Product Life Cycle Management (15ME835)

Module-5

Product Building & Structures

By
PRATIBHA V PATIL Asst Professor

Dept of Mechanical Engineering

VNEC Shorapur
 Introduction To Virtual Product Development
Companies involved in product development mainly focus on reducing
manufacturing cost along with increasing productivity, quality and faster delivery
time to market

It refers to working and analysing techniques, processes and methods for product
development in a virtual environment which is created using advanced technology.

VPD is a digital product representation created in computer based environment.

(consists of all 2D/3D geometric models, supporting information to manufacturing
the product.
Benefits Of Virtual Product Development
 Virtual Product Development Tools (Models)

It includes all IT supported virtual product model based processes for the
generation of new product

The technology enables 3D representation of the product tools.

It is classified into Two common tools

• 3D CAD Systems (software)

• Digital Mock-Up
 3D CAD Systems
It stands for Three Dimensional Computer Aided Design and covers a wide variety of design
tools used by several industry professionals.
Is used to create a Three Dimensional geometrical product representation within a virtual
environment (computer screen)
While increasing processing power of computers and graphic display capabilities have made
the creation of 3D images of parts and assemblies that are viewed and rotated by any angle.
The 3D models can be saved in different formats like IGES, STEP etc
A few today’s leading 3D CAD system includes solidworks, solidedge, Unigraghics, NX,
Catia etc.
The designers can create assemblies of parts to visualize how they fit together and test the
motion and interaction of moving parts within assembly, test and analyse how they will react
to forces applied to them.
The various benefits of 3D CAD systems are
 Digital Mock-up (DMU)
The concept DMU originated in 1980 shortly after the adoption of 3D CAD systems. It
was typically provided as add-on-application to CAD systems.

DMU is implemented in early stage of project phase with creating a rough structure of the
product. Followed by defining main components and relating them to each other. Step-by-
step, the first 3D CAD models are attached to the product structure resulting in the growth
of the Digital Mock-up

The environment created by DMU thus allows engineers to design and configure complex
products and validate their designs without the need to build a physical model/prototype.so
DMU is frequently referred as Digital Prototyping or Virtual applications.
Is a complete virtual product environment for the whole process of the 3D product

It contains information about the product geometry EX: volume & surface
models, product structures.

DMU process are used for packaging studies, mounting & assembling simulations
and other 3D CAD based analysis & also linked with simulation procedures such
as kinematical simulation processes for optimization movable functionalities like
door opening mechanism, wheel suspension, movable component engines etc.
Benefits of DMU
 Building Virtual Product Models
Model is a representation of a system, process or theory, intended to enhance our
ability to understand, predict and possibly control the behaviour of the system
Ex: A 3D image on a computer screen, a prototype or an equation describing the
motion of a body/particle etc.
Virtual product development processes are based on product data models, which
are able to represent the specific product characteristics. 3D geometric models of
parts and assemblies of products.
Geometric modelling is the mathematical representation of an object’s geometry
using software technology.
The designer constructs a geometrical model based on product specific features,
which include production related details such as draft, fillets etc.
Solid modelling creates solid 3D models as if they are actual parts, with a logical
workflow which is similar to the processes which would be used to manufacture
the part. Solid models can intersects join and subtract objects from one another to
create the desired part.
The various techniques involved in solid modelling for building 3D models are
discussed below
1) Feature based modelling
2) Parametric modelling
Constructive solid geometry
Boundary representation
3) Feature based Parametric design
 Feature Based Modeling
A product model can be built by using desired features the approach known as
feature based modelling. The technique refers to the construction of geometries of
a product as a combination of form features from a standard library.
The designer specifies feature in engineering terms such as holes, slots from
feature menu.
From fig a the designer select the face in which the through hole feature is to be
located along with the location by inputting the co-ordinates or through a mouse.
The software program locates the feature in the desired position shown in fig b.
Each features is individually recognized by the software by means of interactive
feature definition. Feature recognition.
 Parametric Modeling
Is a term used to describe a dimension’s ability to change the shape of model
geometry as soon as the dimension value is modified.
Ex: when designing a pipe, thickness and the length can be dependent on the pipe
diameter. When the dia is changed thickness & length changes with an amount that
conserves the same proportions.
The designer thus need to alter only one parameter the other two parameters get
adjusted automatically. Hence the parametric models focus on the steps in creating
a shape and parameterize them.
There are two popular parametric models are
i) Constructive solid geometry ii) Boundary representation
Constructive solid geometry
Boundary Representation
 Feature Based Parametric Design (FBPD)
In this approach CAD that integrates the advantages of design-by-features and
parametric design.

The realization of this system requires an appropriate representation scheme. Here

parametric feature representation (PFRep) is introduced as incorporates the
application data of a feature based model with the generic data of a parametric
model.

Ex: The various features in manufacturing can be modeled parametrically and

collected in a feature library. Using this rapidly available features part models can be
modeled easier and faster.
 Analysing The Virtual Product models
Products are designed and developed to perform their intended function in a
specific environment.
CAE is a term used to describe the use of computer software in the product
engineering process & it allows a deeper analysis of the product (Dynamics,
Kinematics, stress analysis, finite element analysis etc
CAD is used to create a geometrical product representation with in a virtual
environment.
A few of the virtual methods utilizing CAE analysis are discussed as follows
1) Finite Element Analysis
2) Computational Fluid Dynamics
3) Multi body simulations
 Finite Element Analysis
FEA is the simulation of a given product or any given physical phenomenon using
numerical technique called Finite Element Method.

The techniques is used to calculate stress, deformation, thermal load, structural

dynamics or NHV (Noise, Vibration and Hardness) and predict the behaviour of
the product in the real physical environment.

Ex: A sitting chair can be analysed for stress distribution to identify critical
locations of failure & maximize the safe load in order to avoid failure.
 Computational Fluid Dynamics
In order to predicting the behaviour of products working under extreme
environments like liquid or gas flow, heating or cooling, chemical reactions,
turbulence, and other related physical phenomenon.
CFD is a term used to refer a wide spectrum of numerical methods used for
virtual analysing and predicting complex 3D, time independent flow phenomenon
related to products.
Ex: Simulating and analysing the flow of gas over the turbine blades, temperature
distribution in heat exchanger etc.
The data transfer from 3D CAD model into the CFD program is performed by
neutral standard data formats ( STEP, IGES etc). The boundary conditions for the
calculations are defined directly in the CFD program. Solvers like CFX, Fluent,
Nastran etc are few analysis software’s
 Multi Body Simulations

MBS is a computer tool with which multi body systems can be simulated using

computational methods.

MBS is a system in which one or more bodies are connected to each other with

joints. The body may be rigid, flexible or plain links that connect two pieces

together. The purpose of the joints is to limit the relative moment of the bodies.
 Production (Process) Planning & Control (PPC)

PPC includes the administration and organization of manufacturing relevant data

and procedures. Only the released product data are transferred into production
planning process. PPC data organized in BOM structures and based on 3D CAD
geometry, 2D drawings and additional manufacturing -relevant information.

Two important influencing factors in this regard are working schedule and
manufacturing resources.
Fistly the basic economic and operational functions of PPC include, the
management of customer orders, Project calculation, planning of requirements,
material logistics, production capacity calculations and the order release
organization.

Secondly PPC covers production control related tasks, such as production

management and control, operating data logging, controlling processes regarding
from quality and costs and shipment management.
 Product Structure
It describes the main parts or components, sub-components, assemblies and
document forms in a hierarchical way. Product structures explains the fact
regarding how the product is divided into components, which are in turn divided
into sub-components etc., there by giving the essential details in an organized
manner.

It also contains 3D model of parts, also contains meta-data that gives all
information about the parts like manufacturing process etc.,

Below Figure shows the product structure of a bicycle in its simplest form
 Product Data Technology
It includes all aspect of definition and methods of processing on data information
related to a product throughout its development and operational life-cycle.
The management of all data flow, processes and documents during the
development or modification of products across the product life cycle provides the
basis for an efficient virtual product generation
Product data can be classified into different categories as follows
 Product Configuration
Is an activity of customizing a product in order to meet the needs of a particular
customers. The product may consists of mechanical parts, services and
electronic/software. Since customers experience unique products adjusted to their
individual needs, so the companies shifting their way of thinking more customer
oriented products.
Ex: a customer can configure a variety of shoe styles, materials to create a uniquely
personalized pair of shoes.
Selecting a flat screen television, product variants like LCD or plasma screen, size
of the viewing area etc.
A product configurator is a software tool that performs online guide to help the
customers specify a product with desired specification by choosing all available
options. This tools helps transform customer requirements into BOM, list of
features, cost estimations an ultimately rapid manufacturing of product.
The configurator platform is built in such a manner have a clear separation
between the product data, information, functionality and presentation.

Figure shows the scope of configuration process

Benefits of Product Configurator
 Usage of PLM Tools
It is used to manage product structure and to store all data in a single database,
always every user to access the information by local computers.

Product structure keeps latest design information and by the help of PLM tools
every user can reach the latest design information for same time.

In PLM tools each detailed part/assembly is represented as an item in the product
structure with part number and part description. Detailed information about parts
like 3D drawing and meta data is kept under item revisions.
The item revisions are released in PLM tools as changes are controlled on item
revision accordingly. In case there is need to update parts the release of latest
revision item is revised again and new revision is updated accordingly to the
requirements.

Latest item revisions are thus linked to the product structure.

This will shows the importance of using PLM tools in the organization to manage
design data more suitable and protected way.
 Material Master Data
Is often referred as material master or item master countians description of a
materials that a company procures, produces, stores or sell. It is the central
respository of information on materials and contains information of a variety of
data elements including part number, describing technical specifications and
stock codes.
Material master is considered as the core functionality of any ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) system used in the distribution or manufacturing type
functions.
The description of individual materials used in a company is stored in material
master record
The following list shows some types of information on a material master record
provides examples of each
Characteristics of a Material Master Data
 Variant Management
Customers expect and demand not just a product that meets their functional needs, but
also one that is tailored specifically meet their expectations. This includes style, colour,
special features and conveniences of their choice. Ex: The variants of a motor bike may
include different style of design, colour, features etc. Bikes were developed with kick-
starting facility., however people starting expecting to have power starting along with the
kick-start facility.
Variant requests may come in the form of new requirements and behaviour from
customers and new suppliers from new market.
Variant management is a holistic approach to control and optimize product diversification
with respect to production costs and market strategy.
Bill of Materials (BOM) is a list of the raw materials, sub assemblies, intermediate
assemblies, sub-components, parts and quantities of each needed to manufacture an end
product. In certain instances it is referred as product structure
 Product Data Description
PDD is a hard/soft copy generated by company to provide the customers with
sufficient data/information regarding the features and characteristics of the product.
In-order to compel them to purchase the product with confidence.
Description can contain a brief write-up, photos/images, videos/animation in case of
online/web description etc.
By educating customers on the product’s key benefits, unique value proposition and
offering a solution to frustrating problem. Product description can help get more
sales, lower refund rates and build customer trust.
It can be written by well experienced Data Analyst or an Expert involved in editorial
works.
A good product description attracts customers and increase revenues,
A poorly written product description may turn away the potential customers from a
sale.
Some of the guidelines involved in writing product description are