Chapter 1: Early Stage Issues

Title: A Framework for an Intelligent Design-support System Based on Product Lifecycle Data

Author(s): B. Song, X. Li, W.K. Ng

Address: Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, 71 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 638075 | Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, 71 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 638075 | School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Block N4 Level B3C No. 14, Singapore

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2006 pp. 251 - 263

Abstract/Summary: Over-capacity of mass-produced products leads to "cut-throat" competition in the marketplace. Customer-driven Mass-customized Product Development (CMPD) has emerged as a crucial capability for product manufacturers to gain a competitive advantage. The core of CMPD is the ability to create or change a product design fast and right-the-first-time according to customer requirements. The criteria for "right-the-first-time" decisions must be optimized over the product's lifecycle processes. This paper proposes a framework for an Intelligent Design-Support System (IDSS) as an enabling technology for CMPD. The IDSS is to take advantage of integrated product lifecycle data from a PLM system and dynamically update a product knowledgebase through intelligent self-learning algorithms as product lifecycle data for a new product is created. When a set of customer requirements is given, IDSS is to derive a set of design configurations that can satisfy the requirements. An optimal design configuration is selected through optimization of design configurations with respect to the required cost and time-to-market.

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