A Multi - Objective Integer Programming Framework For Product Design

This paper describes a modeling framework for product design that facilitates the incorporation of both engineering and strategic considerations at the design stage. We rst develop an abstract representation of a generic product, an AND/OR tree, that is context-independent and can be used to model a wide variety of products in di erent application settings. We show how this representation leads naturally to a mathematical model and discuss some of the properties of this model. Next, we show how the AND/OR tree can be employed in di erent settings; speci cally, we describe applications to printed circuit assembly, and microwave module industries. These applications result in multiobjective integer programming formulations. We discuss the properties of these formulations, develop appropriate solution procedures, and report our computational experience. One of the advantages of the framework that we describe is the ease with which it can be extended to incorporate additional considerations. We indicate some some possible extensions that might nd ready applicability in industry.