Abstract

Modular structure of product family is established and the product family is decomposed into generic modules. Then, the module model denoted by attribute variable is established for each generic module. Based on the classification of customer requirement and erection of product decision tree, the description and explanation type of customer requirement can be used to restrict the sub branch of decision tree so to find out the certain product family satisfying customer. By reference to QFD, the mapping relation of customer requirements to module attributes is formed, which can be the determinate value and weight of module attribute variable. After retrieving the candidate set of modules which are nearest to the customer requirement on the module accordingly, the candidate modules are combined efficiently under the constraints relative to modules and attributes, In this way, many invalidate module combinations can be avoided and hence the efficiency of product configuration is promoted.

Key words: Modular product family, generic module, attribute variable, customer requirement classification.