Corporations within the automotive sector are faced with major challenges caused among others by high volatile demand fluctuations. An answer to this problem is given by flexible and changeable production systems which allow reacting efficiently to these fluctuations in demand. To achieve this aim, so called enablers for changeability have to be considered already during the design process of single production units within a whole production system. Furthermore the complexity of production units has to be reduced in order to obtain changeable and reliable manufacturing systems. In the presented paper an approach is proposed with the aim to consider enablers of changeability in Axiomatic Design (AD). Moreover it is outlined which different interest groups within a single corporation have a direct or indirect influence on production unit design. Frequently complexity originates from many different attributes demanded by the single groups. On this basis, it is demonstrated how AD can help to enter into dialogue with the mentioned groups with the aim to lower the requirements of the production unit and to reduce complexity of the resulting design. This is done by using the design matrix which illustrates the dependencies between functional requirements (FRs) and design parameters (DPs) as a basis for discussion.

Automotive production is faced with the challenge of bringing new products to market faster, with decreasing turn-around times, meaning production must be continually changing to accommodate new products. This paper proposes an approach to decrease a product’s time-to-market, by increasing the efficiency of automotive assembly unit design. Providing designers with conceptual information about future vehicle models early in the product design process, could shift the design start forward and enable a more efficient transition process. Large automotive companies work on vehicle design and development for years before a product is ready for production. If during these earlier stages of product design, significant changes are identified and communicated to production designers, the manufacturing system design can get a jump start with an early exploration phase. A method exists, which uses the Axiomatic Design theory to develop Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems through a modular breakdown. A similar method Adapt! employs Axiomatic Design and Scrum to develop changeable or adaptable production systems. This paper proposes to extend the Adapt! method to include an exploration phase, which through early communication, provides an overview of the required design process, and enables faster identification of the critical design challenges. A case study is performed by analysing a currently produced vehicle and its future electric version.

Abstract. This paper presents a novel approach for the use of Axiomatic Design Theory in combination with agile project management methods like Scrum for an effective, structured and combined product design and development process. Agile project management methods give a guideline how to manage a project, but there is only minor assistance regarding the actual product development process itself. Axiomatic Design can be used to support these methods in this point. In concrete terms, the results of the decomposition process of this theory can be used to formulate and structure the work packages for the agile project managing process. The Independence Axiom of Axiomatic Design Theory has a substantial contribution by ensuring the independence of the work packages which can be assigned to different project team members and can be processed independently by them. The combination of the different methods not only helps to ensure a good design solution but also helps to work more agile within a project team. The here proposed approach is one part of a holistic product design and development process for changeable production units -called Adapt! -and is described within a use case in the automotive sector.

Abstract. Since trends of our society are changing, the automotive industry has to handle new requirements within their production like vague quantities of production, fast integration of new technologies and an increasing variety of diversity. Therefore conventional life-cycles of production systems are broken up and re-design and changeability of complex systems have to be considered during their whole life time. Within this framework the paper proposes a novel approach to enable change during the life cycle of a production system and to enhance the usability of a re-design and change process by consistent interaction between the design and evaluation method. Thereby the focus is on the linkage of design and evaluation process to pursue a decrease of complexity and to point out the benefits which can be found by using Axiomatic Design Theory in this holistic context of the production system life-cycle. To validate the results of the paper and show up their benefits, a use case will describe and discuss the research.

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