Configuration Design

This dissertation aims to aid in the understanding of Mass Customization. It is recently presented as a new business strategy not only for Industries but also for any sort of business activities. State of art theories, business strategies and aspects, such as Open Innovation and Customer - driven value creation are addressed to support the idea of Mass Customization. Tools and techniques for industries are classified according to their field of appliance. In particular, the tools are classified into the following fields; Marketing, Product Development and Data Management, Production Design, Production Management and Logistics. The contribution to Operations Management through the field of Production Systems Design & Management is held by the research that is focused on Flow Production Lines, and more specifically on Continuous Flow Manufacturing. The most well established techniques of Flow Production are recognized as H. Ford’s System and Toyota Production System. Nowadays, they are expressed by the efforts of implementing the Lean Production principles. How Mass Customization is involved in a system of Flow Production? How the production flow reacts by the exertion of Mass Customization in Flow Production? Can production flow be customized according to demand? Is it efficient or not? The study of production flow can give the answers. In this dissertation, an algorithmic procedure of designing Flow Production Systems. The purpose is to customize the flow in accordance with demand. The algorithmic procedure is performed by a system that is named as Flow Customizer™ v.1 (stands for version 1). The procedure can be implemented in cases that either demand or the number of final products change. The implementation of the results of Flow Customizer™ v.1 is assessed as beneficial or not according to each case study. The procedure is described by specific phases and steps that are displayed by a flow chart. The Flow Production System that is redesigned by the Flow Customizer™ v.1 consists of Production Modules that are connected to each other through a Kanban System. The procedure’s function and its result of a Modularized Production System is explained by an application paradigm. Moreover, pieces of information from an industrial case study about organizing two production line’s resources are subjected. Calculation, optimization and also management decision issues are indicated through the procedure of designing Flow Production Systems. The results that derive from the function of this system are addressed. Main conclusions and future research directions are noted.

This article presents a generalized ontology of product configuration as a step towards a general ontology of configuration, which is needed to reuse and share configuration knowledge. The ontology presented consists of a set of concepts for representing the knowledge on a configuration and the restrictions on possible configurations. The ontology is based on a synthesis of the main approaches to configuration. Earlier approaches are extended with new concepts arising from our practical experience on configurable products. The concepts include components, attributes, resources, ports, contexts, functions, constraints, and relations between these. The main contributions of this work are in the detailed conceptualization of knowledge on product structures and in extending the resource concept with contexts for limiting the availability and use of resources. In addition, constraint sets representing different views on the product are introduced. The ontology is compared with the previo...

Abstract This article reviews the advances in the materials selection for applications in structures and engines of current and future supersonic aircrafts. A brief overview of configuration design of the supersonic aircrafts is first given; which also includes techniques to improve configuration design for future supersonic aircrafts. The operating and ambient environmental conditions during supersonic flight and the resulting material requirements have been discussed; and consequently various aerospace aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, superalloys, and composites have been recommended. Finally, a new materials-selection chart is presented that would enable aerospace designers to select appropriate materials for application in high-performance current and future supersonic/ hypersonic aircrafts.

A shear wall is a structural element used to resist horizontal forces parallel to the plane of the wall. Shear wall has highly in plane stiffness and strength which can be used simultaneously resisted large horizontal loads and support gravity loads. It is very necessary to determine effective, efficient and ideal location of shear wall. Shear wall are specially designed structure walls include in the building to resist horizontal forces that are includes in the plane of the wall due to wind, EQ and other forces. They are mainly a flexural member and usually provided in the high rise building to avoid the total collapse of the high rise building under seismic forces. In this research G+9 storey building is presented with some investigation which is analyzed by changing various location of shear wall for determining the optimum structural configuration of multistory building by changing shear wall location radially by analyzed and designed as a space frame system by computer aided software, subjected to lateral and gravity loading in accordance with IS provisions.

3D packing problems occur in many applications. Exhaustive search methods cannot identify an optimum packing in reasonable time. To improve the search efficiency of such problems, a packing Genetic Algorithm (GA) with a new encoding method and packing GA operators is proposed. The method is applied to a vehicle configuration design problem, in which the goal is to maximise the vehicle survivability, maintainability and minimise vehicle rollover tendency by finding optimal positions of vehicle components. The packing GA is ...