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The extremely high and ever‐increasing annual disposal rates of solid waste have caused a big problem for environmental protection in the world. Unlike the first environmental revolution in the 1970s, which was aimed at cleaning up hazardous waste from contaminated sites and natural resources, the second revolution is addressing waste reduction at the source. The solution of these problems cannot rely only on legislation and must be supported by effective methods. This goal can be achieved through the design of products that promote disassembly, reusing and recycling. In order to design environmentally friendly products in concurrent engineering, this paper applies axiomatic design to develop the integrated design guidelines with Axiom 1 (independence axiom) for generating acceptable designs and an evaluation score with Axiom 2 (information axiom) for determining better or the best design from the acceptable designs.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel weighting algorithm for fuzzy information axiom (IA) and to apply it to the evaluation process of 3D printers.

As a decision-making tool, IA method is presented to evaluate the performance of any design. Then, weighted IA methods are investigated and a new weighting procedure is introduced to the literature. Then, the existing axiomatic design methods and the proposed new method are classified into two groups: weighting based on information content and weighting based on design ranges. The weighting based on information content approach consists of four methods including pessimistic and optimistic approaches. The philosophy of the weighting based on design ranges is to narrow design ranges in order to decrease fuzziness in the model. To prove the robustness and the performance of the proposed weighting method, the results are compared with the existing methods in the literature. Then, the new approach is applied to evaluate 3D printers.

The results of the proposed study show that the proposed weighting algorithm has better performance than the old ones for IA. Therefore, the proposed weighting algorithm should be used for the weighting tool of IA thereafter.

An effective weighting method compatible with the philosophy of IA method has been proposed. Furthermore, the performances of 3D printers are compared by using the proposed method.

The purpose of this paper is to report a research conducted to apply fuzzy axiomatic design approach for selecting the design alternatives of an overflow valve.

The approach started with the identification of functional requirements (FRs) and design parameters (DPs) and the relationship between them to select the best design alternative. Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process was used to calculate the weightage of FRs. The independence and information axioms were being deployed to validate the selection process.

The most important FRs being identified include “improve manufacturability and adaptability”, “improve ease of operation” and “provide strength and reliability”. The most important DPs are design unification on washer and outlet valve, material selection for improving the strength and reliability and pressure change to check whether the valve is withstanding the pressure using flow analysis. The best design alternative (A1) which deals with material substitution is being implemented in the case organization. The proposed methodology also enables contemporary design engineers to effectively select the best design among a set of alternatives in a fuzzy environment.

This paper presents the application of fuzzy axiomatic design for selecting the best design alternative of an overflow valve. The identified best design is being subjected to implementation in the case organization.

The industry decision makers were involved throughout the conduct of the study. Hence, the inferences derived from the study possess practical feasibility.

The application of the fuzzy axiomatic design approach for selecting the best design alternative of an overflow valve is the original contribution of the authors. Also, the practical feasibility of the approach is also being exemplified.

Considering current development of Grey Systems Theory (GST), we can come up with the following thesis: practical applications are a dominant subject of research. Thus, what seems to be symptomatic for relatively young knowledge disciplines, the authors observe the presence of imbalance between the development of GST application tools and theory’s epistemological and methodological background. As for GST, epistemological and methodological problems are becoming visible especially in the issues of determining a clear criterion of demarcation of this kind of a theory from others. In other words, this problem can be reduced to the issue of a precise determination of what the category of a grey system and grey information is. This problem is of great importance for further development and popularisation of GST in the world of science. Realising its significance, the purpose of this paper is to create a general overview of Grey Systems epistemology and afterwards create axiomatic and formal frames for a category of greyness.

In order to achieve set goals, two research approaches were accepted. In the area of inference about epistemology of GST an approach characteristic of an analytical philosophy was used, whereas in the case of axiomatic and formal frames for a category of greyness the authors referred to terms of a set theory and the principles of a pragmatic logic.

The result of research is to formulate a concept of a grey system and a concept of grey information in the context of a process of cognition. Moreover, a function of greyness and other fundamental categories of GST will be defined in an axiomatic way.

The paper presents a new consistent frame for the issues of methodological and epistemological backgrounds of GST. An original concept is to refer in considerations to a newly proposed grey space. This space was used for a formal justification of such elementary categories as grey numbers, a weight function of whitenization or grey sequences. The value of achievements shown in the paper is underlined by the fact that proposed theoretical constructions require further development and they can potentially open up new research trends in the GST.

The Asia‐Pacific region has enjoyed robust economic growth in the last two decades and a substantial manufacturing network has been established in the region. The manufacturers in this region are now able to offer very good quality products cost‐effectively in the low‐end product category. But the recent regional financial turmoil, besides the increasingly integrated global economy and the emergence of regional trade pacts, has had an impact on the whole region and also presented many new challenges for businesses. Under this condition, manufacturers have to consider seriously how to win competition as they move into the new millennium. This paper applies axiomatic design to develop the guidelines for high value‐added activities. Manufacturers may discover their own weak points and develop their own core competencies or competitive priorities to drive change according to these guidelines.

Many approaches are available and widely used to represent and design business processes. The axiomatic approach developed by Suh has not received much attention because it is taught primarily as a product design tool. In this paper, we share our experience in applying this approach to a product obsolescence procedure in a semiconductor‐manufacturing environment. The approach provides structure for analyzing process outcomes and the means used to achieve them, a framework that is valuable in business process design. The rules that form the foundation of the axiomatic approach allow the user to evaluate the quality of a proposed design in satisfying the problem or perceived need. We found that the axiomatic approach was an excellent tool for generating process designs and evaluating them, although some effort is required initially to understand the approach. In addition, because it is essentially a process mapping technique, turning the proposed design into reality requires organizational understanding and change.

Significant productivity improvements have been experienced in business by information technology (IT) implementations in latest decades. However, IT project selection is an important problem because a significant part of IT expenditure is wasted and almost half of IT projects realize no net benefits. Since axiomatic design (AD) has the characteristics of multi‐attribute evaluation, it is proposed for multi‐attribute comparison of information technology systems (ITS).

The comparison of ITS is made for the cases of both complete and incomplete information. The crisp AD approach for complete information and the fuzzy AD approach for incomplete information are developed. The numerical applications of both crisp and fuzzy AD approaches in the comparison of ITS are also given.

The AD approach takes into account the design range of each criterion, determined by the designer. Thus, the alternative providing the design ranges is selected in AD approach while the alternative meeting the criteria at their best levels is selected in many other methods. This opportunity is not possible when many other existing methods such as AHP, fuzzy AHP, and scoring models are used. The AD approach also differs from many other existing methods from the point of the rejection of an alternative when it does not meet the design range of any criterion.

For future research, it is suggested that researchers study weighted crisp and fuzzy AD approaches.

This paper is the first which develops the fuzzy AD approach and uses it in the comparison of ITS.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) proposes to take into account the “voice of the customer,” through a list of customer needs, which are (qualitatively) mapped to technical requirements in House One. But customers do not perceive products in this space, nor do they not make purchase decisions in this space. Marketing specialists use statistical models to map between a simpler space of customer perceptions and the long and detailed list of needs. For automobiles, for example, the main axes in perceptual space might be categories such as luxury, performance, sport, and utility. A product’s position on these few axes determines the detailed customer requirements consistent with the automobiles’ position such as interior volume, gauges and accessories, seating type, fuel economy, door height, horsepower, interior noise level, seating capacity, paint colors, trim, and so forth. Statistical models such as factor analysis and principal components analysis are used to describe the mapping between these spaces, which we call House Zero.

This paper focus on House One. Two important steps of the product development process using House One are: (1) setting technical targets; (2) identifying the inherent tradeoffs in a design including a position of merit. Utility functions are used to determine feature preferences for a product. Conjoint analysis is used to capture the product preference and potential market share. Linear interpolation and the slope point formula are used to determine other points of customer needs. This research draws from the formal mapping concepts developed by Nam Suh and the qualitative maps of quality function deployment, to present unified information and mapping paradigm for concurrent product/process design. This approach is the virtual integrated design method that is tested upon data from a business design problem.

This study aims to present a method for improving the preliminary design process of an aircraft.

The approach of this paper is using Axiomatic Design (AD) principles in the aircraft preliminary design process. The aircraft design process consists of modules and disciplines, which are loosely coupled that can disrupt designers’ ability. Consequently, designers should define suitable functional requirements (FRs) and design parameters for products to avoid or limit coupling between them. As modular architecture is commonly defined as having a one-to-one mapping from the function domain to the physical domain, the independence axiom in AD could support the modularity of the design process. Therefore, these features guide us to use AD principles at the first steps of the aircraft design process.

Reduction coupling between different FRs and consequently less repetitive activities and design iteration in the design process by using AD principles are the finding of this paper.

This concept could be used for the design process of every complex product.

Looking at the preliminary design of a Blended Wing Body unmanned aerial vehicle with respect to the AD is a new technique to achieve a modular design process.

Despite the proven evidence of ever-growing productivity gains in the manufacturing industry as a result of years of research and investment in advanced technologies, such as robotics, the adoption of robots in construction is still lagging. The existing literature lacks technical frameworks and guidelines that account for the one-of-a-kind nature of construction projects and the myriad of materials and dimensional components in construction activities. This study seeks to address existing technical uncertainty and productivity issues associated with the application of robotics in the assembly-type manufacturing of industrialized construction.

To facilitate the selection of suitable robotic arms for industrialized construction activities, primarily assembly-type manufacturing tasks of offsite production processes, an activity-based ranking system based on axiomatic design principles is proposed. The proposed ranking system utilizes five functional requirements derived from robot characteristics—speed, payload, reach, degrees of freedom and position repeatability—to evaluate robot performance in an industrialized construction task using simulations of a framing station.

Based on design parameters obtained from activity-based simulations, seventy six robotic arms suitable for the framing task were scored and ranked. According to the sensitivity analysis of proposed functional requirements, speed is the key functional requirement that has a notable effect on productivity of a framing station and is thus the determinant in robot performance assessment for framing tasks.

The proposed ranking system is expected to augment automation in construction and serve as a preliminary guideline to help construction professionals in making informed decisions regarding the adoption of robotic arms.