A fuzzy decision support system for evaluating Lean-Green and company-specific production system

Lean production is regarded as systematic solution for identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement of manufacturing processes to meet customers' requirements. Due to rising environmental concerns and the significant environmental impact of companies operations, issues such as environmental management and green production are on board agendas. In essence, green production seeks to reduce the environmental impacts of business processes. In order to examine green production, an original equipment manufacturer in the supply chain of tractor manufacturing industry is selected for this work to enable a focus on lean production aspects and its specific requirements to evaluate a company-specific production system (XPS). The results suggest that the company utilizes six lean-green production criteria including suitable and green packaging, quality improvement, waste reduction, environmental pollution reduction, transport management and additional transportation reduction, and cost reduction. Furthermore, continuous improvement and integrated auditing are selected as two critical and fundamental elements with the highest ranks, regarding the relationships between the XPS elements and lean-green production criteria.

QFD-Based Research on Sustainable User Experience Optimization Design of Smart Home Products for the Elderly: A Case Study of Smart Refrigerators

In the current situation of global aging, the current market shortage of age-appropriate smart home products and the recent epidemic have led to greater isolation of the elderly, seriously affecting their physical and mental health. In order to optimize the sustainable user experience of the elderly when using smart home products, this paper proposes a research method based on Quality Function Deployment (QFD) for the optimal design of user experience of smart home products for the elderly, taking the design of age-appropriate home smart refrigerators as an example. Firstly, based on the results of market research and user interviews, the requirements of smart refrigerators for the elderly are screened and integrated, and the Kano model is used to prioritize these needs, resulting in the identification of important features needed in smart refrigerators for the elderly. Secondly, based on QFD, user requirements are transformed into design requirements, and a quality house model is established to ascertain the degree of importance of each design requirement through user ratings so as to obtain the key requirements as the theoretical basis for the solution design. Finally, optional solutions are generated for concept evaluation based on PUGH concept selection, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the solutions and recombining them into an evaluation to determine the best solution. The quantitative evaluation of the four solutions reveals that Solution A has the highest score of 117.358, followed by Solution D with 113.259, Solution B with 96.415, and Solution C with 85.511, which is the lowest. The scoring allows the best design solution to be selected and applied to product development. The results show that the introduction of the Kano model and PUGH concept selection into QFD can be effectively used as a research method for optimizing the user experience of smart refrigerators for the elderly, and a corresponding design strategy for sustainable user experience optimization is proposed. The method and strategy provide guidance for the innovative design of new smart home products.

Application of ArcGIS and QFD-based model for site selection for bio-medical waste disposal

With the increasing formalisation of the health sector in India, the bio-medical waste (BMW) disposal regulations are getting stringent and its implementation is being enforced strictly. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created a healthcare crisis because of the highly contagious nature of the novel virus. Measures employed for the prevention and management of COVID-19 resulted in the generation of an unprecedented amount of BMW in Indian medical history. This BMW needs to be disposed of safely at a suitable site to prevent secondary infection and the potential spread of the virus in the environment. The selection of an appropriate site for BMW disposal requires comparing a wide range of social, economic and environmental factors corresponding to different site locations, which makes it a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. This study aims to solve the BMW site selection problems using a quality function deployment-based model that can consider both the subjective and the objective criteria, and evaluate them as per the user's requirements. The proposed model is applied to evaluate the suitability of waste disposal sites in the city of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, India. At first, eight possible locations for BMW disposal are identified, while utilising geographical information system (GIS). Consequently, the developed model is applied to evaluate the identified sites, taking 18 relevant criteria into consideration. A software prototype is developed in Visual BASIC 6 to automate the entire decision-making process, further adding to the novelty of the work.

Application of the QFD-fuzzy-SERVQUAL methodology as a quality planning tool at the surgical centre of a public teaching hospital

BACKGROUND

In Brazil, many public hospitals face constant problems related to high demand vis-à-vis an overall scarcity of resources, which hinders the operations of different sectors such as the surgical centre, as it is considered one of the most relevant pillars for the proper hospital functioning, due to its complexity, criticality as well as economic and social importance. Proper asset management based on well-founded decisions is, therefore, a sine-qua-non condition for addressing such demands. However, subjectivity and other difficulties present in decisions make the management of hospital resources a constant challenge.

METHODS

Thus, the present work proposes the application of a hybrid approach, formed by the QFD tools, fuzzy logic and SERVQUAL as a decision support tool for the quality planning of the surgical centre of the Onofre Lopes Teaching Hospital (Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes-HUOL). To accomplish such objective, it was necessary to discover and analyse the main needs of the medical team working in the operating room, through the application of the SERVQUAL questionnaire, associated with fuzzy logic.

RESULTS

Then, the most relevant deficiencies were transformed into entries for the QFD-fuzzy, where they were translated into project requirements. Soon after, the analysis of the existing relationships between the inputs and these requirements was carried out, generating the ranking of actions with the greatest impact on the improvement of the surgical centre overall quality.

CONCLUSIONS

As a result, it was found that the proposed methodology can optimize the decision process to which hospital managers are submitted, improving the surgical centre operation efficiency.

Telepresence Mobile Robots Design and Control for Social Interaction

Human-robot interaction has extended its application horizon to simplify how human beings interact with each other through a remotely controlled telepresence robot. The fast growth of communication technologies such as 4G and 5G has elevated the potential to establish stable audio-video-data transmission. However, human-robot physical interactions are still challenging regarding maneuverability, controllability, stability, drive layout, and autonomy. Hence, this paper presents a systematic design and control approach based on the customer's needs and expectations of telepresence mobile robots for social interactions. A system model and controller design are developed using the Lagrangian method and linear quadratic regulator, respectively, for different scenarios such as flat surface, inclined surface, and yaw (steering). The robot system is capable of traveling uphill (30 ∘ ) and has a variable height (600-1200 mm). The robot is advantageous in developing countries to fill the skill gaps as well as for sharing knowledge and expertise using a virtual and mobile physical presence.

Research on Evaluating the Sustainable Operation of Rail Transit System Based on QFD and Fuzzy Clustering

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the sustainable operation of rail transit system. In rail transit system, as the most important aspect of negative entropy flow, the effective strategy can offset the increasing entropy of the system and make it have the characteristics of dissipative structure, so as to realize the sustainable operation. At first, this study constructs the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model to evaluate the sustainable operation of rail transit system. In this PSR model, "pressure" is viewed as customer requirements, which answers the reasons for such changes in rail transit system; "state" refers to the state and environment of system activities, which can be described as the challenges of coping with system pressure; "response" describes the system's actions to address the challenges posed by customer needs, namely operational strategies. Moreover, then, 13 pressure indices, five state indices and 11 response indices are summarized. In addition, based on quality function deployment (QFD), with 13 pressure indices as input variables, five state indices as customer requirements (CRs) of QFD and 11 response indices as technical attributes (TAs) of QFD, this study proposed the three-phase evaluation method of the sustainable operation of rail transit system to obtain the operational strategy (that is, negative entropy flow): The first phase is to verify that 13 pressure indices can be clustered into five state indices by fuzzy clustering analysis; The second phase is to get the weights of five state indices by evidential reasoning; The third phase is to rate the importance of 11 response indices by integrating fuzzy weighted average and expected value operator. Finally, the proposed model and method of evaluation are applied to the empirical analysis of Shanghai rail transit system. Finally, we come to the conclusion that Shanghai rail transit system should take priority from the following five aspects: "advancement of design standards", "reliability of subway facilities", "completeness of operational rules", "standardization of management operation" and "rationality of passenger flow control".

Supply chain analysis of e-waste processing plants in developing countries

e-Waste is generated at the staggering rate of 6.1 kg per person. In 2016, 44.7 million tonnes was generated globally, and the amount is estimated to reach 52 million tonnes annually by 2021. The management of this huge quantity of e-waste is a major problem across the world, primarily in developing countries. An effective e-waste management system is linked to the sustainability of e-waste processing plants, and currently it is plagued with different supply chain network (SCN) issues. To address the issues and challenges of SCN, there is a need to prioritize and address the constructs. The study thus combines two multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) tools, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and quality function deployment, to prioritize the constructs identified from literature and supported by field studies. The house of quality (HOQ) has been used for analyzing different stakeholders' requirements. The degree of importance for HOQ-1 has been derived using the AHP tool. The study revealed the most intriguing issues and challenges of e-waste processing plants considering the requirements of different stakeholders. The results showed formal collection, storage, semi-informal collection, and e-waste quality to be the major issues of processing plants. The findings obtained from MCDM analysis have been validated though two case studies in India and China. If the results obtained are applied to the existing e-waste SCN, a holistic e-waste management system can be achieved for developing countries.

Integrating Refined Kano Model and QFD for Service Quality Improvement in Healthy Fast-Food Chain Restaurants

People are paying greater attention to health. To maintain a good health status and obtain food fast, customers may go to healthy fast-food chain restaurants such as Subway more often than before in China and Taiwan. Healthy fast-food chain restaurants come with a healthy spin, seeking to differentiate themselves from other fast-food restaurants. This paper combined the refined Kano model and the quality function deployment (QFD) method. The refined Kano model was used to understand how customers perceive service attributes developed based on DINESERV measurements. QFD was employed to describe the relationships among the critical service attributes and corresponding improvements as well as to identify the priority for these improvements. The analysis results revealed that providing limited offers (due to periods, seasons, and regions) should be at the top of their improvement list, followed by staff suggestions for ingredients, and a temperature display to enhance the image of fresh ingredients. Other improvement actions include providing regular launches of new flavors/products, designing new and attractive slogans, and providing restaurant apps.

Design and development of solar power-assisted manual/electric wheelchair

Wheelchairs are an essential assistive device for many individuals with injury or disability. Manual wheelchairs provide a relatively low-cost solution to the mobility needs of such individuals. Furthermore, they provide an effective means of improving the user's cardiopulmonary function and upper-limb muscle strength. However, manual wheelchairs have a loss gross mechanical efficiency, and thus the risk of user fatigue and upper-limb injury is increased. Electric-powered wheelchairs reduce the risk of injury and provide a more convenient means of transportation. However, they have a large physical size and are relatively expensive. Accordingly, the present study utilizes a quality function deployment method to develop a wheelchair with a user-selectable manual/electric propulsion mode and an auxiliary solar power supply system. The auxiliary solar power supply increased the travel range of the wheelchair by approximately 26% compared with that of a wheelchair powered by battery alone. Moreover, the wheelchair has a modular design and can be disassembled and folded for ease of transportation or storage. Overall, the present results suggest that the proposed wheelchair provides an effective and convenient means of meeting the mobility needs of individuals with mobility difficulties.