A dynamic model for the redesign of a product and its upstream supply chain integrating PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) approach

This paper deals with a recent approach that tackles the product and the supply chain design issues at the same time. The simultaneous design of a product and its supply chain is relevant. In fact, supply chain decisions incorporated during the early phases of the product design enhance its performance. Therefore, collaboration among all supply chain partners is very important, especially at the product design phase. In this paper, we investigate the role of the PLM (Product Life Cycle Management) as a key to integrating product and supply chain optimization. We study the case of an existing product´s redesign. The design change affects either the components or the process of the product or both of them at once. First, we present an UML model for designing the product and its supply chain integrating PLM. Then, we propose a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation to determine simultaneously the optimal redesign alternative accompanied with its optimal upstream supply chain configuration. Being at a strategic design, time periods in the mathematical model are considered to be product life cycle phases. This consideration gave a dynamic aspect to the model. Finally a numerical example is given to illustrate the application of the model.