Progressive modelling of feature-centred product family development

Modelling a product family is critical for understanding the evolution of key design and manufacturing features associated with products in the product through-life development. This research aims to establish a model for the holistic description of the evolution process of a product family to support rapid development of new products with hybrid innovations. In this study, a new broader definition of the product family is proposed for products on cross-platforms but in the same class or category, called feature-centred product family. A progressive modelling of feature-centred product family is developed for progressively addressing the evolution of products and achieving the dynamic expression of a product family. A prototype system has been developed and tested with an industrial case study, which indicates that the proposed new feature-centred product family concept and progressive modelling method are not only supportive to realise the common and adaptive analysis of key design features but also helpful to improve the design and production efficiency of innovative products with knowledge and feature reuse.