Matrix-based quality tools for concept generation in eco-design

Abstract

While quality management systems are familiar to industries for continuous improvements of products, the associated tools can also make significant contributions to address environmental concerns, aligning eco-design in the product improvement process. In this context, this article focuses on the adaptions of quality tools for supporting the generation of eco-design concepts. Particularly, this article develops a method that integrates quality function deployment and functional analysis via relational matrices. The proposed method has three steps. In step 1, an existing design is analyzed, and the associations between design entities are captured in three types of relational matrices: requirements and metrics, metrics and components, and functions and components. In step 2, the mapping between requirements and functions are determined via matrix multiplications, and then a morphological chart is established to generate possible design concepts. In step 3, the generated concepts are evaluated using Pugh charts via the delegated engineering metrics. A hair dryer has been selected as an application to demonstrate the proposed method for supporting eco-design.