National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for e-Design
Product Families and Modularity: New Options through Additive Manufacturing
Timothy W. Simpson ([email protected]), Michael A. Yukish ([email protected]), Simon W. Miller ([email protected])
Approach and method
Industrial relevance
Investigate impact of additive manufacturing (AM)
on the design and production of product families
• Increase product variety and
reduce manufacturing cost and
lead time through combination
of platforms, modularity, and
additive manufacturing
Project plan and progress
• Develop rules and economic models
that can be used to develop platforms
and product families that leverage
additive manufacturing (AM)
• Identify a suitable product family
that could utilize AM
• Design, print, and validate consumer
case study
• Apply method to product family and
compare variety and cost metrics
between the set of artifacts
Firestorm
Toolkit
Powder bed fusion
• Enable user customization without
increasing manufacturing costs via
additive manufacturing technology
Current TRL: 2 – Concept formulated
Final TRL: 5 – Key elements demonstrated
End
• Companies have benefited from our product family work:
Percent complete: 0%
Start
Problem statement
• Customized – economical
production through AM
3
4
9 10 11 12
Task 1 Review product family and AM literature
Task 2 Develop economic models for AM
Task 3 Identify suitable product family example
Task 4 Design platform and modules for family
Task 5 Fabricate, print, and assemble variants
Task 6 Validate with consumer feedback
Task 7 Compare cost and commonality metrics
Task 8 Document results and recommendations
• Length of project: 10-12 months
Current state of practice and research
• Tools for efficient and effective
product family design are lacking
• The capabilities of AM (additive
manufacturing) are evolving rapidly
in both polymers and metals
• Few have explored implications of
additive manufacturing on design
decisions and product platform – no
metrics or guidance on what to
platform or how to platform with AM
Project type: New
• Flexible – can accommodate
greater variety of components in
product architecture
2
• Collaborators: IE, ME, and Applied Research Laboratory
• Understand how additive manufacturing (AM) expands the
definition of platforms and product families through new
design metrics and cost analysis
• Metrics for characterizing effectiveness of product families
that use AM
• Develop cost analysis and metrics that inform decisions
about the integration of AM into product families
Thrust area: Integration of design and manufacturing
• Modular – customizable usercentric components
1
• Resources: $75,000 for 1 student plus materials and supplies
Deliverables and benefits
Improving commonality and usercentric solutions by providing
modularity and flexibility in products
through “massively customized” parts
enabled by additive manufacturing
Tasks and timeline
Months
5 6 7 8
How ours is different
Shift companies from reactive
to proactive design approach
Potential application areas
Google’s Project Ara
3D printed drone
• Understand key variety
drivers within a family
• Bicycles – customizable shocks,
brakes, suspension, etc. for rider
• Identify common platform
elements and key modules
for differentiation
• Furniture – ergonomic, “rightsized”, geometric artifacts for
human variability
• Medical – patient-specific
implants and prosthetics
• Aerospace – customized drones
and unmanned air systems
Airbus Light Rider
Electric Motorcycle
• Marry platform design
principles with economic
advantages of additive
manufacturing to enable
rapid, cost-effective
product customization
Source: (Anderson, 1997)