Affiliations: Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Abstract: The manufacturing industry is one of the major driving forces for
economic success for all industrialized nations. As new technologies are
rapidly evolving, the world economy has been undergoing some major changes. The
impact of these changes on product manufacturing industry includes more
globalized competition, shorter market life cycles, more stringent
environmental regulations, more educated customers and so forth. Therefore,
products must meet various requirements such as shorter delivery time,
customization, environment-friendly, in addition to the traditional
requirements of functionality, cost and quality. These requirements cannot be
met by simply using more advanced manufacturing technologies only.
Manufacturers must produce products according to design. More than 75% of the
total product costs as well as all product features are determined at the
design stage. Therefore, significant improvement on product quality, features,
costs and other life cycle performance can be achieved by improving design.
This paper reports a new design method, namely adaptable design, to address
those conflict requirements. An adaptable design method has been developed,
consisting of four main phases: product modelling, platform design, bus system
design and design evaluation and re-design. Examples are provided to illustrate
the adaptable design and interface systems. In addition, a review of recent
developments in design research is provided. Future research directions and
possible topics for research are also discussed for both fundamental as well as
applied work in engineering design.
Keywords: product design, adaptable design, flexible interfaces, mechanical buses, design theory and methodology, life cycle engineering
