Manufacturers add numerous product variants to address different customer preferences for mass customization. One approach to implement the mass customization is to develop or produce products based on the platform architecture. A platform is a set of common components, modules or parts shared by product variants in one product family. One product variant makes use of the platform as the starting point and then add or remove components to change features of the product. The problem of determining the platform configuration is considered as maximizing the overall profit under the price-dependent demand market environment while satisfying the part assembly constraints. Platform configuration and sale prices are decision variables in the problem. A strategy based on Genetic Algorithm is proposed to solve the illustrating problem involving the product family of cordless drills. Results manifest that the sale price decision could have significant influence on the product family design, e.g. the platform configuration and the profitability of one product family.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.