Axiomatic Design Based Complexity Measures to Assess Product and Process Structures

Abstract

Definitions of complexity often depend on several circumstances, such as the nature of investigated complex system, the kind of complexity, the conceptual framework used for a study, the theoretical approach taken, and the like. In this paper, two complexity measures that are based on Boltzmann’s entropy concept and AD theory are proposed and described. The first measure quantifies product variety complexity and the second one focuses on process structure complexity. Such complexity techniques will be used to determine product platform complexity and related process complexity for early stage of design decision-making. The method focused on product platform complexity assumes that the distribution of FR-DP couplings offers a suitable complexity concept, which prescribes that coupled designs should be decoupled, if possible, since uncoupled design is ideal and a decoupled design is less good, while a coupled design is the least satisfactory. Analogically, the same principle is used for the purpose to quantify topological process complexity by transforming input components into process variables and product modules including final product into design parameters. Subsequently, relevant properties of these measures will be analysed by computational experiments. Finally, practical findings for mass customization practice will be presented.