The Design of Product Families for Reconfigurable Assembly Systems: Student Research Experiences

This paper describes the experiences of a team of undergraduate research students that were assigned the task of designing a product family for a reconfigurable manufacturing system, RMS. This problem of designing a product family for a RMS required a different type of thinking than that required for traditional product design. Not only did consideration have to be given to the product design specifications and constraints, but the constraints imposed by the RMS also had to be considered. This type of thinking is not traditionally taught in existing undergraduate design curricula. In this research experience, students adapted the traditional product design process to design a product family of lamps, with consideration of the needs of the RMS. The paper highlights the challenges posed by the systems level of thinking, and the need to include consideration of the manufacturing system. The impact of the research experience on the students and the department are discussed. Recommendations are made for approaches to conducting similar research experiences and inclusion of a systems level thinking into traditional design courses.