Integrating axiomatic design principles into sustainable product development

Abstract

Owing to mounting environmental issues, coupled with public pressure and stringent regulations, firms and companies have to alter their ways of developing new products. Three key areas i.e. end-of-life (EOL) management, green supply chain and sustainable manufacturing have to be considered during design stage. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework based on axiomatic design (AD) principles to facilitate sustainable product development by aiding the decision making process in the abovementioned key areas. Several examples have been provided in this paper to demonstrate the application of crisp and fuzzy AD approaches with the aim of assisting analysis and/or decision making process. Results show that axiomatic design principles are able to guide designer/engineer in selecting functional embodiment that facilitates product recovery and fuzzy axiomatic design approach can be effective when dealing with problems concerning green supplier selection and optimization of manufacturing solution. Hence, a framework for sustainable product realization is proposed in the last section of this paper with a vision of providing guideline for companies in designing and developing products that are less harmful to the environment.