Architecture of Product Family: Fundamentals and Methodology

TLDR

Product families are pursued to meet diverse customer needs at reasonable cost through mass customization, yet prior work has largely focused on isolated empirical studies with limited theoretical grounding. This paper investigates the fundamental issues underlying product family development. The authors introduce the Architecture of Product Family (APF) as a conceptual structure comprising common bases, differentiation enablers, and configuration mechanisms, and propose a Generic Product Structure (GPS) to support design and variety generation in modular and configure‑to‑order contexts. A case study of an industrial example demonstrates the feasibility and potential of the proposed methodology.

Abstract

The rationale of developing product families with respect to satisfying diverse customer needs with reasonable costs, i.e., mass customization, has been well recognized in both industry and academia. Earlier research often highlights isolated and successful empirical studies with limited attempt to explore the theoretical foundations surrounding this economically important class of engineering design problem. This paper investigates the fundamental issues underlying product family development. The concept of Architecture of Product Family (APF) is introduced as a conceptual structure and overall logical organization of generating a family of products. APF constructs, including common bases, differentiation enablers, and configuration mechanisms, are discussed from both sales and engineering perspectives. Also discussed are variety generation methods with regard to producing custom products based on the modular product architecture and configure-to-order product development. To support APF-based product family design, a Generic Product Structure (GPS) is proposed as the platform for tailoring products to individual customer needs and generating product variants. A case study of an industrial example is also presented to illustrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed methodology.