Environmental conscious design support model using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

Today's electro-mechanical manufacturers are facing an increasing pressure that requires certain responsibility for their end-of-life products. The concept of design for environment (DFE) is supposed to be the solution. How to introduce environmental facts into early stage of product design is a critical issue for the success of DFE. Environmental objectives in DFE (such as recyclability, material compatibility, and disassemblability) might be imprecise and expert-controled. This paper develops an environmental design support model based on fuzzy logic theory to solve multi-objective problems. An overall assessment will be obtained using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate tradeoff points among individual parts. A case study of personal computer evaluation is performed to validate the proposed model.