Research on configuration design for mass customization

To study the configuration design of mass customization based on modular product family and to explore its implementation approach, through analyzing the process of mass customization that was embodied with the feature of separation between design and customization, the configuration design methodology based on product family was presented. The management pattern based on Tabular Layouts of Article Characteristic (TLAC) for product family was studied and the configuration model was then constructed with component family. With the analysis of customer-driven configuration process, the process of configuration design including the correlative steps of requirement and engineering, which were corresponding to the product family model, was derived, and the mapping strategy among steps was also discussed. The configuration reasoning method based on graph grammar was used to derive the personality product with the configuration model of requirement and engineering. The example of bike family was used to illustrate above-mentioned configuration design methodology.