Multi-objective product configuration involving new components under uncertainty

Abstract

Product configuration is a process of selecting suitable and compatible components for a product, arranging them, and then seeking one or more optimal options. To date, many researchers have studied its modelling, representing methods, and optimising approaches. However, uncertainty while involving new components, uncertain factors in supply chain and market, and imprecision and vagueness in customer requirements for configuration are always ignored. This paper identifies the uncertainty in configuration and proposes a fuzzy multi-objective optimisation algorithm to seek an optimal configuration scheme considering uncertainty. Multi-objective evaluation criteria are utilised to assess lifecycle cost, time to market, and serviceability of configuration options, Pareto optimality is applied to resolve conflicts between different configuration goals, a fuzzy set method is used to deal with imprecise estimated parameter values and a two-aspect judgment is proposed to balance expected values and worst case values in configuration. Compatibilities between components are also considered. The importance of optimisation objectives is determined according to different customers’ requirements, and the desired configuration option is obtained through comparing the results. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated through a case of configuring laptop computers, and a sensitivity analysis.

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