Determining Product Architecture During the Conceptual Design Phase

The research activity described in this thesis came up from an observation made by the author, when performing design activities concerning a new modular system for experimental purposes. He observed that the current methodology does not comprehensively support the designer in early conceptual design activities of new modular products. More specifically he noticed that, without the presence of a preliminary concept, it is currently impossible to systematically face issues related to modularity. On the base of such an observation, the aims of the work discussed in this thesis arose, which can be shortly resumed in performing a deeper investigation about the preliminary observation and, if confirmed, facing the current methodology lacks. The performed activity was structured as described here in the following, where also a short introduction on obtained results is reported. The first part has been dedicated to investigations aimed at validating preliminary hypothesis and at improving the knowledge base. Obtained information led to the formulation of more detailed objectives, i.e. the development of a new way for facing modularity and the development of a new conceptual design approach for its structured implementation. Then, the second part of the PhD concerned the development of preliminary methodological proposals, which were successively merged in a new conceptual design method, equipped with a main graphical tool. The logic of such an overall proposal allows the identification of opportunities to use modularity, and supports the designer in developing modular solutions. Moreover, also some important issues concerning current conceptual design methods were faced. The last part of the work has been focused on testing activities concerning the developed proposals. These activities were partially conducted concurrently with the development of the approach, and such preliminary tests allowed to refine the target and to focus the attention on some specific issues. On the base of such evaluations, some improvements were made and a final test was performed on a sample of convenience composed by engineering students. The obtained results gave a first validation of the approach and furnished important indications for future developments, aimed at upgrading the proposal towards the application in industrial contexts.