Platform-Based Product Design and Development: Knowledge Support Strategy and Implementation

This chapter presents a knowledge intensive support paradigm for platform-based product family design and development. The background and current research status related to platform-based product development and product family design is first reviewed. Then, the fundamental issues underlying the product family design are discussed. A module-based integrated product family design scheme is proposed with knowledge support for customer requirements modeling, product architecture modeling, product platform establishment, product family generation, and product assessment. A systematic methodology and the relevant technologies are investigated and developed for knowledge modeling and support in the product family design process. An information and knowledge-modeling framework is developed for the module-based product family design scheme. The issues and requirements related to develop knowledge intensive support system for module-based product family design are also addressed.