The organization of a system’s or product’s function into physical sections or components is referred to as product architecture. It refers to how functional parts are chunked or organized, as well as how they interact. It is also known as the “method of mapping the function to form” in simpler terms.
Product architecture, according to Professor Karl T. Ulrich, a thought leader in innovation and product design, is the “system by which the function of a product is allocated to physical components.” In this design, there are four fundamental steps:
- Schematic creation for a product
- The elements of the schematic are grouped together.
- Creating a geometric design
- Interactions that are both fundamental and coincidental are identified.