Conflict coordination method for complex product performance specifications based on game theory

Determining the proper performance specifications of a complex product under design is the first key step and prerequisite for a successful product design, which determines the length of the design cycle and the success or failure of the design. Usually, a set of design parameters can contribute to a set of complex product performance specifications in a complex and conflicting way, resulting in a set of conflicting performance specifications, coupled with a set of conflicting design parameters. Therefore, to properly determine a set of performance specifications' values, and how to coordinate conflicting design parameters' values to have well-balanced performance specifications' values is a challenging problem in complex product design. This article proposes a conflict coordination method for determining performance specifications' values based on game theory. The method has a novel way to identify the conflicts among design parameters against performance specifications based on the constraint satisfaction problem solving and sensitivity analysis. Among identified conflicting design parameters, a game theory-based coordination model for best reasonably setting up the conflicting design parameters is developed for obtaining well-balanced performance specifications. This coordination model incorporates non-cooperative and master–slave gaming mechanisms, and it is solved by a hybrid game balanced solving algorithm based on the elite information exchange strategy and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified with a case study.