Integrating optimal process and supplier selection in personalised product architecture design
提出一种并行优化方法，将制造流程和供应商选择整合到个性化产品架构设计中，通过建立成本模型和混合整数优化模型最大化产品系列利润，并用遗传算法求解，在自行车案例中证明比传统顺序设计更优。
A key enabler for personalised product design is an open product architecture that allows the integration of personalised modules to create unique products. Decisions regarding product variety, module combinations, and configurations for personalised modules need to be coordinated with the decisions of manufacturing process and supplier selection when developing personalised product architectures. Conventionally, product architecture, processes, and suppliers are independently determined at different product development stages. However, this sequential design process lacks connection between product architecture, process, and supplier, and may lead to suboptimal or even infeasible design solutions with compromised performance. In this study, a concurrent optimisation approach is proposed to integrate manufacturing process and supplier selection into personalised product architecture design. A cost model is developed as a nexus of product architecture, process, and supplier. Then, a mixed-integer optimisation model is established to maximise the potential profit of a product family based on a profit formulation that incorporates customer preference, process resource, supplier, and manufacturing cost. A genetic algorithm is utilised to solve this optimisation problem. The method is demonstrated on the architecture design for a family of personalised bicycles. The result shows that concurrent optimisation can achieve design solutions with higher profitability compared to sequential design strategies.