A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process approach in modular product design

Modular products, which capitalize on the concept of mass customization, are concerned with the creation of product variants without incurring the excessive cost that seems to be inevitable in the mass production approach. To implement modular product design effectively, it is essential that a certain level of decision support functionality is provided during the product development stages. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which breaks down a complex problem into simple hierarchical decision-making processes, can be incorporated with fuzzy logic to suggest the relative strength of the factors in the corresponding criteria, thereby enabling the construction of a fuzzy judgement matrix to facilitate decision-making. This paper proposes a fuzzy AHP approach in modular product design complemented with a case example to validate its feasibility in a real company. Test findings indicate that the approach is helpful for providing key decision support information in terms of product module selection during product development stages. The significance of the contribution of this paper is the suggestion of a novel approach in modular product design, embracing a combination of computational intelligence and traditional techniques, thereby providing more alternatives and ideas for those researchers who are interested in this field of study.