Social ant colony-inspired modelling approach for rapid response design
International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology
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The manufacturing industry is one of the major driving forces for economic success for all industrialized nations. As new technologies are rapidly evolving, the world economy has been undergoing some major changes. The impact of these changes on product manufacturing industry includes more globalized competition, shorter market life cycles, more stringent environmental regulations, more educated customers and so forth. Therefore, products must meet various requirements such as shorter delivery time, customization, environment-friendly, in addition to the traditional requirements of functionality, cost and quality. These requirements cannot be met by simply using more advanced manufacturing technologies only. Manufacturers must produce products according to design. More than 75% of the total product costs as well as all product features are determined at the design stage. Therefore, significant improvement on product quality, features, costs and other life cycle performance can be achieved by improving design. This paper reports a new design method, namely adaptable design, to address those conflict requirements. An adaptable design method has been developed, consisting of four main phases: product modelling, platform design, bus system design and design evaluation and re-design. Examples are provided to illustrate the adaptable design and interface systems. In addition, a review of recent developments in design research is provided. Future research directions and possible topics for research are also discussed for both fundamental as well as applied work in engineering design.