Towards joint optimization of product design, process planning and production planning in multi-product assembly

Abstract Offering product variety is crucial for satisfying diverse customer needs. Although product design, process and production planning related decisions are interdependent, they are conventionally made by different divisions, separately for each product, resulting in excess costs. This paper proposes a methodology for increasing investment efficiency by the joint optimization of product design, process and production planning for a family of products. Tolerance allocation, as a sub-problem of product design, and assembly resource configuration, regarding process planning, are solved jointly, with a foresight on long-term production planning. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated through an industrial case study.