Design of Wire Harnesses for Mass Customization

The paper focuses on the design of wire harness assemblies for mass customization by a delayed product differentiation. In order to manufacture broadly diversified products, two algorithms are proposed both using a generic representation of wire harness with all options and variants in order to produce each wire harness in a short period of time. An industrial case study is presented in a contractor/supplier context, where the supplier must respond in a short time and provide a totally diversified product, which is to be delivered according to the specifications provided by the contractor. In the particular case described above, two different algorithms are applied and compared.