Solutions and minimal conflict search for product configuration: a case study

We consider a product configuration problem for high-performance pumps and valves, where feasible configurations are defined by restriction tables. For this problem we propose a Constraint Programming based model to find preferred solutions and to detect conflicts. We introduce an algorithm for enumerating minimal conflicts and their resolutions. The paper highlights two primary use cases: assisting sales personnel to resolve conflicts that arise during product configuration when not all the customer requirements can be met simultaneously and aiding product modelers in structuring and validating product models by finding the source of unexpected conflicts. The study also explores model preprocessing techniques to improve the solver performance. The algorithm is shown to be well suited for both real-time decision support and in-depth product model analysis in the cases at hand; the computational results demonstrate the practical applicability of the approach.