Enhanced Function Structure Applicability through Adaptive Function Templates

The concept of function structures is well-established in early phases of engineering design for clarifying product functions. In addition, it forms the basis for the synthesis of solution principles with morphological boxes. Besides benefits, disadvantages remain with its application. First, function structures typically depend on the background their operator. If several persons with diverse backgrounds create function structures, results may be diverging. Second, function structures are non-reversible. It is easy to conceptualize function structures with given products in mind as well as to turn already existing structures into products. However, with unknown context and main functions of existing products there is no method to elaborate unambiguous function structures reversely from those products. Third, function structures are poorly applicable when mixed levels of product embodiment prevail. To overcome those shortages, an improved approach is proposed in this paper. It relies on function templates that are based on already existing function carriers. This is achieved by conceiving building blocks for functions not only consisting of the function description but also of possible function carriers and all subfunctions. For them the same principle of decomposition applies; down to the stage of elementary functions. The conception of pre-created templates helps generating unambiguous structures. By providing context information due to function carrier inclusion, solutions become traceable. Through the templates’ adaptive nature, mixed levels get manageable. The paper concludes with discussing the approach regarding the development of multi-technology machine tools. To resolve these challenges, function templates are chosen that are based on the technology chain elements of the manufacturing process.