Constraint Satisfaction Approach on Product Configuration with Cost Estimation

Due to its flexibility and generality, the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) has been considered as an effective approach for solving product configuration problems. However, classical CSP-based configuration systems are not powerful enough to capture the inherent natures of configuration problems, such as undetermined number of components and the internal structure of components. We propose an extended constraint satisfaction schema that captures and takes advantage of the hierarchy of constituents and the derivation relationships among those constituents from the view of product family design, such that the constraint network of the CSP-based configuration extends incrementally. We also integrate cost estimation with the configuration process.