Integration of environmental considerations in quality function deployment by using fuzzy logic

Abstract

Recently, resource optimization (energy and material) and environmental issues in the life-cycle context are taken very seriously by both the general public and government agencies. These activities urge governments and companies alike to set up environmental friendly production technologies, which aim to avoid harmful emissions into air, water and soil. However, these Eco-designed products have not been achieved a favorable position in the marketplace as expected even though they appear to be more environmental friendly and economical. This may be due that they are focused solely on environmental impact analysis without regard for customer needs and cost considerations. In this research, an Eco-quality function deployment (Eco-QFD) is developed to aid a product design team in considering environmental concerns since QFD is a proven quality systems tool to achieve total customer satisfaction. A fuzzy group method is applied to Eco-QFD for product development planning to reduce the vagueness and uncertainty in a group decision-making process. This fuzzy multi-objective model not only considers the overall customer satisfaction but also encourages enterprises to produce an environmentally friendly product. With an interactive approach, the optimal balance between environmental acceptability and overall customer satisfaction can be obtained. Finally, a case study illustrating the application of the proposed model is also provided.