A semi-quantitative methodology of environmentally conscious design for electromechanical products

Nowadays, pollution caused by electromechanical products becomes more and more serious. In order to greatly reduce the pollution generated by a product at various stages of its life cycle, the designers have to consider the environmental impact of the product as early as its design stage. Because modularity design of a product will reduce its environmental impact generated at its various stages, this paper presents the modularity design schema at first. The authors introduce the fuzzy relationship to express the interaction among components in a product. Based on the popular modularity concept, this paper sets up a modularity environmentally conscious model. It provides a mathematical foundation for the future environmentally conscious design. This paper also introduces the Design for “X” and Eco-indicator to assess the alternatives for the design alternatives of a product