The objective of this collaborative Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) is to explore the interrelationships between enterprise product planning and engineering product development and to formalize their coordination process using a multilevel optimization approach, including consideration of uncertainty. Design of artifacts has been successfully modeled previously using distributed multilevel mathematical optimization methodologies from the engineering perspective, but linking the business and engineering disciplines in the same framework is an emerging area. Integrating manufacturing-driven considerations is a high risk endeavor, since it requires sophisticated models that vary dramatically with the product and processes involved. Treatment of uncertainty (representation, quantification, and propagation) will pose an additional challenge in this research.
The proposed project is exploratory but will have a profound impact on the design of complex engineering systems across a range of industries and products. If successful, the proposed research will offer a rigorous but practical approach to the organizational and computational challenges in complex engineering system design. A deeper, fundamental understanding of the interaction between market and engineering modeling and decision making will be gained. The research will be integrated into courses at multiple institutions, sharing teaching materials, methods, and exemplars, and piloting new teaching directions in design education.
