Abstract

Collaborative products are created by combining components from two or more products to result in a new product that performs previously unattainable tasks. The resulting reduction in cost, weight, and size of a set of products needed to perform a set of functions makes collaborative products useful in the developing world. In this thesis, multiobjective optimization is used to design a set of products for optimal individual and collaborative performance. This is introduced through a nine step method which simultaneously optimizes multiple products both individually and collaboratively. The method searches through multiple complex design spaces while dealing with various trade-offs between products in order to optimize their collaborative performance. An example is provided to illustrate this method and demonstrate its usefulness in designing collaborative products for both the developed and developing world. We conclude that the presented method is a novel, useful approach for designing collaborative products while balancing the inherent trade-offs between the performance of collaborative products and the product sets used to create them.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Mechanical Engineering

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2013-05-23

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd6185

Keywords

collaborative products, multiobjective optimization, poverty alleviation, product decomposition, reconfigurable products, modular products

Language

English

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