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Thesis Abstract: Flexible Product Platforms
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Product platforms are complex systems that require large amounts of resources to build initially and often
have lifetimes exceeding a decade. Additionally, due to future uncertainties, functional requirements may change,
forcing the system to adapt to the changes or be scrapped before the initial investment has been amortized. To prevent
the latter outcome, the system can be carefully designed with embedded flexibility to specified uncertainties. Then,
the question is, how to identify the critical element set within the system to incorporate flexibility in, and whether
or not the additional complexity and cost of flexibility is warranted. The research presented here develops a coherent
framework for reasoning about and quantifying flexibility in product platforms. The objective of this research is to
develop a design process to identify, incorporate, and evaluate flexibility in a complex system under uncertainty.
This process should allow system architects to design complex flexible systems (such as product platforms) efficiently,
with minimal amounts of upfront investment. It can contribute to the engineering systems research through providing a
framework to incorporate flexibility in complex systems, where practically no research as been done. The application
context of this research is in the area of automotive platforms.
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PUBLICATIONS:
de Weck, O., Suh, E. S., Chang, D., “Product Family and Platform Portfolio Optimization,”
ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2003, DETC2003/DAC-48721.
Suh, E. S., de Weck, O., Kim, I. Y., Chang, D., “Design for Flexibility: Performance and Economic
Optimization of Product Platform Components,” AIAA MAO Conference, 2004, AIAA-2004-4310
Suh, E. S., de Weck, O., Kim, I. Y., Chang, D., “Flexible Platform Component Design under Uncertainty,”
J of Intelligent Manufacturing, to appear
de Weck, O., Suh, E. S., Chang, D., “Product Family Strategy and Platform Design Optimization,”
J of Intelligent Manufacturing., to appear
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