An interactive particle swarm optimisation for selecting a product family and designing its supply chain

A platform-based product development with mixed market-modular strategy can maintain product differentiation and help trade-off the cost and price premium drawing capability. This paper formulates a multi-objective problem to select a product family and design its supply chain and uses an Interactive Particle Swarm Optimisation (IPSO) approach. A case study for a wiring harness supplier of an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) manufacturer is considered and IPSO is implemented to solve it. The results establish that the platform-based product development serves the purpose of maintaining market diversity with near optimal cost and profits; more explorative insights are concern of future research.