Vague knowledge search in the design for outsourcing using fuzzy decision tree

One of the most popular strategies in business today is global outsourcing. The information which needs to be provided for outsourcing and obtained from outsourced maintenance during the R&D processes is very important for the successful development of a product. Although DFX plays a key role in the R&D processes by considering the important X item constraints simultaneously in the design stage, the vague outsourced maintenance data and knowledge are seldom properly analyzed and used. In this study, fuzzy decision tree is used to form a search mechanism for vague knowledge in design for outsourcing (DFO) with index for classifying vague knowledge. Computational experiments were conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed search mechanism and knowledge classification.