Fuzzy QFD integrated CAD/CAE and DFE framework: enabler of sustainable product design practices

Abstract

Quality function deployment (QFD) is effective and a very useful analysing tool in product design and development process. The determination of the fulfilment levels of customer needs and engineering characteristics is an important issue during QFD process for development of new product concept. To solve the uncertainty in QFD as well as to tackle the vague nature of product development processes, numerous researchers have applied the fuzzy set theory to QFD. This paper describes an approach where computer aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE) and design for environment (DFE) integration was deployed and using fuzzy QFD tool, product sustainable actions were prioritised. The feasibility of deploying CAD/CAE and DFE tools for achieving effectiveness in the product development process through a real case has been ensured. Finally, application of the fuzzy QFD logic is considered to be highly valuable to translate linguistic judgements required for relationships and correlations matrixes into numerical values.