A systematic top–down approach for the identification and decomposition of product key characteristics

Abstract

Methodologies for the identification of key characteristics have been widely applied in quality management through the selection of critical dimensions and the measurement of variations. However, methods for both the identification and decomposition of key characteristics have not yet been developed, and more research is still required. In answering this need, a systematic top–down decomposition approach for the identification of key characteristics is proposed. The methodology of the identification and decomposition of key characteristics can be divided into two steps: first is the construction of candidate characteristics, and second is the identification of key characteristics. These steps are based on precise mathematical definitions. Initially, the necessary information for the construction of the candidate characteristics is obtained from analysis based on assembly-oriented graph, and that information is then conveyed utilizing feature adjacency matrix. A concept for a propagation chain is then proposed, and a search algorithm for an auto-generating propagation chain is obtained through feature adjacency matrix. The degree of influence of the candidate characteristics on the key characteristics is then defined. A formula is derived that can calculate the degree of influence by utilizing a variation model. Finally, the process of the identification of the key characteristics is achieved according to the relative degrees of influence. An aircraft boarding gate is presented in order to validate the proposed methodology. Two key characteristics of the aircraft boarding gate are identified, and the results indicate the methodology’s feasibility.

Identification of key design characteristics for complex product adaptive design

“…For instance, Tang et al [21] used the Taguchi loss function to calculate the influence degree of the variations of characteristic candidates (CCs) on the product quality. The influence degree could determine the relative importance of CCs, and in turn, the relative importance could help identify new KCs.…”

“…KPCs are identified by establishing and analyzing the relations between process characteristics and cost/quality [23,24], which are not completely applicable to the identification of KDCs, because the KDCs are not only related to the quality and cost but also mainly related to the functions and performances. From the perspective of research methods, research on the identification of KCs has focused on either qualitative analysis for KC acquisition [18][19][20] or quantitative analysis for KC priority [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. However, both have some defects (see details in next section).…”

“…Although the KC definitions may vary from corporations to researchers, the KC's methods have a common goal that is to identify a small set of critical features for an organization to focus on during design and manufacturing [21].…”

Comprehensive identification of aircraft coordination feature based on complete importance modeling and its engineering application

“…To solve this question, Johansson et al (2013) described an identification method by calculating the risk priorities, which used variation mode and effect analysis (VMEA). Tang et al (2016) developed a quantitative analysis method taking into account of Taguchi quality loss function and the loss sensitivity. And different mathematical models were proposed to determine the relative importance of the comprised factors, which provided helpful guidance of the quantitative identification for aircraft product CFs (French et al, 2016;Elfenbein et al, 2017;Campos et al, 2016;Pillon et al, 2015).…”

“…In addition, the conformity for practical production situation, and the characteristic of multi-hierarchy process for aircraft products are deserve to discuss. Moreover, in the view of engineering application, Tang et al (2016) obtained two key features of the aircraft-boarding gate. However, the identification results had a weak relationship with the characteristics of multi-hierarchy process for aircraft products and multi-station for assembly process, which could also cause coordination accuracy may not fit design requirement between the gate and the gate frame, i.e.…”