Multi-category and multi-standard project selection with fuzzy value-based time limit

This paper proposes a new approach to select projects and their quality-standards corresponding to successively provide new products in the market. The problem involves the situation in which each new product development (NPD) program can be differentiated as multiple categories. Each project has multiple choices of quality/technology standards. Based on this problem, the proposed approach consists of following four components: (1) selecting a project advancement strategy to serve as a scheduling framework for taking into account soft factors in scheduling process, (2) employing the brand-image score of consumers as the objective function for ultimately increasing long-run average profitability, (3) formulating a computable model in which periodical budget constraints are involved and fuzzy value-based time limits are specified, and (4) transforming the objective function into an appropriate form in which the parameters can be estimated more easily and the objective value can be predicated as a clear managerial implication. Also, we simulate 54 items to test the proposed model. The testing results show that one can find the global optimal in a short time for most testing items. That is, the proposed computable model has high feasibility and applicability.