Application of genetic algorithms in cost estimation of gearing products

摘要

Cost estimation is widely used to improve product design, bid for orders, and reduce unnecessary activities in the manufacturing industry. Past experience, current working situations, and product requirements are the essential factors for estimating the cost for any product. Product requirements are the inputs for the cost estimation activity. Possible prices for new products are the outputs of cost estimation for making bidding decisions. Both speed and accuracy are important considerations in cost estimations. Among the current available cost estimation methods (parametric methods, case-based methods, and analytical methods), case-based methods are the ones which best meet such requirements. To obtain the most similar cases for new products, a GA-based classification method is introduced for gear product cost estimation. Based on the classification results, a matching method similar to the fitness evaluation in the proposed GA classification method is applied to retrieve similar cases and calculate costs for new products.