Batch manufactcring is a dominant manufacturing activity in the world, generating a great deal of industrial output. In the coming years, we are going to witness an era of mass customization of products. The major problems in batch manufacturing are a high level of product variety and small manufacturing lot sizes. The product variations present design engineers with the problem of designing many different parts. The decisions made in the design stage significantly affect manufacturing cost, quality and delivery lead times. The impacts of these product variations in manufacturing are high...