Hybridized fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy weighted average for identifying optimal design concept

A comprehensive evaluation of private sector investment decisions for sustainable water supply systems using a fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process: A case study of Ha Nam province in Vietnam

This study examined the factors that affect the private sectors' willingness to invest in rural water supply. The study applied a mixed methods approach, including an overview of relevant studies, expert consultation, exploratory factor analysis using SPSS software, and a fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process to identify and evaluate the factors applicable to Ha Nam province in Vietnam. Some factors were distinguished that are significant to private investors' rural water supply investment decisions, including tax incentive policy, policies to support preferred access to loans and credit, a state risk-sharing mechanism, a mechanism to adjust water price, community support, high community demand for clean water, and input water quality. In addition, the study constructed an investment attractiveness index to evaluate the attractiveness of private sector investment for two typical rural water supply projects in Ha Nam province. This index can be used as a basis for the government to design appropriate incentives to attract investment from private investors and construct an investment attractiveness map.

Designing and Simulation Assessment of a Chair Attachment Air Blowing Methods to Enhance the Safety of Prolonged Sitting

Musculoskeletal disorders and the stagnation of sitting are among the side effects of excessive sitting in awkward sitting positions. In this study, a developed chair attachment cushion design with an optimal air blowing technique is proposed to eliminate the negative side effects of prolonged sitting. Instantaneously reducing the contact area between the chair and its occupant is the fundamental goal of the proposed design. The fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approaches represented by FAHP and FTOPSIS were integrated to evaluate and select the optimal proposed design. An ergonomic and biomechanics assessment of the occupant's seating position while employing the novel safety cushion design was validated using simulation software (CATIA). Sensitivity analysis was also used to confirm the design's robustness. Results show that the manual blowing system using an accordion blower was the optimal design concept based on the selected evaluation criteria. In fact, the proposed design provides an acceptable RULA index value for the examined sitting postures and performed very safely in the biomechanics single action analysis.

Optimal Synthesis of Loader Drive Mechanisms: A Group Robust Decision-Making Rule Generation Approach

The objective of this paper is to present a novel, hybrid group multi-criteria decision approach that can be used to evaluate alternatives for the optimal synthesis of loader drive mechanisms. In most product design engineering groups, experts have expertise in different areas and robust decision-making is necessary to integrate a number of opposing opinions, attitudes, and solutions. This study presents the application of an integrated approach for decision-making, i.e., the generation of a robust decision-making rule for group decision-making (RDMR-G) by combining different multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and Taguchi’s robust quality engineering principles. The basic idea behind this article was to create an approach that enables the comprehensive and robust consideration of expert opinions given the existence of numerous objective and subjective methods for determining the criteria weights, which are crucial to the final ranking of alternatives in any decision-making problem. In order to set the optimal configuration of a loader drive mechanism, five experts, all with a high level of experience and knowledge in this field, considered twenty-six different kinematic chain construction solutions, i.e., alternatives, and evaluated them with respect to six criteria. The obtained results and rankings provided by each expert and each criteria weighting method were compared using Kendall’s τb and Spearman’s ρ tests. As an example, this paper demonstrates the practical application of a RDMR-G approach and in doing so contributes to the literature in the fields of product design engineering and decision-making.

Evaluation of Ergonomics-Related Disorders in Online Education Using Fuzzy AHP

The aim of the presented work is to analyze the ergonomics-related disorders in online education using the fuzzy AHP approach. A group dialogue with online education academicians, online education students, biotechnologists, and sedentary computer users has been performed to spot ergonomics-related disorders in online education. Totally eight ergonomics-related disorders in online education have been identified, and the weight of each disorder has been computed with triangle-shaped fuzzy numbers in pairwise comparison. Furthermore, the ergonomics-related disorders in online education are kept in four major categories such as afflictive disorders, specific disorders, psychosocial disorders, and chronic disorders. These four categories of ergonomics-related disorders in online education are evaluated and compared using fuzzy analytical hierarchical process methodology to get ranked in terms of priorities. The results may be instrumental for taking appropriate corrective actions to prevent ergonomics-related disorders.

Fusing Multi-Attribute Decision Models for Decision Making to Achieve Optimal Product Design

Manufacturers need to select the best design from alternative design concepts in order to meet up with the demand of customers and have a larger share of the competitive market that is flooded with multifarious designs. Evaluation of conceptual design alternatives can be modelled as a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) process because it includes conflicting design features with different sub features. Hybridization of Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) models has been applied in various field of management, science and engineering in order to have a robust decision-making process but the extension of these hybridized MADM models to decision making in engineering design still requires attention. In this article, an integrated MADM model comprising of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP), Fuzzy Pugh Matrix and Fuzzy VIKOR was developed and applied to evaluate conceptual designs of liquid spraying machine. The fuzzy AHP was used to determine weights of the design features and sub features by virtue of its fuzzified comparison matrix and synthetic extent evaluation. The fuzzy Pugh matrix provides a methodical structure for determining performance using all the design alternatives as basis and obtaining aggregates for the designs using the weights of the sub features. The fuzzy VIKOR generates the decision matrix from the aggregates of the fuzzified Pugh matrices and determine the best design concept from the defuzzified performance index. At the end, the optimal design concept is determined for the liquid spraying machine.

A Hybrid MADM Model for Product Design Evaluation and Improvement

Global warming and climate change are the most pressing issues in the world. This is the inevitable result of human beings pursuing a better quality of life and materials. If the green design concept is used in the design and manufacture of products, the impact of production on the environment will be greatly reduced. Because of this, green product design assessment and improvement activities play an important role in achieving the 2030 sustainable development goals. Product design is the forefront of the entire product development process, and it plays a very critical role. The purpose of this study is to develop a decision-making model for helping decision makers to evaluate and improve the performance of product design systematically. The model combines the design standard of the iF world design guide and multi-attribute decision-making methods. First, the DEMATEL-based analytic network process is used to establish the influential relationship and weights of attributes. Next, the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno with aspiration-level method is used to obtain the gap between each evaluation attribute and the aspiration level of each design. Finally, this evaluation result uses the influential network relationship map (INRM) to propose various improvement strategies with causal influence. This study uses products from a Taiwanese furniture design company as an empirical case, which is a leading brand and benchmark in Taiwan’s furniture industry. The research results show that the proposed model can help decision makers to choose the most appropriate design scheme (i.e., the design with the smallest gap from expectations); designers can also improve the gap between product design and expectations.