Abdul Rahman Hemdi

Sustainability evaluation using fuzzy inference methods

Sustainable development comprises three aspects: environmental, economic and social. These elements can be extended to include a number of sustainability parameters including pollution, cost and energy, among others. As the number of criteria increases, the complexity of a sustainability evaluation also increases. Furthermore, the mixture of quantitative and qualitative data regarding sustainability parameters complicates this evaluation. In this paper, a comprehensive method for evaluating sustainability is proposed to guide engineers in making better decisions. The fuzzy inference approach was adopted because it can simultaneously handle qualitative and quantitative data. These data are converted into numerical values and are expressed as a sustainability indicator. A case study involving the choice of the best electrical power generation option is presented. The result demonstrates that this fuzzy sustainability evaluation method is capable of decreasing the complexity involved in decision-making.

Critical Success Factors of Green Design Implementation for Malaysia Automotive Industry

As manufactured vehicles have become more global, the competitive pressures from multi-national companies have increased substantially. Based on that, it is clearly shows that, the important of understanding the implementation of green indicators concept. Hence, the principal aim of this paper is to highlight the establishment of Green Design concept for Malaysia automotive industry by establishing a set of ‘Critical Success Factors’ that will be applied at the design stage. Survey methodology was employed to collect data. Data were obtained from 104 automotives companies and related suppliers in Malaysia with 29% response rate. This paper presents findings of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results on green design concept for Malaysia automotive industry.

Fuzzy Logic Approach for Assessing Sustainability: Methodology Development for Hollow Fiber Membrane Module

Sustainability has become new evolution of quality and efficiency indicator for product life cycle. It is generally acknowledge that sustainability is a result from balancing the environmental, economical and social aspect. However, each aspects may expand to different type of parameters involved that cross the system boundary; qualitative and quantitative parameters. Fuzzy logic approach will be applied to deal with the data uncertainty for obtaining the sustainability assessment of hollow fiber membrane module. Fuzzy logic operation will formulate the mapping from inputs to an output. Thus, it will able for intermediate assessment between sustainable and non-sustainable hollow fiber membrane module. Hence, this paper introduces the comprehensive method for assessing sustainability as guide for hollow fiber membrane designer and manufacturer for future sustainability improvement.

Sustainability Assessment of Membrane System for Wastewater Treatment: A Review and Further Research

Membrane system for wastewater treatment process shows high demand industries that need attention in term of sustainability. In order to improve sustainability of membrane system, sustainability aspects such as environmental, economical and social aspect need to be considered. Traditionally, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used as a tool to analyze environmental burden of product or service at every life cycle stages. This paper presents a review of researches on methodology for assessing sustainability for product development and suggests further research direction.

Fuzzy Application in Sustainability Assessment: A Case Study of Automotive Headlamp

Aspects of environment, economic and social are the three principal elements of sustainability. Within these elements, there are many sub-sustainability parameters need to be considered when sustainability evaluation is carried out which include pollution, cost, energy, health, acidification and others. The inclusion of these parameters and the uncertainty data increases the complexity in decision making process with respect to sustainable development as it not only evaluates the current situation but also the prediction and strategic decision for the future. Consequently, a simplified methods and tools are required in guiding the designers and decision makers to develop sustainable product. Hence, this paper present a fuzzy approach in evaluation of product’s sustainability. The fuzzy logic approach is integrated into the evaluation process as it has a capability to handle severe uncertainty and ability to evaluate qualitative and quantitative data simultaneously. A case study of automotive headlamp is presented to demonstrate the capability of fuzzy technique in sustainability evaluation.