About the product v version doubt, probably I didn't ask the right
question. I will try to clarify and explain more about my research
(Ph.D.).
I am in a group working on engineering design support systems. In my
case I am dealing with the design history of a product, and more
specifically with the design intent of a product. So when a product is
being redesign, many pieces of information are produced (e.g. sketches,
drawings, concepts, etc.), the important piece of information I am more
interested in, is the design intent.
Now, we are developing database (or knowledge-base) structures (using
Unified Modeling Language) to store the information. In this structures
the relationships are "is a", "has", "uses" and some others, but these
are the more used. This way we can express the next idea: A system "is
a" product, the system "has" subsystems, the subsystem "has" parts and
the part "has" components. On the other hand in the structure we can
have a class named "view" and say a product "has" views (manufacture,
assembly, ergonomics, aesthetics, etc), many perspectives from which the
product can be "described". And many other classes that describe how the
information should be stored to provide the engineering designer with a
tool to make decisions.
In the case of the product and version, when a product is being
redesigned, depending on the level of redesign some new conceptual ideas
needs to be produced (and evaluate each idea then choose one, and follow
all the design process stages), or do a detail design level and changes
in geometry, materials or tolerances are made. In these changes there is
an intent of the designer: "Why" these changes are made. And as a
complementary information the "effects" of the changes in all the
different views a product has, and a global evaluation of the changes is
done.
So in the case of the Dyson cleaner (I am not using the term vacuum on
purpose), as I was saying when competitors redesign their cleaners, and
change the concept (the cyclone concept is new for carpet cleaners), are
they producing a new product or a new version of the same product?. This
is to have an structure that better reflects how the information can be
stored and used.
I hope this is clear enough to explain the why of my doubts. If someone
is interested I can send an accepted paper for the EDC2002.
Thanks in advanced
Adrian
|