Product Architecture
👋🏼
Remember when we played with wooden blocks to make a building or stacked them on each other?
This part of the design process excites me! Through this post, I’ll dive in more to share my experience doing this. I’ll touch upon:
What is product architecture?
When do you use it?
Why it could lead to the next-gen innovation?
A design process entails strategy, deep understanding, ideation and careful planning to come up with a successful product. One of the processes that often get overlooked is product architecture which is a backbone of how the product would look like, user interface and its functions.
Product architecture plays a key role in assembly sequences, reuse of production facilities, flexibility and risk mitigation. Once the product is developed, product architecture also guides about how the product is to be updated and recycled, and how service is to be delivered. This comes in handy during the later stages of the product PLM.
What is product architecture?
Product architecture is defined as the process of determining a cluster of physical parts, their functions and their relationships with each other. It encompasses the interaction between these clusters and also defines the user’s interaction with the product. A well-designed product architecture provides a clear roadmap for the development process, ensuring that all team members are aligned and working towards the same goals. It also helps in identifying potential challenges and opportunities early in the design process, allowing for more informed decision-making.
There are 2 types of product architectures:
Modular: Products made with the intent of customization, upgrading and developing variants that are functionally self-contained modules.
Integral: Integral architecture focuses on function, purpose and inner workings of each feature tailored to work together.
When do you use it?
Product architecture plays an important role in all aspects of a product - from designing, making, selling, and repairing it. While in the designing phase, product architecture influences how development work is bifurcated how platforms are structured, how reuse and standardization are accomplished and where sub-assembly and module boundaries are. Product architecture can be developed in 4 steps:
Creating schematics
Grouping features and functions
Making a geometric layout and drawing connections of each module
Visually depicting how they interact with each other.
Why it could lead to the next-gen innovation?
Product architecture can prove to be a great strategy to influence every part of the process of product development. Its role in enabling flexibility, and efficiency and improving cross-functional collaboration can make the product cost-effective while keeping the quality up to date. Some of the other advantages of using product architecture while designing are:
Product modularity and standardization
Enhances cross-functional communication
Supports product variety and customization
Improves product performance and upgrades
Aligns with the supply chain and manufacturing process
Credits and references:
Productplan.com
Product Design and Development
Consensus.(2024). The Importance of Product Architecture in Product Design
…so, if you have stuck around until now, I appreciate you and would love to hear your comments.
I am Amruta, an industrial designer building physical products and experiences in the fields of healthcare, biotech and sustainability to make new technology, easily accessible. I love to talk about tech that impacts how we take care of our health and some disrupting processes. Thanks for visiting my website :)