A core challenge in product family optimization is to jointly determine (1) the optimal selection of components to be shared across product variants and (2) the optimal values for design variables that define those components. Each of these subtasks depends on the other; however, due to the combinatorial nature and high computational cost of the joint problem, prior methods have forgone optimality of the full problem by fixing the platform a priori, restricting the platform configuration to all-or-none component sharing, or optimizing the joint problem in multiple stages. In this paper, we address these restrictions by (1) introducing an extended metric to account for generalized commonality, (2) relaxing the metric to the continuous space to enable gradient-based optimization, and (3) proposing a decomposed single-stage method for optimizing the joint problem. The approach is demonstrated on a family of ten bathroom scales. Results indicate that generalized commonality dramatically improves the quality of optimal solutions, and the decomposed single-stage approach offers substantial improvement in scalability and tractability of the joint problem, providing a practical tool for optimizing families consisting of many variants.
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e-mail: aida@cmu.edu
e-mail: jmichalek@cmu.edu
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July 2008
Research Papers
A Decomposed Gradient-Based Approach for Generalized Platform Selection and Variant Design in Product Family Optimization
Aida Khajavirad,
Aida Khajavirad
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: aida@cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University
, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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Jeremy J. Michalek
Jeremy J. Michalek
Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Engineering and Public Policy,
e-mail: jmichalek@cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University
, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Search for other works by this author on:
Aida Khajavirad
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University
, Pittsburgh, PA 15213e-mail: aida@cmu.edu
Jeremy J. Michalek
Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Engineering and Public Policy,
Carnegie Mellon University
, Pittsburgh, PA 15213e-mail: jmichalek@cmu.edu
J. Mech. Des. Jul 2008, 130(7): 071101 (8 pages)
Published Online: May 19, 2008
Article history
Received:
July 18, 2007
Revised:
October 19, 2007
Published:
May 19, 2008
Citation
Khajavirad, A., and Michalek, J. J. (May 19, 2008). "A Decomposed Gradient-Based Approach for Generalized Platform Selection and Variant Design in Product Family Optimization." ASME. J. Mech. Des. July 2008; 130(7): 071101. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2918906
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