Developing a systematic method for constructing the function platform of product family

A systematic method to construct the function platform for a specific product family is proposed. Based on the function basis and heuristic method, function modules of each product variants existing in the current product family can be identified. These modules as well as their instances can be categorized according to the relevant design variables. Then two distinct strategies, titled as multi-object optimal selection and similarity-based method separately, are adopted to identify function modules which can be shared among different product variants and can be sequentially used to construct the product platform. As a result, this mixed method can support platform identification for various product family comprised of different kinds of product variants.