Functionality-Based Modular Design for Mechanical Product Customization Over the Internet

Abstract

There is now greater demand for product customization. For large-scale mechanical product customization, there is great need to develop new methods that will ensure shorter design cycle, shorter time to market, reduced life cycle cost, and higher product quality. The emergence of the Internet makes mass customization possible. It is essential that tools that will support customer participation in product design and realization be developed. The critical tool is an easy-to-use Computer-Aided Design (CAD) system over the Internet where customers' preferences can be captured by functionality-based formalism. A new conceptual design methodology, functionality-based modular design, is presented in this article with the capability of high flexibility and speed, which supports mechanical product customization. A model is developed for modularization to accommodate different system behavior requirements from users of CAD. An XML-compatible language, PML, which has good properties of interoperability, scalability, and extensibility, is employed for product representation. This modular conceptual design approach is implemented in a new design platform.

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