Representative benchmark for concurrent product and process configuration problem: Definitions and some problem instances

This paper considers the Optimization of Concurrent Product and Process Configuration problems (O-CPPC) that satisfy various number of criteria, which rely on the customer's requirements and the objectives of the company. Various works have proposed evolutionary optimization algorithms dedicated to this concurrent configuration problem with generic model propositions due to this paper is relevant to the evaluation of these optimization algorithms. The aim of this paper is to define a set of instances of the generic model that represent a large family of problems. First, a background of the Optimization of Concurrent Product and Process Configuration problems is introduced. Next, some basic definitions of an O-CPPC generic model are analyzed. Then, the main general parameters to define an instance are presented (Product Structure, Process Structure, Model Size and Model Constraint Density) in order to propose some general evaluation tests. And finally, to be consistent with the previous works, some basic cases are described to show how to deal with this kind of problem in an organized way.