In situ design evaluation for product life cycle management using fuzzy-AHP approach

Abstract

Product life cycle management (PLM) is an effort to account for predictability of the life cycle of a product from introduction stage to withdrawal from the market. It is widely recognized that up to 70% of the overall product development cost is committed at early design phases. Design concept evaluation plays a critical role in the early phases of product development as it has significant impact on the development processes as well as on the success of the product developed. To meet customer expectations and technical, cost and time constraints has led designers to adopt various techniques to evaluate design concepts in order to make right decisions as early as possible. This paper will using fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy-AHP) approach to model, analyze and evaluate prescriptive design models at the original position (in situ). Aim of this research is to help designers to make more effective decisions and reduce the risk of late corrections, and finally reduce the development time.