engleski

Information model for configuration of modular products

The necessity for products adapted to the individual customer demands is more and more present in the current conditions of market globalization. The numerous differences in the customer demands force companies to offer a wider spectrum of product variants in order to be competitive on the market. However, this growth does not generate a larger profit because numerous variants implicate higher fixed costs (i.e. manufacture, installation, service, etc). Modular product architecture promises the advantages of high volume production while at the same time, being able to produce a high variety of products that are customized for individual customers. This paper presents the informational model for configuration product variants of modular architecture in relation with customer requirements and configuration knowledge. In the proposed model several modeling structures could be recognized: Requirement model, Property model, Product class model, Association model, Instance model and Product variant model. Requirement information model describes the list of the customer requirements where requirements are classified by the product characteristics and product structure. Property information model describes the module attributes and their characteristics. The characteristics of the module attributes are: attribute description, attribute value and attribute unit. Product class information model describes the generic modules from which product variants consist. Every product variant could contain three classes of generic modules. Those are: working generic modules, auxiliary generic modules and secondary generic modules. Working generic modules are defined for each variant of a particular modular product. Auxiliary generic modules are modules, which are not consisting in every product variant, only in those where customer requirements demand it. Secondary generic modules are modules, which exist in the product variant if the auxiliary modules need some additional modules to fulfill the customer requirements. Association information model describes the classes of modules. The variant of the modular product is build up from the instances of the particular generic modules. Further diversification of the generic modules into module instances enables definition of each module variant by the customer requirements. A generic module can contain many instances, therefore Instance information model describes all instances of the particular generic modules. Additionally the Instance information model describes the compatibility constraints of the instances of different modules and specifies the rules for logical inferences. The structure of particular product variant is described by Product variant model. The information models are developed according to the STEP standard 10303-214. The entities of the information models are representing using the EXPRESS-G notation.

Configuration; product variants; product family; modular products; STEP

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