Product platform configuration decision in NPD with uncertain demands and module options
研究了在需求不确定和模块选项下，如何通过结合模块选择和模块集成来优化产品平台配置，提出一种混合模拟退火和变邻域搜索的算法，为产品开发提供成本效益高的解决方案。
Platform-based product development is a cost-efficient approach to satisfy wide range of customer preferences. One important problem is the product platform configuration, in which two types of platform configuration are widely used, either module selection or module integration. The platform configuration based on module selection provides a broader solution space of platform selection, while module integration facilitates product platform commonality to gain economic benefits. Up to date, most research focused on the platform configuration based on module selection with a given module set. In this paper, we propose a new model to determine the optimal platform configuration for an external product family, considering both module selection and integration. The demand for the external product family is uncertain and assumed to follow normal distribution. A hybrid methodology combining simulated annealing and variable neighbourhood search is proposed. A numerical examination is carried out for the purpose of evaluation. The results show that the proposed model can provide a practically good solution. Main contributions of this research are two folds, one is the balance point between module selection and module integration in the platform configuration and the other is that we take into account the operation cost of module acquisition to the platform configuration problem.