A product modular design method based on axiomatic design

In order to develop reasonable modular product architecture with physically detachable modules, a new systematic method for product modularization is proposed based on axiomatic design (AD). In the proposed method, the product is decomposed hierarchically in its functional, physical and process domains according to AD. After the transformation from design matrices to design structure matrices, the correlation design structure matrices of design parameters about function, structure and manufacturing process are constructed. Finally, a genetic algorithm combined with the minimal description length is introduced to solve the modularization optimization problem. To illustrate and validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, an indoor air conditioner unit is presented as a demonstrative example.