Considering the Relationship between Variations of Products and the Design of Specifications

Abstract

　When designing a variety of products, it is necessary to design product specifications to match the customer’s desired usage of the product. This paper defines “use and its conditions” and explains its fundamental significance in systematically organizing product and item groups. First, previous studies are examined, especially concerning problems of BOM (bill of materials) and the problems regarding the design of a product’s specifications are discussed. Next, this paper defines “use and its conditions” for designing variations of products and then proposes design guidelines and procedures for using “use and its conditions”. Furthermore, the application of these guidelines and procedures to real cases and examples of visualizing product structures using FBOM (Fundamental Bill of Manufacturing) are discussed. Finally, the adoption of an improvisational approach to manufacturing management and the usefulness of this proposed method are explained.