Designing Product Families for a Changing Market Space Available to Purchase

The Product Platform Constructal Theory Method (PPCTM) provides designers with an approach for synthesizing multiple modes of managing customization in the development of product platforms. An assumption underlying PPCTM is that the extent of the market space is known and is fixed. In this paper, we introduce PPCTM-RCM (Robust to Changes in Market) that facilitates designing product platforms when the extent of the market space is expected to change. The PPCTM-RCM is illustrated via example problem, namely, the design of a product platform for a line of customizable pressure vessels. Our focus in this paper is on highlighting features of the method rather than results per se.