A heuristic method based on genetic algorithm for the baseline-product design

Product family planning is important for mass customization. All the products in a product family are actually transformed from a common product, which is referred to as baseline-product in this study. In this paper, we propose a heuristic method for the baseline-product design within a product family. The proposed heuristic method is based on the genetic algorithm (GA). In contrast to the existing methods for product family planning that need users to specify baseline-product prior to optimize it, the new GA-based method proposed by this paper focuses on searching a proper balance between the commonality of baseline-product and the performance of product family derived from the baseline-product. The method improves as more commonality of the baseline-product as possible, within the satisfactory of the diverse customer needs, and then determines the variable product attributes and their variation ranges, and the common parameters of the baseline-product and their optimal values. This method of baseline-product design is validated by a case study of the small-size induction motor design. At last we compare the results from our GA-based method with the benchmark products that are individually designed to the optimal performance.