Concurrent optimization of the design and manufacturing stages of product development

The problem of concurrent optimization of the design and the process planning stages when a new product is developed is addressed. The paper advocates for a simultaneous approach rather than the traditional sequential one. A mathematical representation of this approach is given for these two stages. A mathematical programming technique is used to find the optimal values of the design and the process characteristics. The objective function is a quality loss function. The constraints are the customer requirements, the product's specification limits, the parts' dimensional limits and the process capability. The traditional sequential approach of concurrent engineering is compared with the proposed simultaneous approach. A parametric analysis of the objective function is performed by applying an interactive multi-objective goal programming technique. A numerical example of a low-pass electrical circuit is given. It is shown that the proposed approach leads to better efficient solutions than the sequential approach. The decision-maker interacts with the optimization process and can choose the efficient solution that best satisfies the company's needs.