There are significant parallels between design for manufacturability and design for the environment: (1) in the past, designers were not directly confronted with the effect of their designs on the manufacturing process or the environment; (2) traditional analytic design procedures are not capable of dealing with these issues in a mathematically rigorous manner; (3) both involve the harsh realities of unavoidable tradeoffs; and (4) the interplay between product and process design is significant. This project seeks to develop a new design methodology that integrates concurrent multiobjective design optimization with statistical process quality control and lifecycle analysis. The basis of the method is the internalization of previously external environmental impacts into concurrent engineering.

Upcoming amendments to the Clean Air Act require industries to install expensive pollution control systems. Pollution prevention methods can decrease pollution control costs, but might also require tradeoffs between treatment cost, manufacturing cost, product quality, customer satisfaction, reliability, manufacturability, and other attributes. In addition, tradeoffs between environmental impacts that occur at different phases of the lifecycle might be necessary. This project does not presume to identify the ``environmentally correct'' design alternative. Rather, we are developing a structured framework within which engineers can rationally consider tradeoffs between environmental impact, manufacturing cost, pollution control cost, and product performance.

QFD and the ``House of Quality'' have proven to be extremely successful in helping corporations integrate input from the customer into the product design process. However, they rely on qualitative, rather than quantitative, assessments. Lacking is a systematic method for using the information to make the optimal decision. There is no explicit procedure for dealing with risk and uncertainty. The goal of this project is to explore the feasibility of developing an extension to QFD so that it may be used as a normative vehicle to take decision making away from a reactive approach toward a more proactive approach. The significant issues in relating organizational factors and QFD will be determined.

This project develops a rigorous new method for integrating quantitative decision analysis over the entire range of product design, manufacture, use, and disposal. Specifically, the methodology combines statistical manufacturing process control with life-cycle analysis and concurrent multiobjective design optimization. Pollution and its removal cost are treated as product defects. This project significantly expands on previous work to develop design tools that can be used by any industry. Procedures for classes of manufacturing processes and their resultant waste streams are specified. The best combination of strategies is identified, including specification of the product design, materials, manufacturing process design, and manufacturing process control settings.