Concurrent Optimization of Product Design and Manufacturing Based on Information of Users' Needs

Abstract

A user-oriented product design methodology for integrating design, manufacturing, and marketing is proposed, and the practical design optimization procedures are constructed and presented. First, market demand analyses are conducted by dividing users into groups based on information analysis of users. The product satisfaction level of each group is formulated using the users' satisfaction levels for product attributes. Next, in order to obtain optimum design solutions effectively in the integrated decision-making processes of design, manufacturing, and marketing (which include an enormous number of decision variables), multiphase procedures of design optimization are constructed according to simplicity levels of shape modelings having evaluable structural characteristics and manufacturing costs. Then, practical design decision-making procedures from the extraction of design alternatives through the determination of detailed decision variables are described corresponding to multiphase modeling starting with simplified models and advancing to detailed models. Here, the objective function of decision making is to maximize the satisfaction level of the product user. Finally, the proposed integrated design optimization method is applied to industrial robots for demonstrating the effectiveness of the method.