At the end of the course, the students shall understand the benefits of product configuration in the context of Product Lifecycle Management and be able to use appropriate tools (mainly constraint-based) to find solutions for configuration requirements arising in practice.

OrganizationOnline course (in BigBlueButton), starting on 2023-10-209 synchronous sessions on Fridays 10:00 - 12:00 (incl. 15 min break)Between the sessions, students watch pre-recorded lectures and solve exercises (homework)During the sessions, students present their solutions and we discuss lecture contents and questionsGrading (exam) comprises50% - Exercises solved in homework (individually or in pairs)15% - Presentations and other contributions during the course (individually or in pairs)35% - Multiple-choice test with CheckR at the end of the last lesson (individually)

OverviewWho needs configuration (i.e. individualization of products and services) and what for?Typical examples from long-time experience with configuring complex technical systemsKey technologies (especially constraint solving) for tackling product configuration problemsTopicsWhat is product configuration? Real-word examples from mass customization to engineer-to-orderModelling of knowledge bases (product variability, constraints, logic), debugging and testingUser interaction and use cases (check, solve, optimize, reconfigure)Constraint Satisfaction Problem and variants (GCSP), Constraint Optimization ProblemTackling performance issues: e.g., pre-compilation, local search, symmetry breakingDiagnosis of inconsistent configurations and knowledge basesAdvanced topics, e.g., solution and systems configuration, configuration and data analytics, product and production configuration, sustainability challengesPractical work with open-source tools, mainly MiniZinc (alternatively other constraint solvers)

Basic knowledge in logics and in data modeling

Grading comprises:50% - Exercises solved in homework (individually or in pairs)15% - Presentations and other contributions during the course (individually or in pairs)35% - Multiple-choice test with CheckR at the end of the last lesson (individually)

Product configuration and its benefits and contextConfiguration technologiesVariant tablesDecision diagramsFeature modelsPropositional logic and ASPConstraint satisfactionConstraint optimizationObject-oriented constraint satisfactionQualityConflict detection and diagnosisPerformance tuningSystem configurationProduction configuration

50% - Exercises solved in homework (individually or in pairs)Defined maximum points per exercise (50 in total)Submitted solutions will be reviewed; points will be awarded corresponding to solution quality15% - Presentations and other contributions during the course (individually or in pairs)Up to 10 points for successful presentation (presenters chosen randomly)In case of pairs, both contributors need to contribute to presentationUp to 5 points for other significant contributions in lessons35% - Multiple-choice test with CheckR at the end of the last lesson (individually)Duration: 45 minutes (45 questions)Each question offers several answers which may be true or falseYou earn one point for each question where you select the correct combination of all true answers (could be any number, incl. zero or all)Grade derived from sum: >85% → 1>70% → 2>60% → 3>50% → 4