Robust supplier set selection for changing product architectures

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In today's era of dynamic customer demands and rapidly evolving technologies, there is a need for manufacturers to understand the implications of continually changing product architectures on their supply chain. This study proposes a methodology based on Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) for robust supplier selection to effectively cater to varying product architectures at minimum total acquisition costs. Taguchi's quality loss concept is used to evaluate how well the individual components/subassemblies supplied by the suppliers cost-effectively meet the customer needs over a given planning horizon. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using an example of a cell phone product family.