Abstract
In this research, a product family design concept is addressed from the product conceptual stage. For this reason, a product family design system and method is proposed to serve as a tool to represent entire product functions．The product family design method is to improve the efficiency of development and production while responding to diversifying market needs．The existing major components are shared and their combinations are considered. n this way, it is possible to respond to various needs with a lump-sum design by both reducing the number of parts and increasing the variety of products．In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method，a model lineup is generated and its performance is evaluated by the product family design system based on customer requirements for an autonomous exterior wall repairing device. In this paper, detailed structures of the design system are presented and its performance is compared with that of the conventional design results. As a result, the proposed product family design system contributes to achieve the performance to cover a wide range of customer requirements and reduce the number of component types compared with the conventional design.
