A Descriptive Method for Designing the Combination of Product Variations

Abstract

When designing the variations of a product, it is necessary to make products by describing appropriate design variations and share correct information between various parties. If a common rule for descriptions is established, it contributes to the appropriate design of a product variations by understanding the number of products based on the combination of variations, or a part of the complex combination of variations. This paper proposes a description method for product variations, in order to improve design variations and compiling the manufacturing bill of materials. This method avoids too many combinations, the expansion of configuration data, and the reconstruction of that data. The proposed method is applied to some actual cases, and examined as to whether or not it is able to appropriately describe product variations. Additionally, the method is evaluated and its usefulness is shown through interviews with specialists and the performance of applied examples.