POL-equipment-oriented product family clustering method

To satisfy demands of the army for oil facilities characterized by diversity, individualization, low costs and short delivery time, techniques for product family design are deployed for product family planning of oil facilities. Upon comprehensive analyzing of specific features of product family of oil facilities and logistic services, and with consideration to the two basic features of product family - modularity and generality, together with specific features of oil facilities, four attributes for product family clustering are highlighted, modularity, generality, military use and fuel oil guarantee. Weights of these attributes are determined through hierarchy process to construct comprehensive correlation matrix for facilities to assess relevancy of these four attributes. Improved hierarchy clustering algorithm is used for clustering of product family of oil facilities. Family classification of facilities under different clustering granularities can be expressed by using clustering tree to achieve clustering of oil facilities under different thresholds of similarity, i.e. clustering of product family of oil facilities. Finally, applicability of the clustering technique is verified by using specific examples.