A sensitivity-based commonality strategy for family products of mild variation, with application to automotive body structures

• Identification of the product platform is a key step in designing a family of products. This article presents a methodology for selecting the product platform by using information obtained from the individual optimization of the product variants. Under the assumption that the product variety requires only mild design changes, a performance deviation vector is derived by taking into consideration individual optimal designs and sensitivities of functional requirements. Commonality decisions are based on values of the performance deviation vector, and the product family is designed optimally with respect to the chosen platform. The proposed methodology is applied to the design of a family of automotive body structures. Variants are defined by changing the functional requirements they need to satisfy and/or the geometry of the associated finite element models.

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