Most of the previous studies on cost and quality issues have been carried out separately. However, it is well known that the two issues are closely related and sometimes conflicting with each other - optimizing one may be detrimental to the other. The lack of synergy between the cost and quality related studies inevitably undermines the significance of the solutions. When machining cost is to be minimized, machining parameters are traditionally considered whereas tolerance related parameters are often neglected. Similarly, when dealing with quality issues, process mean and process tolerance are routinely used as the sole decision variables. This paper reports an integrated approach for jointly solving machining parameter selection and tolerance design problems to avoid inconsistent and infeasible decisions. The integrated problem is formulated as a bicriterion model to handle both tangible and intangible costs. The model is solved using a modified Chebyshev goal programming method to achieve a preferred compromise between the two conflicting criteria. The decisions on process selection, machining parameter selections and tolerance design can be made simultaneously using the model.
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