1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX MODULARIZING PRODUCT ARCHITECTURES USING DENDROGRAMS

Finding common modules across products for platforming a product family or to find a common module for joint development with a partner can be challenging. At the moment there are no repeatable methods for grouping functions into modules and for choosing from different module candidates to form a good platform. We have developed a five-step algorithm that accomplishes this task of grouping and creating a dendrogram. The algorithm is based on a metric, distance function, which we define in the paper. The salient features of this algorithm are: it applies to modularization among simple as well as complex systems; it addresses the synthesis issue by a method that creates a hierarchy of modules, it does not rely on qualitative ordinal measures; it does not rely on non-repeatable heuristics, and it can be implemented and executed in a computer. The algorithm is applied on a group of four products: an intraoral camera, electronic pipette, pencil sharpener, and a fruit/veggie peeler