Optimal concurrent product design and process planning based on the requirements of individual customers in one-of-a-kind production

One-of-a-kind production is a new manufacturing paradigm for producing customised products based on the requirements of individual customers while maintaining the quality and efficiency of mass production. This research addresses the issues in optimal concurrent product design and process planning based on the requirements of individual customers. In this work, a hybrid AND-OR graph is developed to model the variations of design configurations/parameters and manufacturing processes/parameters in a generic product family. Since different design configurations and parameters can be created from the same customer requirements, and each design can be further achieved through alternative manufacturing processes and parameters, co-evolutionary genetic programming and numerical optimisation are employed to identify the optimal product design configuration/parameters and manufacturing process/parameters. A case study is introduced to identify the optimal design configuration/parameters and manufacturing process/parameters of custom window products of an industrial company to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed method.