Web-based configuration design system for product customization

Abstract

In mass customization, web-centric knowledge-based configuration systems have become an important tool to help customers configure products that satisfy their different needs and the complex configuration constraints of a product family (PF). An effective knowledge representation scheme and the associated reasoning mechanisms are essential for the success of these systems. This paper presents an object-oriented approach that integrates the functional and structural models of a PF with design process knowledge. Invasion-based search algorithms are proposed to deal with different situations in product customization and heuristic knowledge is introduced in these algorithms to improve the search efficiency. Optimization models have been constructed in terms of customers' preferences to provide them with the highest satisfaction in product customization. Based on the representation scheme and reasoning algorithms, a web-based configuration system prototype is developed to support product customization. An example of a bicycle family is used as a study case and described in details.

Mass customization strategy development by FIRM

“…The personal relationship between customers and fi rms through the Internet will develop over time. 31,32 With Web-based confi guration design systems, engineering changes for ordered products may be handled more easily. They could be integrated with production control and planning systems to coordinate suppliers and cross-organizational production processes, allowing them to be more fl exible, effi cient and tractable.…”

Overcoming the customization-responsiveness squeeze by using product configurators: Beyond anecdotal evidence

“…Prior research on product configurators has focused on technical or application development issues, such as the logic structures that improve the modeling of product configuration knowledge (e.g., [13][14][15][16][17]) or the algorithms that make product configurators faster and more accurate (e.g., [18][19][20][21][22]). Fewer studies have treated the impact of product configurator use on company performance [6,2,23] and most of them are single-case studies whose findings may be legitimately questioned in terms of generalizability [24,25].…”

Procedure Phases for Configuration System Development

“…Much of what has been written about product configurators has been from a technical or application development perspectives [10] [11]. Many studies, for instance, have investigated how to improve the modeling of product configuration knowledge [12][13] [14], or what algorithms make product configurators faster and more accurate [15] [16].…”