scholarly journals Constraint satisfaction approach to product configuration with cost estimation

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Constraint Satisfaction ◽  
Cost Estimation ◽  
Product Configuration

Reasoning about conditional constraint specification problems and feature models

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Finkel ◽  
Barry O'Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Constraint Satisfaction ◽  
Directed Acyclic Graphs ◽  
Constraint Satisfaction Problems ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Feature Models ◽  
Model Builder ◽  
A Value ◽  
Acyclic Graphs ◽  
All Solutions ◽  
Constraint Specification

AbstractProduct configuration is a major industrial application domain for constraint satisfaction techniques. Conditional constraint satisfaction problems (CCSPs) and feature models (FMs) have been developed to represent configuration problems in a natural way. CCSPs are like constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs), but they also include potential variables, which might or might not exist in any given solution, as well as classical variables, which are required to take a value in every solution. CCSPs model, for example, options on a car, for which the style of sunroof (a variable) only makes sense if the car has a sunroof at all. FMs are directed acyclic graphs of features with constraints on edges. FMs model, for example, cell phone features, where utility functions are required, but the particular utility function “games” is optional, but requires Java support. We show that existing techniques from formal methods and answer set programming can be used to naturally model CCSPs and FMs. We demonstrate configurators in both approaches. An advantage of these approaches is that the model builder does not have to reformulate the CCSP or FM into a classic CSP, converting potential variables into classical variables by adding a “does not exist” value and modifying the problem constraints. Our configurators automatically reason about the model itself, enumerating all solutions and discovering several kinds of model flaws.

scholarly journals MULTI-SITE PRODUCT CONFIGURATION OF TELECOMMUNICATION SWITCHES

2014 ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Alexander Felfernig ◽  
Gerhard Friedrich ◽  
Dietmar Jannach ◽  
Christian Russ ◽  
Markus Zanker
Keyword(s):  
Constraint Satisfaction ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Problem Domain ◽  
Implementation Framework ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Distributed Problem Solving ◽  
Complex Solutions ◽  
Networked Economy ◽  
Configurable Products

Knowledge­based product configurators support their users in tailoring configurable products according to their specific demands and these systems have been successfully applied in many industrial sectors over the last decades. However, within today’s networked economy, the complex solutions of fered to the customers are in many cases assembled from configurable sub­products themselves. Within this paper we describe a business case where due to organisational and confidentiality reasons a single­configurator approach is not applicable and several configurators along the supply chain must cooperate in finding correct product configurations and in presenting them to an online customer. We present an algorithm based on Constraint Satisfaction that takes the specific characteristics of the problem domain into account and compare our approach to other work in the field of Distributed Problem Solving. The implementation framework for distributed configuration which is currently developed in the EU­funded project CAWICOMS1 is discussed in the final sections.

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