Towards the evolution characteristics of product structural properties based on the time-dependent network

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Product structural properties are fundamental in product structure optimisation and design. Due to the inevitable evolution of products, product structural properties also change accordingly. Although the evolution of the product structure has been preliminarily investigated, it is mainly analyzed from the viewpoint of commonalities for product generations, and the evolution trend of product structure across product generations has not been well explored. To provide product development direction for designers, this study aims at uncovering the evolution characteristics of product structural properties based on the time-dependent network model. Firstly, weighted time-dependent networks are constructed to represent the cross-generation product structures. Secondly, product structural properties (including complexity, importance, and robustness) are analyzed benefited from topology similarities between product structures and complex networks. Thirdly, 25 generations of iPhones are selected to analyze the evolution characteristics of product structural properties. The results show that in the evolution of product structures, the complexity of the product is decreasing while core components are becoming more complex owing to scale-free property. And the core components are always important in each product generation. Additionally, the evolving product structural networks are highly robust in random failure of components (RFC) and vulnerable in the failure of core components (FCC).