On the Tradeoff Control to Concurrent Product and Process Design

Abstract

Concurrent product and process design may be modeled as a generalized two-objective optimization problem. The first objective characterizes "product design" with. the aim of best enhancing product functionality, while the second objective corresponds to "process de sign" with the aim of minimizing overall manufacturing costs. However, these performing goals may be mutually conflicting in arriving con currently at their respective optima, therefore, design tradeoffs must be settled in order to achieve a best compromise design. In this work, an adaptive tradeoff parameter, λ(0 ≤ λ ≤ 1.0), is introduced to adaptively control the progressive design tradeoffs between the two per forming goals by calibrating the tradeoff parameter λ over the interval of 0 to 1.0 A fuzzy control scheme is proposed to control the iteration-based design tradeoffs with concurrent design progression for an optimal compromise selttlement in design. Three design models are presented to accommodate different tradeoff scenarios in concurrent design. The proposed approach is illustrated through the case study of a welded beam design.