Evaluating alternatives of product design: A multi criteria group decision making approach

The objective of this paper is to present a multi-criteria decision model that can be used to evaluate alternatives of product design considering that an evaluator may have expertise in assessing an alternative design against a subset of criteria only. Comprehensive literature review leads us to the four aspects in evaluating a product design: customer preferences, manufacturability, supply chain aspects, and environment sustainability. More detailed criteria were defined. With the use of these criteria, we have developed a decision model taking into account that multiple evaluators are in charge of evaluating the designs, but not all evaluators have expertise in assessing the design against all criteria being used. A case study to illustrate the applicability of the model has also been conducted. With the case example, we show that the model is practical to use yet contributing to the body of literature in product development as well as in decision making fields.