Function-behavior Platforms Using Ant Colony Optimization

Product platforming strategy is widely used by many companies to generate customized product variants for different market segments. Most research on product platform focuses on maximizing the usage of common physical assets (structures such as components and sub-assemblies) amongst product variants. We opine that even before considering product platforms at the structure level, there is merit to consider building platforms at a higher level of abstraction, namely, at the function-behavior level. Here, behavior refers to the working principles employed to realize desirable functions. The product structure is the end result of the set of functions and behavior (F-B) that is chosen by the company to target a given market segment. This study presents a methodology based on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique to determine a higher abstract platform at the F-B level. We demonstrate the working of the methodology using an example of a product family.