Badrul Omar

Integration of morphological analysis theory and artificial neural network approach for sustainable product design: a case study of portable vacuum cleaner

A need for incorporating sustainability requirements during product development phase so as to ensure green initiatives is the vital focus of todays industries. However, proposed approaches are lacking in terms of sustainability aspects and difficulty in selecting the most sustainable product assembly model at the end of the methodologies. Besides, useful tools such as life-cycle assessment (LCA), streamlined LCA and environmental matrix for assessing the environmental impacts associated with a product have been incorporated in order to fulfil those limitations but the variation in price and complexity makes it difficult to match the goal, scope and budget of the product design. Therefore, this study presents an integrated morphological analysis theory and artificial neural network approach for producing products in sustainable manner that caters to environment, economic and social aspects. As a result from the case study, the most sustainable of new portable vacuum cleaner models can be systematically selected.

Sustainability evaluation of alternative part configurations in product design: weighted decision matrix and artificial neural network approach

Recently, sustainable products have been demanded by world legislation not only to generate profits, meet consumers’ needs, or reduce adverse impacts on the environment, but also considering all aspects of economic, societal, and environmental. Numerous sustainable product designs have been introduced by considering sustainability in developing product concept; however, the sustainability issues considered during the evaluation of different product configurations are rather limited. In response, this study proposes a systematic approach to evaluate sustainability of configuration design alternatives based on weighted decision matrix and artificial neural network. Weighted decision matrix is used as a platform to deal with inconsistency data based on a point scale and generate ratings based on the score given. In this phase, configuration designs are measured at an interval scale and the score is derived using a nine-point Likert scale, which is used to determine the score of the configuration design with regard to the sustainability criteria compared with other alternatives. Then, artificial neural network is utilized to estimate the sustainability performance in a single value, named Weighted Sustainability Score by aggregating the generated ratings using a trained network. A case study of an armed chair is conducted to illustrate the proposed approach in detail. The accuracy of the proposed approach on the result for environmental evaluation is validated by environmental-based commercial software. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach provides similar decision with the commercial software in ranking the alternative part configurations with regard to environmental consideration. Consequently, the study shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a part of evaluating environmental aspect, and would do the same for systematically evaluating sustainability elements.

Selection of Product Design Configuration for Improved Sustainability Using the Product Sustainability Index (ProdSI) Scoring Method

Generating new variants for design elements of products, structuring them into a complete configuration and evaluating the alternate configurations are essential for product design. Evaluating the likely product configurations in terms of sustainability aspects continues to become a useful aspect of interest to product designers. This paper proposes a new approach for applying the Product Sustainability Index (ProdSI) in selecting the best possible configurations for product design. In this paper, the recently developed ProdSI methodology is used to evaluate sustainability performance of a product. The approach is useful for product designers to generate numerous likely product design configurations and subsequently select the most sustainable product design configuration. An example of an armed-chair is used to illustrate the proposed new approach.

The Integration of HOQ and Fuzzy-AHP for Design Concept Evaluation

Design concept evaluation plays a critical role in the early phases of product development as it has significant impact on the downstream development processes as well as on the success of the product developed. In this paper, a novel methodology has been developed involving two stages. The preliminary stage is screening all the criteria from different viewpoints using HOQ. The second stage uses Fuzzy-AHP to obtain the alternatives weight. This method will give the designers more effective, objective and relevant information in order to make the final decision. A case example from industry is presented to demonstrate efficacy of the proposed methodology. The result of the example shows that the integration of HOQ and Fuzzy-AHP provided a novel alternative of existing methods to perform design concept evaluation.

The Lowest Hardness Point Calculation by Transient Computer Simulation of Industrial Steel Bar Quenched in Oil at Different Austenitizing Temperatures

Quenching of steels in general has been and continues to be an important commercial manufacturing process for steel components. Temperature histories must be performed in order to obtain accurate transformation kinetics. The modelling of an axisymmetric industrial quenched steel bar based on finite element method has been produced to investigate the impact of process history on metallurgical and material properties. A two dimensional axisymmetric model has been adopted to predict temperature history and consequently the hardness of the quenched steel bar at any point (node). The lowest hardness point (LHP) is determined, which is at half the length at the centre of the bar. Experimentally, this hardness value is almost impossible to determine and previous methods only calculate hardness at the surface. This surface hardness value is normally higher than the (LHP) which can cause deformation and failure of the component under certain conditions. The model can be employed as a guideline to design cooling approach to achieve desired microstructure and mechanical properties such as hardness.

An Alternate Method to Springback Compensation for Sheet Metal Forming

The aim of this work is to improve the accuracy of cold stamping product by accommodating springback. This is a numerical approach to improve the accuracy of springback analysis and die compensation process combining the displacement adjustment (DA) method and the spring forward (SF) algorithm. This alternate hybrid method (HM) is conducted by firstly employing DA method followed by the SF method instead of either DA or SF method individually. The springback shape and the target part are used to optimize the die surfaces compensating springback. The hybrid method (HM) algorithm has been coded in Fortran and tested in two- and three-dimensional models. By implementing the HM, the springback error can be decreased and the dimensional deviation falls in the predefined tolerance range.

Application of Integrated Fuzzy-AHP for Design Concept Evaluation: A Case Study on Mold Design Selection

Design concept evaluation plays a critical role in the early phases of product development as it has significant impact on the downstream development processes as well as on the success of the product developed. In this chapter, a novel methodology using the integration of Fuzzy-AHP with House of Quality (HOQ) and Rough-Grey Analysis has been developed to obtain the weight and rank of alternatives. This method will give the designers better-informed decision before making the final decision. A real case example from industry is presented to demonstrate efficacy of the proposed methodology. The result of the example shows that the integration of Fuzzy-AHP with HOQ and Rough-Grey Analysis approach provided a novel alternative of existing methods to perform design concept evaluation.

Hybrid Model for Evaluation of Manufacturing Sustainability Using Axiomatic Design Principles: A Case of Machining Processes

Despite being a manufacturing technique that consumes energy and material, machining is often regarded as an important process due to the fact that it is flexible and is able to produce economic parts. However, to gain more cost-saving and enhanced environmental performance, sustainability principles have to be incorporated into machining technologies. This paper presents a case study that applies both crisp and fuzzy axiomatic design approach to construct a hybrid model with the purpose of facilitating the selection of sustainable manufacturing process. By converting numerical terms and linguistic factors into quantifiable score (in the form of information content), the proposed approach is able to produce indicative results and is capable of identifying the most sustainable process among three alternatives. Potentially, such information can be helpful for product development companies which strive to achieve sustainable product realization.

Evaluation of sustainability performance of product design element concepts using analytic hierarchy process

ntegrating sustainable product design into the design process has been acknowledged nowadays by many companies for producing sustainable products. The integration should be implemented during the early stage of product development process so that the sustainability of the product can be evaluated before manufacturing the product. Although a number of studies have been conducted on the integration in many aspects along with many approaches, evaluation of the sustainability of the product during its total life-cycle while it is being designed has not been comprehensively investigated. In this paper, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to evaluate product design element concept during conceptual design stage by providing a weightage of sustainability metrics throughout the total life-cycle of product and finalize the preferred product design configuration by selecting the highest sustainability index of the design element concept. The approach is useful for product designers to design many concepts of product design elements and then to select the most likely sustainable design element to configure in one complete product. An example of an armed chair is used to demonstrate this approach.

An Axiomatic Approach to Design for Sustainable End-of-Life: A Review of Literature

This paper aims to provide an insight to later researchers on the application of axiomatic design in the area of design for end-of-life (EOL) management. Among all life cycle stages of a product, design and development stage is the one that influences the later stages the most in terms of environmental impacts. In order to achieve sustainable product development, one of the considerations to be taken during the design stage is EOL management. EOL management process can be enhanced by utilizing a robust design method as well as an effective method for evaluating product design. Recent researches show that application of axiomatic design in the field of eco-design (especially design for EOL management) is still in a premature stage despite having a vast application area that covers the aspect of product design, manufacturing and supply chain management. Nonetheless, a case study published recently on eco-design using axiomatic approach has shown adequate feasibility and effectiveness. Therefore, design for sustainable EOL using axiomatic approach is worth further exploration.