Index Terms product configuration, product design, e- commerce, customization, individual demand

Transcription

1 ISBN (Print), (CD-ROM) Proceedings of the 2009 International Symposium on Web Information Systems and Applications (WISA 09) Nanchang, P. R. China, May 22-24, 2009, pp An ecommerce-oriented Product Configuration Design System Based on Web Qing-Ke Yuan, Ming-Tian Zhang, and Ya-Ping Shi Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou , China Abstract Facing the buyers market, many industries are now shifting from mass production to mass customization. Product configuration aiming to configure customized products from smaller parts or modules according to the individual needs of customers is a key enabling technology for mass customization paradigm. Product Configuration Design (PCD) may satisfy the requirements of individual customers with near mass-production efficiency. The advent of the Internet has revolutionized the way companies advertise, develop and distribute products. Firms can now customize their advertising messages and products to the particular characteristics and needs of customers. Customers themselves can create their own products. Therefore PCD system based on web will be the best way to solve this problem. In this paper, we conclude the concept and meaning of PCD, put forward the PCD architecture. And we put emphasis upon the implementation of PCD. Then we advance our three relational models in different phases to represent the product configuration knowledge, and offer the mode of PCD based on web to relate three relational models. At the end we explore a Web-based water faucet PCD (WFPCD) to prove our theory. Index Terms product configuration, product design, e- commerce, customization, individual demand I. INTRODUCTION The financial crisis is sweeping the world. The global manufacturing industry is facing enormous competitive pressures. Due to the market competition become more and more violent and the information requirement between manufactures and customers become larger and larger. All enterprises focus on constructing their own platform to realize the PCD. By PCD, manufacturers can get the orders and customers requirements to provide the product and service which can fulfill the customers requirement; Customers can get various information of the product, including all properties of the product, the product production process and the production progress and so on. Therefore the problem how to realize PCD is put forward. Product configuration aiming to configure customized products from smaller parts or modules according to the individual needs of customers is a key enabling technology for mass customization paradigm [1]. To shorten product cycle and reduce lead time, the development of products and product configuration Sponsored by Guangdong Science & Technology Program [2008B ] and Guangzhou Science & Technology Program [2008Z1-D371]. Corresponding author: Qing-Ke Yuan.Tel: ; fax: systems has to be done concurrently. The history of product configuration can be dated back to early 80s when R1 system (later called XCON) was developed using rule-based methods. Since then, product configuration has aroused general researching interest [1]. In 1989, Mittal and Frayman [2] viewed product configuration as the port-connection mode. The product configuration can be encoded as the CSP (Constraint Satisfaction Problem) where both ports and components are treated as variables with their own domains by this mode. But it is insufficient to solve product configuration problem. Because configuration exhibits to some extent dynamic nature of involved variables, compared to classical CSP approach. After that DCSP (Dynamic Constraint Satisfaction Problem) approach was be put forward by Mittal & Falkenhainer [3] in It's an extension to CSP. It introduced active variables and active constraints joined in constraint networks. Felfernig [4] adopted UML (Unified Modeling Language) to model the product configuration knowledge in The model including components, ports and resources are offered in their research by UML. The main benefit for this approach is that UML is more convenient to communicate among experts, modelers and users. Nevertheless, the UML-based configuration models need the rigorous semantics to describe but UML itself has not formal semantics that are clearly defined. Cunningham, Higgins, and Browne [5] put forward the BOM is a useful tool for decision making in product configuration change. Chang, Lee, and Li [6] proposed a planning method for material list with a stress on transformation of BOM between design and manufacturing. Qin, Harrison, and West [7] developed an Internetbased system for conceptual design. This system can draw 2D and 3D geometric diagrams, edit product components based on hierarchy relationship and confirm the design on line. So suppliers and managers could also make use of this online tool for rapid responses to and evaluation of the design and shorten the time needed for product development and design. Wang and Che [8] proposed the integration of fuzzy theory with value engineering, T transformation and genetic algorithm to evaluate and select suppliers for each individual part after product configuration change. The researches above focus on modeling PCD knowledge, knowledge representation language for configuration models, supply chains and assembly optimization of the PCD and so on. But the areas of PCD architecture and implementation have a little research ACADEMY PUBLISHER AP-PROC-CS-09CN

2 In this paper, we conclude the concept and meaning of PCD, put forward the PCD architecture. And we put emphasis upon the implementation of PCD based on web. Then we advance our three relational models in different phases to represent the product configuration knowledge, and offer the mode of PCD based on web to relate three relational models. At the end we explore a WFPCD to prove our theory. II. THE CONCEPT AND MEANING OF PCD PCD is a product design system that is based on Internet and exploded for finding configuration solution satisfying individual needs of customers without violating all constraints imposed on components due to technical and economical factors [9]. By this system the user can choose different product types, choose or design different parts, automatically generate the program of product design, and get the Information which contains the structure of product entity structure, engineering drawings, performance simulation curve, product quotation, producing progress, delivery date, order contracts and so on. At the same time, that information is send to the enterprises or partners in order to arrange and organize production. PCD is the latest development of the networked manufacturing in the international. There are some prototype systems with partial configured functions. For example the Protal of IBM has those partial configuration functions; Similarly the 800 hotline custom in Dell computer company is a successful example that changes the traditional business model by the concept of configuration in United States. The innovative direct sales model and telephone configuration systems make the company become a large international company just in a few years; Haier Group, a large household appliance enterprises in domestic, launched the order-based PCD, it made a strong reaction in the domestic and international household appliance market. PCD is a large revolution of traditional modes of production in the manufacturing, it has big significant, for example : (1)If enterprises want to win in the competition of market in future, it depends on the rapid response to customers requirement [10]. This rapid response includes the rapid information acquisition from the customers requirement, the rapid products design to meet customers demand and the rapid products manufacture to supply customers configuration products. PCD can realize this and obtain more orders for the enterprise. (2) It can fully show the visualize of the company, products of the company and strength of the company. It is propitious to expand market [11]. (3)It can straighten out and reorganize the business processes of enterprises and improve the productivity of labor and the ability of which enterprises respond quickly to the change of the market [12]. (4) It can promote the construction of enterprise information, technological progress and technological innovation, and enhance the comprehensive competence of enterprise. III. THE ARCHITECTURE OF PCD The architecture of PCD is shown in Fig. 1.From the viewpoint of the users or the service objects, PCD has 5 main components [13]: 1) System Management Center, is mainly responsible for the normal operation of the whole system maintenance and management, also includes the process of system operation monitoring, coordination and other functions. 2) Customers System is a Man-machine interface by which the customers accomplish the product configuration. The customers access the PCD by the browser. The Customers System can manage all customers configured information, choose the type of product and the components of product, and input the requirements of product and the parameters of product components. The customers can browse and modify the design schemes of their configured product, engineering drawings, product performance, product quotations, supply period, product progress, order contracts and so on. 3) Supplier System is a Man-machine interface in which the suppliers accomplish a product configuration. The suppliers access the PCD by the browser. According to the commission of the System Management Center, suppliers can access the order of a product configuration on a Customer s own, and make a discussion on line with the work that the orders need to finish.after making an agreement on the price, performance, quality, supply period and so on, the suppliers finish the work of the contract on time, such as the manufacturing or supplying of a component and the test of product performance. The customers can also browse the process of the project by the system at any moment. 4) Configuration Environment is the foundation to achieve the product configuration. It can be divided into 2 categories. One is basic environment that is general and public. It includes Web server, the Web-based CAD system, the database of virtual products and their components, product data management system, communication system and so on; the other one is Parametric Design Environment, which is developed base on the typical products. It can accomplish the process from inputting the design parameters to driving the background server Intelligent Design System, and finish the assembly process automatically. At last, it can output the design schemes of configured product and their Figure 1. The architecture of PCD. 415

3 attributes (egg 3D, 2D, price, progress etc.). 5) Configuration Tools, is a method to achieve the product configuration. It can be divided into 3 categories. The first one is template system which is used to achieve configuration, such as configuration process template, requirement described template, project designed template, order contract template, order progress template, product template, components template, assembly process template and so on [14]; The second one is the order information management system and order achievement information management system, such as the customer information management system, supplier information management system, file management system, template management system, PDM system, task decomposition and task planning system and so on; The third one is a variety of utility systems for the orders and the achieving process of orders, such as (1) various types of engineering data; (2) client agent; (3) the Web publishing and management system of the product configuration schemes and their data files; (4)the tools which are use to browse, modify and edit the product configuration schemes and their data files. IV. THE WORKFLOW AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PCD The work flow and implementation of PCD are shown in Fig. 2. The implementation is to construct the language which uses to represent the product configuration knowledge, develop the collaborative configuration platform and various tools. In this way, PCD can support the multi-collaborative configuration process in which the customers participate. A. Representation of the Product Configuration Knowledge The representation of the product configuration can be divided into three relational models in different phases: product model, customer model and manufacturer model. In product phase, a product configuration model can be constructed as a tree [1], like the Fig. 3. Only leaf nodes representing concrete components are actually involved in a configuration, instead of those intermediate modes denoting abstract components. Consequently, leaf nodes located at the bottom of structural trees indicate some facts [15]. For example, the ball_lever1 can only be assembling faucet_body1, because the shape of the ball_lever1 only matches the faucet_body1. This is the restriction between the parts. Every product consists of various parts which are limited by the restriction. The representation of the product configuration is not only the representation of the property about product design but also the representation of the restriction between the parts and their property [16]. In customer phase, a product configuration model is based on the requirement [17], like the Fig. 4. The model can be constructed as a tree too. But the representation of the leaf nodes has been changed. Concrete components are replaced by requirements of customers. Customers may not know the construction of the water faucet. But they know their requirement. According to the requirement customers configure their design and evaluate the design. Therefore a customer-oriented product configuration model need to be build based on the requirement. In manufacturer phase, a product configuration model is based on the supply chains, like the Fig. 5. The focus of manufactures is how to organize the product materials efficiently and assemble the product faster in order to deliver products on time. The product configuration model should associate with the supply chains and the assembly process. After building this three-phase model, how to connect with each phase model becomes a problem. In this paper Figure 2. The architecture of PCD. 416

4 we put forward the customer-driven mode to solve this problem. B. Mode of theproduct Configuration The mode of the product configuration needs to have the ability to control the parameters of the product directly by the product configuration Web site that the manufacturer provides. Customer-driven mode is one of the modes that can give the most powerful support to realize the communication among customer model, Figure 3. Product relational model. product model and manufacturer model. It can be described like Fig. 6. V. THE KEY TECHNOLOGIES OF PCD The key technologies of PCD include: 1) The operation and control in the design process which is driven by parametric data. Its emphasis is to solve the parametric design based on the Internet, constraint reasoning rules and so on; 2) Data conversion technology which is used to convert the data and charts of the configured project [1]; 3) Web publishing and management technology of the configured product s design schemes [13] and their properties by orders; 4) Browsing, modifying, editing technology of the configured product s design schemes and their properties by orders; 5) The technology which is used to decompose the task and create the programming automatically according to Customer Requirements Enter Configuration Web Customer Level Model Figure 4. Customer relational model configure Configuration Design Simulate Preview Product Level Model Data Support Not satisfy Satisfy Determine Data Data Support Information Assembly process Confirm BOM Order Order Manufacturer Level Assembly Project Model Deliver Goods Data Stream Logistics tracking Data Integration SupplyChains Search Operation Stream Platform Figure 5. Manufacturer relational model. Figure 6. The mode of configuration. 417

5 the design schemes of configured product; 6) The tactic and method base on the COBRA model s information relativity and exchangeable; 7) Intelligent Search of the design information, Intelligent Matching algorithm, Data mining efficiently technology. VI. THE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM OF THE WFPCD According to the theoretical analysis above, in order to explore the feasibility of the product configuration system, we developed the WFPCD. In this system, the customers have ability in selecting different types, redefining parts and the property of parts. Then the system creates the design scheme of product automatically, which includes the product s 3D structure, engineering drawings, and quotation and delivery date and so on. After the configuration, the system will construct the 3D Visualization solid. The 3D solid can be rotating to show in different perspective. And the parts which are included in the product can be browsed by this system, as shown in Fig. 7. Figure 7. The prototype system. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which have greatly improved the presentation of this paper. This research was sponsored Guangdong Science & Technology Program [2008B ] and Guangzhou Science & Technology Program [2008Z1-D371]. REFERENCES [1] Dong Yang, Rui Miao, Hongwei Wu, Yiting Zhou, "Product configuration knowledge modeling using ontology web language," Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 36, Issue 3, Part 1, April 2009, p [2] V. E. Barker and D. E. O Connor, "Expert systems for configuration at Digital: XCON and beyond," Communications of the ACM, 32(3), p [3] S. Mittal and B. Falkenhainer, "Dynamic constraint satisfaction problems," Proceedings AAAI conference, 1990, pp [4] A. Felfernig, G. Friedrich, and D. Jannach, "UML ad domain specific language for the construction of knowledge-based configuration systems," International Journal on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 2000, 10(4), p [5] M. Cunningham, P. Higgins and J. Browne, "A decision support tool for planning bill-of-material," Production Planning and Control, 1996, 7, p [6] S. H. Chang, W. L. Lee and R. K. Li, "Manufacturing billof-material planning," Production Planning and Control, 1997, 8, p [7] S. F. Qin, R. Harrison and A. A. West, "A framework of web-based conceptual design," Computers in Industry, 2003, 50, p [8] H. S. Wang and Z. H. Che, "An integrated model for supplier selection decisions in configuration changes," Expert Systems with Applications, 2007, 32, p [9] Dong Yang, Ming Dong, Rui Miao, "Development of a product configuration system with an ontology-based approach," Computer-Aided Design, Vol. 40, Issue 8, August 2008, p [10] H.S. Wang, Z.H. Che, M.J. Wang, "A three-phase integrated model for product configuration change problems," Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 36, Issue 3, Part 1, April 2009, p [11] Chunli Yang and Hao Li, "A framework of product knowledge management supporting product agile customization design," 2008 IEEE International Conference on Service Operations and Logistics, and Informatics (SOLI), 2008, p [12] J.H. Mikkola, "Management of product architecture modularity for mass customization: modeling and theoretical considerations," IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Feb. 2007, p [13] Yinsheng Li, K. Dai, Jin Han, Xiaohua Lu, Shensheng Zhang," An interactive web system for integrated threedimensional customization," Computers in Industry, Dec. 2006, p [14] Hwai-En Tseng, Chien-Chen Chang, Shu-Hsuan Chang, "Applying case-based reasoning for product configuration in mass customization environments," Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 29, Issue 4, November 2005, p [15] Yiyang Zhang, Jianxin (Roger) Jiao, "An associative classification-based recommendation system for personalization in B2C e-commerce applications," Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 33, Issue 2, August 2007, p [16] S.S. Manvi, P. Venkataram, "An intelligent productinformation presentation in E-commerce," Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Vol. 4, Issue 3, Autumn 2005, p [17] Xinggang Luo, Yiliu Tu, Jiafu Tang, C.K. Kwong, "Optimizing customer's selection for configurable product in B2C e-commerce application," Computers in Industry, Vol. 59, Issue 8, October 2008, p