Guangdong Province Science Foundation through its Innovation Team Grant (58351503101000001).

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    An earlier version of this paper was published in the Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2010.

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