Research on optimal design problem throughout commonalization, customization and lineup arrangement for product family deployment

This research discusses an optimal design problem for product family deployment under a wider perspective throughout commonalization, customization and lineup arrangement. In the discussion, commonalization is viewed as the operation that restricts the feasible region by fixing a set of design variables related to commonalized components or modules, customization is viewed as the operation that adjusts another set of design variables related to reserved freedom, and lineup arrangement toward individual customer's needs is possible within ones that are feasible under commonalization and customization. This paper defines the mathematical fundamentals of the design problem throughout these aspects under the viewpoint of optimal design paradigm. That is, the mathematical formulation is generally defined, its mathematical structure is revealed with a concept of active set strategy, and the modes of the optimal solution are explored toward developing any computational approach for effectively solving such complex design problems. Finally, a case study is demonstrated with a design problem of product family deployment of centrifugal compressors for illustrating the optimality in the throughout design.