The Product Platform Constructal Theory Method

Information

Grant:

• NSF Grant DMI-0085316

Principal Investigators:

• Dr. Farrokh Mistree
• Dr. Janet Allen

Students:

• Rakesh Kulkarni (MS, 2005)
• Michael Carone (MS, 2003)
• Christopher Williams (MS, 2003)
• Gabriel Hernandez (PhD, 2002)

Research Description

The objective of our research is to develop formal, mathematically correct, and rigorous principles based on constructal theory and an associated methodology for designing product architectures that facilitates the production of customized products.  The proposed principles and the associated methodology provide manufacturing firms an efficient (through a rigorous and systematic methodology) and effective (through utilization of valid fundamental principles) foundation for realizing customized products, thus enhancing the responsiveness of manufacturing organizations to changes in the market or demands for customization.  Our research is focused by the following question: How can we empower a designer to systematically design product platforms that facilitate the production of customized products using multiple approaches for managing product variety?

As a result of this research, we have developed the Product Platform Constructal Theory Method (PPCTM, shown above).  The PPCTM is a novel top-down approach for developing product platforms that facilitates the realization of a stream of customized product variants, and which accomodates the issue of multiple levels of commonality and multiple customizable specifications. As a result of the PPCTM's theoretical foundations in both hierarchical systems theory and constructal theory, the design of platforms for customizable products is represented as a problem of access in a geometric space.  The result of the use of the PPCTM is a hierarchical organization of several approaches of commonality, as well as the specification of their range of application across the product platform.  Since its initial conception, the PPCTM has undergone several augmentations to provide a designer the ability to handle multiple design objectives, markets of non-uniform demand, as well as the ability to design robust product platforms and families of production processes.

Some key benefits that the PPCTM has over currently existing product platform design techniques include:

• Synthesizes multiple modes of managing product variety (modularity, dimension customization, etc.)
• Inherently handles the tradeoff between product platform extent and product performance (in the presence of multiple design objectives)
• Relates the manufacturing process to the design of the product platform
• Relates the product demand to the design of the product platform and is able to handle the volatile nature of the market
• Can be use to concurrently design the product and its production process.

The PPCTM has been validated through several example problems, including the development of a product family of customizable pressure vessels and beverage merchandisers, as well as the development of a production process platform for the manufacture of a line of customizable hearing aid shells. An overview of our research can be found in slide format here.

Publications

Dissertations

• Hernandez, G., 2001, “Platform Design for Customizable Products as a Problem of Access in Geometric Space, Ph.D. Dissertation, G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering,” Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.

Theses

• Kulkarni, R., 2005, "Infusion of Robustness into the Product Platform Constructal Theory Method," M.S. Thesis, G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
• Williams, C.B., 2003, “Platform Design for Customizable Products and Processes with Non-Uniform Demand,” M.S. Thesis, G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. [thesis] [presentation]
• Carone, M.l, 2003, “Augmenting the Product Platform Constructal Theory Method for Multiple Objectives,” M.S. Thesis, G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.

Book Chapters

• Williams, C. B., Allen, J. K., Rosen, D. W., Mistree, F., 2005, "Process Parameter Platform Design to Manage Workstation Capacity," Product Platform and Product Family Design: Methods and Applications, Eds.: Simpson, T., Siddique, Z., Jiao, J., Springer, New York, pp. 421-456. [paper]

Journal Papers

• Williams, C. B., Allen, J. K., Rosen, D. W., Mistree, F., 2006, "Designing Platforms for Customizable Products and Processes in Markets of Non-Uniform Demand," Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications - Special Issue on Managing Modularity and Commonality in Product and Process Development. (in press).
• Hernandez, G., Allen, J. K., Mistree, F., 2006, "A Theory and Method for Combining Multiple Approaches for Product Customization," The International Journal of Mass Customization, Vol. 1, No. 2/3, pp. 315-339.
  
• Hernandez, G., Allen, J. K., Mistree, F., 2003, “Design of Platforms for Customizable Products as a Problem of Access in a Geometric Space,” Engineering Optimization, Vol. 35, Iss. 3, pp. 229-254.

Conference Papers

• Kulkarni, R. S., Allen, J. K., Mistree, F., 2005, “Designing Product Families for a Changing Market Space,” 31^st ASME Design Automation Conference, Long Beach, CA. Paper Number: DETC2005/DAC-85164.
• Williams, C. B., Allen, J. K., Rosen, D. W., Mistree, F., 2004, “Designing Platforms for Customizable Products in Markets with Non-Uniform Demand,” 16^th ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference, Salt Lake City, UT. Paper Number: DETC2004/DTM-57469. [paper] [presentation]
• Carone, M. J., Williams, C. B., Allen, J. K., Mistree, F., 2003, “An Application of Constructal Theory in the Multi-Objective Design of Product Platforms,” Proceedings of the 15^th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, ASME, Chicago, Illinois, DETC2003/DTM-48667. [paper] [presentation]
• Hernandez, G., 2003, “A Theory and Method for Combining Multiple Approaches for Product Customization,” Second Interdisciplinary Congress on Mass Customization and Personalization, Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany.
• Hernandez, G., Allen, J. K., Mistree, F., 2002, “Design of Hierarchic Platforms for Customizable Products,” Proceedings of the 2002 ASME Design Automation Conference, Montreal, DETC2002/DAC-34095.

Reports

• Williams, C.B., Kulkarni, Rakesh, Allen, J. K., Mistree, F., 2004, “Engineering Open Product Architectures: A Constructal Approach,” The 2004 NSF Design, Service, and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference, January 7, Dallas, Texas. [presentation]
• Williams, C.B., Carone, M.J., Allen, J.K., Mistree F., 2003, “Engineering Open Product Architectures: A Constructal Approach,” The 2003 NSF Design, Service, and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference, January 8, Birmingham, Alabama. [presentation]
• Williams, C. B., Allen, J.K., Mistree, F., 2002, “Platform Design for Customizable Products as a Problem of Access in Geometric Space,” The 2002 NSF Design, Service, and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference, January 9, Puerto Rico. [presentation]