A method for determining a welding sequence including a plurality of welding operations is disclosed. The method includes steps of determining a population of welding sequences based on a set of user-generated constraints, and simulating welding for at least one welding sequence in the population of welding sequences to obtain a multi-objective dependent distortion model of the at least one welding sequence. The method further includes steps of comparing a merit value of the multi-objective dependent distortion model for the at least one welding sequence with one or more predetermined criteria, and outputting a set of welding sequences as potential welding sequences based on the comparison between the merit value and the multi-objective dependent distortion model.