Axiomatic design — design method for product structure

Abstract：With the rapid development of science and technology， the needs of the market and customers are constantly changing， and the development of new products faces great challenges. The corresponding enterprises have put forward higher requirements for the development of product structure. Through the research on Axiomatic design （AD）， this paper expounds the possibility of axiomatic design applied to product structure design. The feasibility of this method are proved by analyzing and discussing the research status at home and abroad. It provides a reference for the construction of theoretical system of product structure design.

Key words：new product； product structure； Axiomatic design；design method

1 Product structure design

In the traditional product innovation design process， the structural design of the product is often not the designers priority in the early stage of design， which makes the structure and function conflict in the middle and later stages of the design process. The advantages and disadvantages of structural design have great significance in meeting the functional requirements of the product， ensuring the reliability of the product and reducing the cost of the product. The research results of modern design methodology show that there are also many design methods in the field of industrial design to guide the effective development of design activities. Mass production practice proves that axiomatic design theory is effective in dealing with practical problems of engineering design， especially the structure of complex products. Design and development can help designers sort out ideas， avoid design errors， and improve product structure design quality.

2 The concept of axiom design

The axiomatic design was officially proposed by Prof. Nam P Suh of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990. It is a design theory and scientific norm that has been summarized and practiced for many years. Its purpose is to build a scientific foundation for design， change experience-based and subjective design into axiom-based design. It not only enables designers to clarify design goals at the beginning of design， but also provides evaluation basis for decision making， helps designers make correct decisions. This method is suitable for many different kinds of systems，such as machines， large systems， software systems， and a systems consisting of hardware and software.

The theoretical core of axiomatic design is the domain and runs through the entire design process. The domain includes a customer domain， a functional domain， a physical domain， and a process domain， which correspond to their respective elements， namely， Customer attributes （CAs）， Function requirements （FRs）， Design parameters （DPs）， and Process variables （PVs）， where the design parameters are known as product structures. The axiomatic design establishes a top-down design process， forming a “Z”-shaped mapping relationship between the design domains， realizing the mapping of “demand-function”， “function-behavior” and “behavior-structure”. It is possible to translate abstract requirements into concrete structures.

3 Axiom design process

The axiomatic design process of the product is based on the requirement of users. Decompose functions based on design constraints and existing product characteristics. Obtain the design matrix based on the “Z” word mapping between domains， and then conduct functional coupling analysis. In the case， choose the design structure that guarantees the function independent， and final scheme optimization to achieve the goal of ideal design.

As a typical parallel design， the axiomatic design can meet the requirements of parallel design discussion or cross-design discussion in the structure design process. After the total function is decomposed into sub-functions， each sub-function can be designed separately， and the important structural function characteristics or structural functions that are judged to be difficult to implement according to experience can be preferentially designed and satisfied. Achieve the purpose of shortening the product development cycle， ensuring quality and reducing costs.

4 Application and research of axiomatic design

For the realization of axiomatic design applied to product structure design， domestic and foreign scholars have done a lot of research. Shao Weiping used Axiomatic design （AD） to analyze and redesign the structure of the reducer. Explain the feasibility and rationality of AD for structural design， but it also reflects the shortcomings in the AD design process. On the one hand， the acquisition of user requirements depends on the experience of the designer， and does not reflect the actual needs of the user， resulting in a result that is too emotional and one-sided. On the other hand， for the design coupling problem that occurs in the AD design process， The use of independent axioms complicates the decoupling process and generate design time redundancy. Hua Zhongsheng ， etc.， using the integration theory of Theory of Constraint （TOC） and creative problem solving theory TRIZ， realized the structural design of automobile airbags， and It also shows that TRIZ can identify technical problems in product design， but it cannot effectively define conflicts. For the design and implementation of complex product structure， the design goal includes the control structure in addition to the hardware structure. Hintersteiner JD uses AD theory to guide the establishment of the control module structure， and realizes the design of inspection and calibration program； Su JC is based on Independent axioms， Analytic Hierarchy Process （AHP） introduces quantitative weight values into complex product structure design， guides designers to choose design factors， and improves structural design process； Guenov MD established the decomposition model of complex products， and provides a structured representation of the judgment matrix， and expresses the mapping relationship of AD， which is convenient for identifying potential conflicts in the design.

5 Conclusion

Facing the complicated product structure， this modular design idea uses the axiomatic design process to transform it into a series of sub-problems that are easy to solve. The generated product structure components are independent of each other but are implemented through specific interfaces. The interconnected design process can improve the variability and uncertainty in the traditional design process and provide a basis for the subsequent design.

参考文献：

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作者簡介：徐聪（1992—），女，山东人，齐鲁工业大学（山东省科学院）硕士研究生，研究方向：人机工程与产品设计。