Characterization of sequential optimization strategies in concurrent product and process design: a dual-team approach

In team-based design optimization, one type of workflow is relevant to sequential design decision-making; that is, one team's design decision goes after another team's in an alternate fashion. However, the strategies in use for sequential optimization significantly affect the final design solutions. Conventionally, the over-the-wall strategy and the Stackelberg solution strategy from game theory are extensively used for sequential optimization. In this paper, these strategies are extended to cover more design case scenarios in sequential optimization. A dual-team approach is presented to model, in particular, concurrent product and process design (CPPD) using a bi-objective optimization formalism in which a team acts as a decision maker towards a design objective. By differentiating the role of a team in sequential optimization, a set of sequential optimization strategies is provided for CPPD applications. Four CPPD models are accordingly derived to account for four case scenarios in CPPD. The implementation-related algorithms are also presented, along with an example illustration, to support computational design executions.