A decision-making methodology for low-carbon electronic product design

• Published in: Decision Support Systems 2015-03, Vol.71, p.1-13
• Main Authors: Chiang, Tzu-An, Che, Z.H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollution; Carbon; Carbon footprint; Decision making; Decision making models; Design engineering; Design time and cost; Digital audio players; Electronic product design; Electronics; Environment protection; Environmental protection; Genetic algorithms; Global warming; Low-carbon design alternative; Methodology; Product design; Product life cycle; Studies
• ISSN: 0167-9236; 1873-5797
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dss.2015.01.004

Degradation of environment can significantly affect human existence and development. Therefore, environmental protection deserves significant attention. Low-carbon products have become an attractive option due to global warming. To efficiently and effectively achieve the aim of eco-friendly electronic product design, this paper develops a decision-making methodology for low-carbon electronic product design. First, the proposed methodology estimates the released amounts of greenhouse gases for different product designs throughout the major phases of a product's life cycle. This research can subsequently determine the benchmarking low-carbon design parts (as compared with other competitive products) and discern the causes of the poor carbon footprint (CF) performance. This will stimulate innovation to propose the low-carbon design alternatives. This research creates an evaluation model of low-carbon design alternative combinations in order to assess their performance. A multi-objective genetic algorithm is employed to determine an optimal low-carbon design alternative combination satisfying the CF constraint of a new product and minimizing the design time and cost. Finally, this research utilizes an MP3 player as a case study to showcase the significant efficacy of the proposed methodology. •An estimation model of GHG emissions is developed to predict the carbon footprint.•This paper can find benchmark low-carbon design parts to acquire information about how to enhance the low-carbon design.•Engineers can understand the causes of the poor carbon footprint (CF) performance.•The analytical results can help engineers propose low-carbon design alternatives.•This study can find the optimal low-carbon design alternative combination.