Preference set-based design method for sustainable product creation

Abstract

The multi-objective satisfactory design including not only physical performances but also sustainable aspects from a global environmental protection perspective is necessary. When it comes to a sustainable life cycle, decision-making at the early phases of design including multiple sources of uncertaintes is important. The previous series of our studies had proposed a preference set-based design (PSD) method that enables the flexible and robust design under various sources of uncertainties while capturing designer's preference. In this papaer, different officially-accepted sustainability indicators are investigated and it is identified which indicators are related to the product development process. Thereafter, the proposed method is applied to a multi-objective design problem including technical performances and sustainable issues. This paper discusses the applicability of the PSD approach for sustainable development using the example of an alternator design. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London Limited.