Research On Product Design Method For Mass Customization

Mass Customization is one of the mainstream modes of production in the 21^st century, so that more and more companies begin to use the new production mode and have benefited from it. Currently, research about Mass Customization in the design sector is mainly concentrated in the engineering areas, while the theoretical research and application is limited in the field of industrial design. Industrial design and engineering design are inextricably linked in production activities, so how to apply Mass Customization theory to industrial design becomes a new subject. After researching into the status and development trends of industrial design, summarizing Mass Customization theory, a product design method for Mass Customization to quickly meet the individual needs of different customers is proposed.Basing on the product genetic engineering technology and Decomposition and Reconstruction theory, the product design automation software PRE-DARFAD is introduced, and product growing design as the theoretical foundation of refrigerators modular design and customization platform development basis is elaborated.On the basis of detailed analysis of the current social consumption demand characteristics and the development trends of consumption, "Mass Customization" production model comes up with the demands of "green consumerism" and "consumer experience". The methods of getting and analyzing customer's demands are summarized, and appropriate methods are selected to do market surveys about refrigerator and analyze consumer's demands. The foundation of refrigerator modular design is established.Based on the feasibility analysis of refrigerator Mass Customization and the purpose of refrigerator modular design, modular design of refrigerator products is completed. We divide fridge structure into industrial design part and engineering part. On the PRE-DARFAD platform, Decomposition and Reconstruction theory is used of to do theoretical analysis and case study in refrigerator's module division, module design and modular product design processes. Interface modules are designed based on function surfaces. Displayed surface is definite to function surface, and all products would be designed by entity displayed functional surfaces and function surfaces. Finally, refrigerator modular products are evaluated from respects of features and performance, the overall effect of color modeling, economic efficiency, customer satisfaction, and environmental protection.On the basis of refrigerator modular design, the refrigerator Mass Customization platform is developed. The module database is established, and module coding and management methods are studied. The internet-based client/server platform which is interactive and customized is established. According to actual needs, the system is divided into two platforms, one is for designers, and another is client-oriented. The customization process is analyzed in detail, and the whole customization process (growing design process) is demonstrated.After period of time tryout, the Mass Customization system that this paper proposed is better than the custom customization system at function, customization process more intuitive, rapid, and more interactivity aspects, thus this system is of important value.