Concurrent Conceptual

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN MATERIALS
Muhd Ridzuan Mansor
Salit Mohd Sapuan
Concurrent
Conceptual Design
and Materials
Selection of Natural
Fiber Composite
Products
123
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Muhd Ridzuan Mansor Salit Mohd Sapuan
•
Concurrent Conceptual
Design and Materials
Selection of Natural Fiber
Composite Products
123
Muhd Ridzuan Mansor Salit Mohd Sapuan
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical and
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of
Durian Tunggal, Melaka Engineering
Malaysia Universiti Putra Malaysia
Serdang, Selangor
Malaysia
ISSN 2192-1091 ISSN 2192-1105 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Materials
ISBN 978-981-10-6589-7 ISBN 978-981-10-6591-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6591-0
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Preface
This book covers topics on developing natural fiber composite (NFC) products with
special attention to the conceptual design stage in the product development process.
The concurrent engineering method and related tools applied in the NFC product
development are described in this book which covers major conceptual design
activities such as geometrical conceptual design development and selection,
materials selection, and manufacturing process selection. This book also includes
case studies with illustrations on the related conceptual design activities for
developing NFC products to provide practical guidance for product designers in
applying the selected tool for their project.
Durian Tunggal, Malaysia Muhd Ridzuan Mansor

Serdang, Malaysia Salit Mohd Sapuan
v
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, we wish to express special appreciation and thanks to all the
members from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
and Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education for the support and contribution to the
completion of this book. Special thanks as well to Ms. Noordiana Ishak for her kind
advice and knowledge sharing for the case study on the manufacturing process
selection. Last but not least, we also wish to dedicate our heartiest thanks to our
family members and dear friends for the precious encouragements and endless
supports given throughout this memorable journey.
Muhd Ridzuan Mansor

Salit Mohd Sapuan
vii
Contents
1 Overview on Development of Natural Fiber Composite

Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Natural Fiber Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Product Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Conceptual Design Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 7
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 7
2.2 Conceptual Design Development Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 8
2.3 Case Study on Conceptual Design Development
of Natural Fiber Composite Products Using
TRIZ-Morphological Chart Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1 Design Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.2 Problem Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.3 Modeling the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.4 Idea Generation for Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.5 Generating Specific Solutions for the New Ironing
Board Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 20
2.3.6 Developing New Conceptual Design for Ironing
Board Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 20
2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 24
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 24
3 Materials Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2 Materials Selection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.1 Screening Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2.2 Ranking Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3 Case Study on Materials Selection of Natural Fiber
Composite Products Using AHP Method . . . . . . . . ........... 32
ix
x Contents
3.3.1 Developing AHP Hierarchy Framework and Defining

Project Goal, Criteria and Alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 32
3.3.2 Determination of the Weightage of the Selection
Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 34
3.3.3 Ranking the Alternatives and Determining
the Consistency of Judgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.3.4 Results Verification Using Sensitivity Analysis . . . . . . . . . 40
3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Manufacturing Process Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 45
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 45
4.2 Additive Manufacturing of NFC Products . . . . . ............. 48
4.3 Case Study on Manufacturing Process Selection
VIKOR Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 49
4.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 56
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 57
5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 1
Overview on Development of Natural
Fiber Composite Products
1.1 Introduction
Composites consist of two or more constituent materials, mainly fiber reinforce-

ments and matrices, bonded together, as a result better properties are obtained in the
final composites compared to the constituent materials. However, the constituent
materials retained their unique attributes. Composite materials or composites are the
materials of choice in many engineering application. They are used in various
industries such as automotive, building and construction, aerospace, telecommu-
nication, furniture and marine industries. Figure 1.1 shows a fishing boat developed
using glass fiber reinforced polymer composites.
1.2 Natural Fiber Composites
The use of composite materials has helped the society in achieving a sustainable
economy. This is particularly true when the sustainable materials like natural fiber
composites (NFC) are considered. In composites, the matrices used are normally
polymer materials but in the recent years, ceramic and metal matrices are used in
advanced applications. The reinforcements used in polymer composites are nor-
mally glass, carbon and aramid but in the recent years, natural fibers are widely
used in some semi and non-structural applications. Among the advantages of NF
composites include low cost, light weight, abundance, environmentally friendly,
aesthetically pleasing natural design image, comparable specific strength and
stiffness to traditional fiber composites, renewable and formability with low
investment (Taekema and Karana 2012). Sources of NFs that are reported to be
used as reinforcements in polymer composites include oil palm, roselle, sisal, jute,
kenaf, hemp, flax, banana pseudo-stem, sugar palm (Fig. 1.2), pineapple leaf, and
water hyacinth (Sapuan 2014).
© The Author(s) 2018 1

M.R. Mansor and S.M. Sapuan, Concurrent Conceptual Design and Materials
Selection of Natural Fiber Composite Products, SpringerBriefs in Materials,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6591-0_1
2 1 Overview on Development of Natural Fiber Composite Products
Fig. 1.1 Glass fiber reinforced polymer composite boat made from hand lay-up process (Courtesy
of Encik Abdul Aziz bin Suloh, Sungai Lang Marine and Supply Sdn. Bhd., Sekinchan, Selangor,
Malaysia)
However, the major limitations of using natural fibers as reinforcements in

polymer composites include incompatibility between hydrophilic fibers and
hydrophobic polymers, thus reducing interfacial bonding strength between fibers
and matrices and they are only suitable for non-structural (or perhaps
semi-structural) parts only. Natural fibers suffer from high moisture absorption, thus
they demonstrate low dimensional stability and their applications are restricted to
indoor environment only. In the recent years, studies have been devoted on
developing 100% biocomposites made from natural fibers and starch-based
biopolymer (Jumaidin et al. 2017) (see Fig. 1.3). In this book a study of concur-
rent conceptual design and materials selection of NFC products is presented.
1.3 Product Design Process
In general, the design process is modelled as a linear, step-by-step form by many

designers and design theorists. Buchanan (1992) described that despite many
variations of the linear design process models, its proponents hold that the design
process is divided into two distinct phases: problem definition and problem solu-
tion. Problem definition is an analytic sequence in which the designer determines all
of the elements of the problem and specifies all of the requirements that a successful
design solution must have. Problem solution is a synthetic sequence in which the
1.3 Product Design Process 3
Fig. 1.2 Sugar palm fibers from sugar palm trees (Courtesy of Encik Hasyim bin Yahya, Benta,
Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Malaysia)
various requirements are combined and balanced against each other, yielding a final
plan to be carried into production.
Buchanan (1992) further stated that in most every new situation, designers
faced the challenge to provide best solution for class of problems which are
4 1 Overview on Development of Natural Fiber Composite Products
Fig. 1.3 Biocomposite sample from sugar palm fibers and cassava starch biopolymer
ill-formulated. Based on the definition of Rittel and Webber (1973), Buchanan

described the ill-formulated problems as wicked problems, where the information is
confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting
values, and where the consequences in the whole system are thoroughly confusing.
The ill-defined problems have no definitive conditions of limits which added to the
complexity to find the solution.
Pugh (1991) proposed a total design model in product development stages,
which comprises market investigation, product design specification (PDS), con-
ceptual design, detail design, manufacture and sale. Ulrich and Eppinger (2004)
improvised Pugh model by adding concept testing stage after conceptual design
stage. Dieter (2000) stated that identification of customer needs, problem definition
and gathering information (including market investigation and PDS) are parts the
conceptual design activities. It is often understood that 70% of the manufacturing
cost is committed during conceptual design stage and therefore the conceptual
design should be given more attention. Ulrich and Eppinger (2004) stated that
conceptual design activity such as concept generation only consumed less than five
percent of the budget and 15 percent of the development time of a product
developed. In the product design process, authors such as Dieter (2000), Pahl et al.
(2007), Wright (1998) and Ashby (2005) included embodiment design as an
intermediate stage between conceptual and detail design stages.
General design methods for composites by Mayer (1993) started from design brief
(or general design description), product design specification, conceptual design,
1.3 Product Design Process 5
embodiment design and detail design in designing with composites. Mayer (1993)
further stated the challenges in design with composites: limited availability of design
data due to high variation of raw material properties and manufacturing processes.
Ashby (2005) framework of product development NFC design—geometrical
design and materials selection process are concurrently embedded in the design
phase of the product. Mayer (1993) had reported that in product design the first step
is to have a design brief. Then designers should have some design options after
deciding the number of components to be developed, where these are developed by
fulfilling some design requirements (specifications) such as ergonomic, functional
and aesthetic consideration. Finally a design concept is obtained.
Sapuan (2017) provided the most recent information on design for manufac-
turing process for composite materials; where in his book, important aspects of
design for manufacturing of composite materials were covered. He provided
information on design process of composites, concurrent engineering for compos-
ites, conceptual design for composites and materials selection for composites. New
topic on design for sustainability of NFC was also included.
References
Ashby, M. F. (2005). Materials selection in mechanical design (3rd ed.). Oxford: Elsevier
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. Design Issues, 8(2), 5–21. http://doi.
org/10.2307/1511637.
Dieter, G. E. (2000). Engineering design: A materials and processing approach (3rd ed.). Boston:
McGraw-Hill.
Jumaidin, R., Sapuan, S. M., Jawaid, M., Ishak, M. R., & Sahari, J. (2017). Thermal, mechanical,
and physical properties of seaweed/sugar palm fibre reinforced thermoplastic sugar palm
starch/agar hybrid composites. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 97, 606–
615.
Mayer, R. M. (1993). Design with reinforced plastics: A guide for engineers and designers.
London: The Design Council.
Pahl, G., Beitz, W., Feldhusen, J., & Grote, K. H. (2007). Engineering design: A systematic
approach (3rd ed.). London: Springer.
Pugh, S. (1991). Total design: Integrated methods for successful product engineering.
Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley Publishing.
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy
Sciences, 4, 155–169.
Sapuan, S. M. (2014). Tropical natural fibre reinforced polymer composites. Singapore: Springer.
Sapuan, S. M. (2017). Composite materials: Concurrent engineering approach. Oxford:
Taekema, J., & Karana, E. (2012). Creating awareness on natural fibre composites in design. In
Proceedings of the 12th International Design Conference (DESIGN 2012) (pp. 1141–1150).
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Ulrich, K. T., & Eppinger, S. D. (2004). Product design and development (3rd ed.). Boston:
McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Wright, I. C. (1998). Design methods in engineering and product design. Maidenhead, Berkshire:
Mc-Graw-Hill Publishing Company.
Chapter 2
Conceptual Design Development
2.1 Introduction
In the modern design, conceptual design is an important activity in the design

process, it is constantly being emphasized that incorrect conceptual design may lead
to expansive rework and problem that may happen after the product is fabricated.
According to Pugh (1991), conceptual design activity is an activity for generating
design solution and evaluating them to satisfy the PDS. Conceptual design with
NFC is normally different from metals because in composites, many design features
are different and the tailor-made nature of composites has made the design approach
to be different as well. Conceptual design with NFC is similar to design with
conventional composite product. This activity requires several steps such as design
brief, information gathering and market investigation, and development of product
design specification (PDS). This is called ‘pre-conceptual design’ by Sapuan
(2017).
Sapuan and Mansor (2016) have used Pugh’s approach in conceptual design of
NFC products. In their work a case study of conceptual design of NFC lap top case
embedded with external cooling fan was performed. The major toll used was Theory
of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). The use of different design tools and tech-
niques are emphasized the recent work on conceptual design of NFC. Tools like
analytic hierarchy process (AHP), function analysis diagram, failure mode and effect
analysis (FMEA), TRIZ, and Morphological chart among existing tools in the
conceptual design of natural fiber reinforced composite products. Mastura (2017)
has used different techniques to perform conceptual design of NFC product, i.e. an
automotive anti-roll bar. Mastura (2017) reported the use of existing tool in business
i.e. blue ocean strategy (BOS) as a new tool of conceptual design of NFC. In her
study, conceptual design of automotive anti roll bar from hybrid glass-natural fiber
reinforced thermoplastic composites was carried out. She introduced BOS tools such
as the four actions frame-work (the eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid) and the

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6591-0_2
8 2 Conceptual Design Development
Fig. 2.1 Matrix evaluation of NFC chair (Mahmood et al. 2016)
strategy canvass (value curve) in coming up with different concepts of automotive

antiroll bar from natural fiber-glass reinforced polymer hybrid composites.
Mansor et al. (2016) reported on the conceptual design development of green
biocomposites product using bicycle frame as the case study. The TRIZ method
was utilized to produce new conceptual design of the bicycle frame, which can be
produced using NFC to replace the use of steel based bicycle frame. The TRIZ 40
engineering contradiction tool was used to model the problem, while the contra-
diction matrix and 40 inventive principle tools were used to generate the idea for the
design solution. By using the innovative design tool, the current NFC material
limitation which is the low strength can be address through geometrical design
solution such as using ribs and triangulation to increase the frame structural
strength. In another report, Mansor et al. (2015a, b) also demonstrate the use of
integrated TRIZ and Morphological chart method in generating new conceptual
design of automotive rear spoiler component, using kenaf composites.
Similar TRIZ tools such as engineering contradiction, contradiction matrix and 40
inventive principle were used to formulate the design solutions based on the kenaf
composites structural strength limitation. Similar integrated TRIZ-Morphological
chart method was also used to generate new conceptual designs of automotive
parking brake lever component based on kenaf fiber polymer composites (Mansor
et al. 2014).
Mahmood et al. (2016), Yusof et al. (2016) and Shaharuzaman et al. (2016) also
performed conceptual design studies of NFC using similar approach adopted by
Mastura (2017) for the chair (Fig. 2.1) and table, automotive crash box and auto-
motive door panel.
2.2 Conceptual Design Development Methods
The purpose of conceptual design in NFC product development is to create the

initial shape or form of the end product. Conceptual design are also the quickest
way to visualize the product solution especially to customers. Most often, several
conceptual design are produced based on the given product design specifications.
2.2 Conceptual Design Development Methods 9
Fig. 2.2 Example of

concurrent engineering
methods for NFC product
conceptual design and idea Brainstorming
generation
Blue
Ocean TRIZ
Strategy
Concept
Design
Development
Method
Biomimetics Design for
Assembly
(DFA)
Morphological
Chart
The finalized concept design will later be applied for the next product development
stages, which are detail design and product manufacturing. In this stage, concurrent
design methods are most widely applied to help designer in completing the product
design process (Sapuan and Mansor 2014). Figure 2.2 shows some of the con-
current engineering methods which can be applied to generate idea for NFC
products.
One of simplest method for conceptual design development is the brainstorming
method. The brainstorming process is best performed by group discussions, with
the presence of an instructor to help the discussion process be managed in a sys-
tematic and structured manner (Sutton and Hargadon 1996). The brainstorming
process can be engaged effectively by always relating the produced idea to the
project goal, illustrating the idea such as through sketching, selecting and elabo-
rating the idea which are promising, creating connections between the generated
idea (or concepts) and combining them to produce more innovative ideas (or
concepts).
The other method for conceptual design development is called “Teoriya
Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch” (TRIZ) in Russian which also termed as
Theory of Inventive Problem Solving in English. Establish since the 1940s by a
Russian patent officer named G. Altshuller in 1940s, the method was created based
on the concept of obtaining ideality for the solution. The ideality concept rejected
the conventional idea of having to accept compromise or trade-off in the design
solution. There are many tools within the TRIZ method, based on how the problem
is modeled. Among the solution generation tools available in TRIZ contradiction
matrix, 40 inventive principles, 76 standard solutions and ARIZ (San et al. 2009).
Another powerful tool within the TRIZ method is the trends of evolution in
engineering system (TESE). The tool outline the technological growth toward
achieving solution ideality, which can benefits in producing ideas which can
overleap current design situation (Yu and Fan 2012).
Furthermore, additional method for NFC conceptual design is Design for
Assembly (DFA). The method stem on the idea of generating design solutions
which be easily assembled, such as solutions that contains less components, which
later will contribute to reducing the assembly time and the assembly cost. This can
be made combining parts which have the same function, or adding multifunction
attribute to a singular parts. In addition, the idea generation can also include the
consideration of creating design features which help to ease the assembly process,
such as ease of handling through proper component orientation, grip shape and
insertion mechanism (Boothroyd 1994).
The next available method is the Morphological chart. The Morphological chart
is a visual way to show the product functionality and find the alternative means and
combination to achieve the desired functionality. A matrix is form using the
Morphological chart method, which consists of the product components and its
function. The central idea to the method is to explore potential alternative design
attributes to meet the required function, and later combined all the identified
functional design attributes to generate final conceptual designs for the product.
Despite is simplicity, the method can yield vast number of idea just by combining
the different function alternative together. In addition, the graphical feature incor-
porated within the method can also help designer to visualize clearly the potential
solutions in hand (Silvester et al. 2013).
Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) is also one of the method which can be used to
generate ideas and conceptual design for NFC product. Although BOS is created
initially for strategic planning and management purpose in order to gain uncon-
tested market space and make the competition irrelevant, the framework within it
can suit nicely with the requirement is product designs. One of the tool within the
BOS framework is to find solution based on four (4) main action, which are to find
ways in raising the current product in term of its quality and productivity, elimi-
nating and reducing existing non-value added features, and create new features
which add more functionality and values to the existing product. Mastura et al.
(2017a, b, c) demonstrated the use of BOS in developing new conceptual design of
automotive anti-roll bar, using hybrid NFC as the raw material to replace to use of
steel.
Another innovative approach in concept generation for NFC products is using
biomimetics or biomimicry concept. The biomimetics concept was inspired by
nature, whereby inspiration and idea generation were developed by imitating the
nature’s element and adopting the elements into design features (Benyus 1997).
One of the famous example of the biomimetics method is the design of flying
contraption by Leonardo da Vinci which was adopted from bat wings. There are
several procedures in the biomimetic concept design application which are problem
definition, reframing the problem, search for appropriate biological solution,
defining the identified biological solution and finally extraction the biological
2.2 Conceptual Design Development Methods 11
principle into design ideas (Helms et al. 2009). In the case of composites appli-
cation, the biomimetics concept was successfully applied to the design of new
double helical structure for composite laminates, based on the idea from bamboo
bast fiber structure (Li et al. 1995) and to the design of new composites sandwich
panels based on the idea from cross-sectional feature of lily plant leaf (Easterling
1990). Moreover, the biomimetics adoption based on the growth of wood
branch-trunk joint for new bio-inspired composites T-joint was also reported which
able to increase the bending failure initiation load and elastic strain energy capacity
compared to conventional base-line T-joint design without jeopardizing the com-
posites stiffness, weight and cost (Burns et al. 2012).
2.3 Case Study on Conceptual Design Development

TRIZ-Morphological Chart Method
In this section, a case study focusing on ironing board product was selected to
demonstrate the application of conceptual design development of NFC products.
The case study is explained through several product design stages, which encom-
pass design brief, defining the project problem statement, modeling the design
problem, generating idea as the product solution and finally developing the final
conceptual design solution. The overall ironing board product design development
process was completed using the integration of TRIZ and Morphological chart
method.
2.3.1 Design Brief
In most design cases, the designer received a set of guidelines or design brief after
performing a series of discussions with customer to solve the problem. In this case
study, a design brief was given to design a new consumer ironing board which
utilized NFC or green-composites as the material to form the ironing board legs as
shown in Fig. 2.3.
The design intent is to create an eco-friendly consumer product by replacing
current steel based-ironing board legs with green composites based-legs so that the
new product will able to be easily handled due to the reduced weight, as well as
deliver lower product cost. In addition, the customer also expect that by introducing
more renewable and environmental friendly materials to the product, it will also
appeal to higher consumer acceptance in line with current growing awareness in
environmental sustainability by consumers. Based on market research by the cus-
tomer, the market demand for eco-friendly ironing board is expected to escalate up
to 50,000 units per month within 6 months. In addition, the new eco-friendly
Fig. 2.3 Example of ironing

board product with iron rest
Table 2.1 Product design Product design specifications

specifications for eco-friendly
• 135 45 cm, Solid steam iron rest
ironing board
• Able to support moderate external load
• Long life and durable
• Production target 50,000 units a month within 6 months
• Lightweight and low cost
• Recyclable
• Leg components made from NFC. Other components remain
to use existing type of material
product will also be subjected to pre-production models development and testing by

engineering department. Table 2.1 summarized the overall product design specifi-
cations (PDS) for the eco-friendly ironing board product.
Analyzing the aforementioned situation, the designer is faced with contradicting
requirement and has to balance between gaining ease of operation by the user
without compromising the structural strength and reliability of the product. Most
often, designer opted on the “trade-off” decision to solve the problem, such as
having the need to use bigger leg component size or increase the number of legs
components in order to withstand the load but in the same time scarifying the initial
weight reduction advantage of the NFC. To solve the given problem, TRIZ method
was selected to solve the problem. TRIZ method is utilized for the idea generation
and concept development process for the new eco-friendly ironing board. As dis-
cussed in the previous section, the TRIZ method was found capable of guiding
designers in the innovative problem solving process to meet the product design
specifications based on customer requirements. In addition, the morphological chart
is also employed alongside the TRIZ method in developing new conceptual designs
2.3 Case Study on Conceptual Design Development … 13
of the product. Later, the AHP method was applied to select the best conceptual
designs among the developed alternatives which able to satisfy all the multiple
criteria as required by the customer. The overall design methodology applied for
this case study is shown in Fig. 2.4. Details of the conceptual design development
and selection process for the eco-friendly ironing board product are explained in the
following sections.
Fig. 2.4 Overall concept

design development and
selection framework
2.3.2 Problem Definition
Based on the design brief, the goal of the project was to create a new design of
eco-friendly ironing board by substitute the use of steel with NFC material to
construct the leg components of the product. The designer acknowledged that the
proposed NFC material will able to deliver the customer expectation of producing
lighter ironing board product for ease of operation by the consumers due to the
lower density material property of the NFC materials compared to steel. Moreover,
the use of renewable, recyclable and low cost plant based fibers in the NFC to
construct the leg components of the product will also be able to lower the product
cost and reduced the environmental effect of the product materials compared to the
existing steel based component. However, the introduction of NFC to construct the
leg components also created problems in term of the structural strength, whereby
the NFC has lower mechanical strength property compared to steel, thus may
jeopardize the functional performance of the whole product to withstand the load
during ironing operation by consumer. The reliability performance of the legs to
hold the load during longer ironing process will also reduce due to the same
limitation in mechanical strength of the NFC material.
The problem identification process using TRIZ is started by modeling the
problem using function analysis method. The objective of the function analysis is to
map and analyze the interaction performance between the product (engineering
system) with its subcomponent (subsystem) and its environment (supersystem). The
interactions can be classified as useful function, useful but insufficient, useful but
excessive and harmful function. Through the function model created, the actual root
cause of the problem for the product can be identified and verified, thus enabling
more precise solution to be developed which able to solve the contradiction
occurred. For this case study, the function model of the ironing board product
(engineering system) is formulated as shown in Fig. 2.5.
Fig. 2.5 Function model of iron board product

As observed in Fig. 2.5, the ironing board product consists of six (6) subsystems
which are the legs, rail, board, pin joint, screws and iron rest. The iron rest com-
ponent acts as the holding place for the iron while not in use, and is attached to the
board. The board is also attached with the rail, which enable adjustment of the leg
height for consumer during the ironing process. The legs component holds the
upper portion of the ironing board and connected to the rail. There are also two
mechanical connections involved in the whole product assembly, which are pin
joint and the screws. The pin joint is mounted on the center of the legs to enable
them to be folded, while the screws holds the rail to the board and the iron rest to
the board. In addition, the supersystem involved are the floor and the user, whereby
both of the supersystem elements also can give effect to the operation of the
engineering system. Based on the eco-friendly ironing board product, the function
model is shown to have one insufficient interaction between the legs and the rail. By
using NFC material to construct the legs component, the capability of the structure
to hold the ironing board upper components (rail, board and iron rest) is reduced
due to the inherent low mechanical strength of the materials as compared to existing
steel-based legs, making the performance of the leg components insufficient to
function as higher load is exerted on the product. Thus, the function model iden-
tified the root cause of the problem as well as verified the initial assumption of the
contradiction which will occurred by using NFC material to construct the ironing
board legs.
2.3.3 Modeling the Problem
The new eco-friendly ironing board product will be successful if the root cause of
the problem (which is the legs produced using NFC material) can be solve.
Using TRIZ, the contradicting problem of wanting to increase the ease of operation
for users while maintaining structural strength and operation reliability of the
product can be resolve using several modeling method, such as engineering con-
tradiction, physical contradiction and substance field model. For this case study, the
problem is modelled using engineering contraction method, whereby within a same
situation, several improving and worsening engineering parameters are present.
Kim and Cochran (2000) defined engineering contradictions as condition whereby
improvement of one technical aspect of the system caused deterioration of other
parameters in the same system. TRIZ strived to solve the contradiction without
having to opt for trade-off decision, so that the desired improving engineering
parameters can be achieved and the worsening engineering parameter can be
eliminated concurrently.
The engineering contradiction problem model is stated using the general state-
ment of “If parameter x is present, then parameter y improves but parameter
z worsens”. The intention of formulating the engineering contradiction statement is
to help designer to understand clearly the current situation and what parameters are
contradicting each other in the same situation (San et al. 2009). Thus, for the
eco-friendly ironing board design problem, the resulting engineering contradiction

statement are formulated as follows:
IF using low weight natural fiber composites (NFC) to fabricate the ironing board legs,
THEN easy to carry/operate the product by the user, BUT caused lower structural strength
capability to the legs to handle the load given during ironing process.
Alternatively, the loss of structural strength due to the use of NFC materials can
also be reflected in the loss of operation reliability, whereby although the new
product able to operate at moderate load for short term operation, but is not reliable
for long term use by the user. Thus, another engineering contradiction statement can
be formulated to represent the contradiction as follows:
IF using low weight natural fiber composites (NFC) to fabricate the ironing board legs,
THEN easy to carry/operate the product by the user, BUT caused degradation of the
product performance to function in longer ironing process time.
Based on both engineering contradiction statements above, it can be concluded that

based on TRIZ problem model method, the same technical improvement required
may cause more than one worsening technical parameters to be involved
simultaneously.
2.3.4 Idea Generation for Solution
One of the difficulty faced in creative problem solving is to break the psychological
inertia (overcoming the problem of thinking outside of the box and clarity of
thought) in order to find the required solution (Ilevbare et al. 2013). Using TRIZ
method, the psychological inertia can be overcome by converting high level
technical jargons and/or complicated technical term into equivalent simpler general
term (Kremer et al. 2012). TRIZ listed a set of 39 system parameters which able to
represent generalized definition of all the technical terms as shown in Table 2.2.
Thus, the next step is to match the specific technical term as outline in the
engineering contradiction statement to the most suitable 39 system parameters.
Table 2.3 summarized the overall TRIZ system parameters selected to match the
formulated engineering contradiction statements in this case study.
Stage 3: Identification of General Solutions using TRIZ Contradiction Matrix
The next step towards generating solution to solve the contradiction is by using the
TRIZ contradiction matrix. The contradiction matrix is a 39 39 matrix table
which mapped all the 39 system parameter according to the improving system
parameters and worsening system parameters on the left and top column, respec-
tively. Inside the matrix, a list of general solutions are stated which represent
another TRIZ tools which is the 40 Inventive Principles. Table 2.4 shows an
example of the TRIZ contradiction matrix.
Table 2.2 TRIZ 39 system parameters

#1—Weight of Moving Object #21—Power
#2—Weight of Stationary Object #22—Loss of Energy
#3—Length (or Angle) of Moving Object #23—Loss of Substance
#4—Length (or Angle) of Stationary Object #24—Loss of Information
#5—Area of Moving Object #25—Loss of Time
#6—Area of Stationary Object #26—Quantity of Substance
#7—Volume of Moving Object #27—Reliability (Robustness)
#8—Volume of Stationary Object #28—Measurement Accuracy
#9—Speed #29—Manufacturing Precision
(Consistency)
#10—Force (a.k.a. Torque) #30—Object Affected Harmful Factors
#11—Stress/Pressure #31—Object Generated Harmful Factors
#12—Shape #32—Ease of Manufacture
(Manufacturability)
#13—Stability of the Object’s Composition #33—Ease of Operation (Manufacturability)
#14—Strength #34—Ease of Repair
#15—Duration of Action of Moving Object #35—Adaptability or Versatility
#16—Duration of Action of Stationary Object #36—Device Complexity
#17—Temperature #37—Difficulty of Detecting and Measuring
#18—Illumination Intensity #38—Extent of Automation
#19—Use of Energy by Moving Object #39—Productivity
#20—Use of Energy by Stationary Object
Table 2.3 Mapping specific requirements with TRIZ 39 system parameters

Specific requirement TRIZ 39 system
parameters
Improving feature targeted the new design
• Ease to carry the product by using lightweight material to construct #33-Ease of
the leg components operation
Worsening feature expected for the new design
• Lower structural strength to handle the load given during ironing #14-strength
process
• Degradation of the product performance to function in longer ironing #27-Reliability
process time
The TRIZ inventive principles are a set of solution principles found by

Altshuller through his studies on patent. Through his examination, he found that
innovative patents showed the use of repeating solution principles to solve the
problem. He documented the findings and arrived to the conclusion of 40 types
commonly used solution principles across the patent (Li 2010). He later named the
principle in general term such as segmentation, taking out and local quality to assist
Table 2.4 Example of TRIZ contradiction matrix (San et al. 2009)
Worsening System
Weight of stationary object
Length of stationary object

Weight of moving object
Length of moving object

Parameter
Area of moving object

Improving System
Parameter
1 2 3 4 5
15, 8, 29, 17,
1 Weight of moving object - -
29, 34 38, 34
10, 1,
2 Weight of stationary object - -
40 Inventive -
29, 35
8, 15, Principles 15, 17,
3 Length of moving object - -
29, 34 4
35, 28,
4 Length of stationary object - - -
40, 29
2, 17, 14, 15,
5 Area of moving object - -
29, 4 18, 4
users in understanding the meaning of the inventive principles. Table 2.5 lists of the
TRIZ 40 inventive principles derived from Altshuller study.
After identifying the improving and worsening parameters involved in the
engineering contradiction statement, the user can refer to the contradiction matrix to
determine the recommended inventive principles which can be used to generate
ideas to solve the engineering problem. For example, based on Table 2.5 inventive
principles number 15 (Dynamics), 17 (Another dimension) and 4 (Asymmetry) can
be applied to solve the contradiction of wanting to improve the length of moving
object while in the same time eliminating the problem related to area of the moving
object. The contradiction matrix is a very simple and useful tool to assist users to
quickly identify potential solution to solve the contradicting problem (Sheu and Lee
2011). It is also observed, that some of the cell inside the contradiction matrix do
not have any recommended inventive principles listed in it. TRIZ explained that the
empty cells do not represented that the problem cannot be solve, but instead rep-
resent the meaning that no particular set of improving or worsening parameters was
encountered during Altshuller patent study. Thus, TRIZ recommended that all the
40 inventive principles are to be reviewed by the users to help find the solution for
the problem. Similarly, the same process can be use by users to find solution in the
case where the recommended principles as shown in the contradiction matrix
unable to help users to find the relevant solution. Furthermore, users can apply one
or more inventive principles to solve the same problem. Higher level of
Table 2.5 List of TRIZ 40 inventive principles (San et al. 2009)

1.Segmentation 21. Skipping/Hurrying
2.Taking out/Extraction 22. ‘Blessing in Disguise’
3.Local Quality 23. Feedback
4.Asymmetry 24. Intermediary
5.Merging/Combination 25. Self- Service
6.Universality 26. Copying
7.“Nested Doll” 27. Cheap/Short Living Objects
8.Anti-weight/Counter-weight 28. Mechanics substitution/Another sense
9.Preliminary anti action/Prior 29. Pneumatics and hydraulics/Fluidity
counter-action
10. Preliminary action/Prior action 30. Flexible shells and thin films/Thin and
flexible
11. Beforehand cushioning/Prior 31. Porous Materials/Holes
cushioning
12. Equi-potentiality/Remove tension 32. Color changes
13. ‘The other way round’ 33. Homogeneity
14. Spheroidality-Curvature 34. Discarding and recovering
15. Dynamics 35. Parameter changes
16. Partial or excessive actions 36. Phase transitions
17. Another dimension 37. Thermal expansion/Relative change
18. Mechanical Vibration 38. Strong oxidants/Enriched atmosphere
19. Periodic action 39. Inert atmosphere/Calmed atmosphere
20. Continuity of useful action 40. Composite materials/Composite structures
inventiveness can be expected by combining more solution principles to solve the

problem, which also able to provide multiple alternative of solution to the users
based on the available resources.
For this case study, similar approach is used using the contradiction matrix. The
improving parameter involved is ease of operation, while the worsening parameters
related to it are strength and reliability. Table 2.6 summarized the mapping of the
improving and worsening parameters as well as the recommended inventive prin-
ciples involved in the eco-friendly ironing board problem.
As shown in Table 2.6, there are 8 inventive principles recommended from the
contradiction matrix which could provide the solution for the ironing board prob-
lem. The next task is to analyzed each of the recommended principles and choose
the appropriate principles to solve the problem. In many cases, especially for novice
TRIZ users, the analyzing and selection process often created difficulty due to the
overlapping and fuzzy definitions for the term used to represent the inventive
principles (Cascini et al. 2011). Brief description for each of the inventive principles
is also provided to users as guidelines when analyzing the information. Conversely,
the fuzzy general solution terminology defined for the inventive principles can
break the psychological inertia by providing broader thinking perspective to the
Table 2.6 Contradiction matrix for eco-friendly ironing board design

Improving parameter (feature to Worsening TRIZ 40 inventive principles
improve) parameter
No. 32. Ease of operation No. 14. Strength No. 32. Colour changes
No. 40. Composite materials
No. 3. Local quality
No. 28. Mechanics substitution
No. 27. Reliability No. 17. Another dimension
No. 27. Cheap/Short Living
Objects
No. 8. Anti-weight/Counter-
weight
No. 40. Composite materials
user in exploring out-of-the-box ideas in based on similar principle (Luttropp and

Lagerstedt 2006).
2.3.5 Generating Specific Solutions for the New Ironing

Board Design
In the final stage, ideas for specific solution strategies related to the general solution
are developed. Based on the recommended general solution principles, only two
principle were found able to provide relevant ideas to solve the problem. The two
principles are local quality (no. 3) and composite materials (no. 40). For local
quality inventive principle, among the specific solution which can be generated
from it are by changing the existing circular shape of the ironing board leg from
circular to rectangular shape, so that higher cross sectional area of the leg shape can
be generated which consequently able to handle more compressive stress during
operation. In addition, based on similar principle, the leg design can also be
adjusted to incorporate structural ribs to enable higher stiffness for the component,
and in the same time help to reduce the volume of the material required to achieve
similar structural performance. Summary of the specific solution ideas based on the
inventive principles for the new ironing board leg component are listed in
Table 2.7.
2.3.6 Developing New Conceptual Design for Ironing Board

Design
Based on Table 2.7, there are several parameters which can be changed from the
current ironing board design to enable effective use of NFC material such as
Table 2.7 Solution Ideas for ironing board engineering contradiction based on TRIZ inventive
principles
TRIZ Solution descriptions Specific solution idea
general
inventive
principles
No. 3. Local (a) Change an object’s structure from Change the uniform shape of the
quality uniform to non-uniform, change an ironing board legs from uniform
external environment (or external circular shape to non-uniform
influence) from uniform to rectangular shape, U or I-shape
non-uniform for higher cross sectional area,
(b) Make each part of an object thus increasing ability to handle
function in conditions most suitable for more compressive stress during
its operation operation
(c) Make each part of an object fulfill a Change the side profile of the legs
different and useful function by adding supporting ribs to
increase the stiffness of the
structure
Increase thickness at end joint
section (more stress can be
handle)
No. 40. (a) Change from uniform to composite Combine existing NFC material
Composite (multiple) materials with synthetic fibers to form
materials hybrid natural-synthetic fiber
composites, which able to
increase the structural strength, or
Combine existing NFC material
with stronger type of natural fibers
to form hybrid NFC, which also
able to increase the structural
strength
changing the leg component cross section and adding ribs to stiffen the leg struc-
ture. The specific idea can be further exploded to identify other potential solutions
by using Morphological chart method. The integration of TRIZ with Morphological
chart method is able to increase the effectiveness of the TRIZ method by expanding
the basic solution idea through graphical form, based on the component function. In
this case study, the interpretation of the inventive principles conducted previously is
further explored using Morphological chart as shown in Table 2.8. For example, the
idea of using non-uniform cross section shape of the ironing board leg can be done
through three possible ways, which are either using a rectangular shape profile,
U-shape profile or I-shape profile.
Next, after identifying the possible variation for similar product function, the user
can easily create many conceptual design ideas by combining individual solution
idea for each design feature together. Expansion of ideas through the Morphological
chart method also help designers to structurally explore other solution idea for
similar function, thus enabling more creative ideas to be created in finding the
optimal solution for the problem. For example, a new ironing board leg can be
Table 2.8 Morphological chart for the NFC ironing board leg design
TRIZ solution principle Design Solution
feature 1 2 3
No. 3: Local Quality Leg Rectangle U-shape I-shape
(i) Change the uniform cross
shape of the ironing section
board legs from uniform profile
circular shape to Leg I V X
non-uniform rectangular ribbing
shape, U or I-shape for pattern
higher cross sectional
area, thus increasing
ability to handle more
compressive stress
during operation
(ii) Change the side
profile of the legs by
adding supporting ribs
to increase the stiffness
of the structure
No. 40: Composite NFC Natural + synthetic Natural + natural
materials hybrid fiber fiber
(i) Combine existing fiber
NFC material with type
synthetic fibers to form
hybrid natural-synthetic
fiber composites, which
able to increase the
structural strength, or
combine existing NFC
material with stronger
type of natural fibers to
form hybrid NFC,
which also able to
increase the structural
strength
created through combination of rectangular-shape cross section, reinforced with

V-shape ribs and adding synthetic fibers to form hybridized NFC materials, which is
able to achieve similar structural strength for the component as the existing circular
shape steel-based ironing board legs. Just by combining two design features which
are the cross-section shape and ribbing pattern, a total of nine (9) possible solution
ideas for the new ironing board leg design were able to be created. Moreover, the
potential solution ideas for similar application can be expanded into 18 new ideas by
additional combination with two (2) variation of hybrid NFC configurations as listed
in the Morphological chart. Figure 2.6 shows several examples of the conceptual
design ideas generated through the TRIZ-Morphological chart application for the
new NFC ironing board leg component.
Flat ironing board design without stiffener Flat ironing board design with I-rib stiffener
Flat ironing board design with V-rib Flat ironing board design with X-rib
stiffener stiffener
Fig. 2.6 Example of new conceptual designs of eco-friendly ironing board leg component
As shown in Fig. 2.6, by identifying different type of ribs possible to be

embedded for the new leg design for improved structural stiffness through the
TRIZ-Morphological chart method, four (4) example of new ironing board con-
ceptual design were developed which able to address the engineering contradiction
faced in this case study. Alternative leg designs using NFC material were formu-
lated which able to be incorporated with other existing ironing board components in
the whole engineering system, without the need to change the principle of operation
for the product. The scissors-type folding mechanism is also selected for all the
developed conceptual designs similar to the existing design, as the folding mech-
anism able to provide users with quick and easy adjustment of the ironing board
height.
2.4 Summary
In overall, the conceptual design development of NFC products is aimed to create

the initial design solution is term of the product shape based on the customer design
requirements. The conceptual design process can be conducted using concurrent
engineering methods such as brainstorming, TRIZ, Morphological chart, BOS and
biomimetics method. Through the case study on ironing board product develop-
ment, it is shown that the use of concurrent engineering method, particularly the
integrated TRIZ-Morphological chart method was able to generate innovative
design solutions despite the existing limitation on the structural properties of the
NFC material, while still able to achieve the intended structural performance. Such
example also showcased the potential of more NFC products to be produced for
higher load bearing applications, breaking the current limitation through the aid of
innovative conceptual design process.
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Chapter 3
Materials Selection
3.1 Introduction
Materials selection is an activity normally carried out design engineers to select the
best materials for a particular component. To select the most suitable composite
materials, a materials selection system is used to the candidate materials from
different types of composite materials that are satisfying all the materials selection
requirements, such as strength, stiffness, cost and aesthetics. In the same manner, to
the select the most suitable NFC for a particular product, a materials selection
system will require the candidate materials consist of different types NFC. Materials
selection for NFC products is a new area of research. The task of selecting the
most suitable NFC for a particular product is considered complex and time con-
suming due to the fact that the range of individual constituent materials in NFC are
innumerable (Marques et al. 2012). NFC product designers often face the chal-
lenges in satisfying all the multiple requirements listed by different stakeholders
before coming to the final decision, as illustrated in Fig. 3.1.
Multi criteria decision making (MCDM) method is one of the effective solution
based on the concurrent engineering approach for materials selection of NFC
products. The MCDM method can assist product designers to perform proper,
systematic and scientific decision making, while able to address all the multi
criteria requirement from stakeholder simultaneously in the analyzing process
(Mansor et al. 2014a, b, c). Among the effect of improper materials selection is that
the final NFC product not able to function properly, due to inadequate materials
properties which prevent it to meet the design requirements. In addition, improper
materials selection could also create higher product cost due to use of over-rated
materials, far from the required requirements, despite gaining higher factor of safety
in design. In addition, the end product may also unable to be manufactured due to
the materials processing constraints. In example, despite being in similar polymer
categories, thermoset polymer may provide higher mechanical property, but cannot
be manufactured using process designed for thermoplastic polymer.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6591-0_3
28 3 Materials Selection
Fig. 3.1 Example of conflicting situation during materials selection process (Sapuan 2010)
Furthermore, the negative effect of improper materials selection could also create
mismatch between matrix materials and natural fiber processing properties may
reduce the materials performance. Example is the processing temperature. Choosing
a matrix materials with higher melting temperature compared to the natural fiber
maximum processing temperature will cause the fiber to degrade during processing,
thus lowering the mechanical performance of the fiber to handle the load and
reducing materials durability. Finally, the improper selection decision also may
reduce the sustainability performance of the end product. As many legislations are
being uphold by authorities, selection of low sustainable materials can create
end-of-life performance issue (Mansor et al. 2015a, b). For example, the automotive
industry has tightened the end-of-life requirement for automotive products, there-
fore selection of environmental friendly materials at the start of the product
development process is crucial to meet that requirements and avoid additional cost
later on (Milani et al. 2011).
Karana et al. (2010) introduced a materials selection method called meaning of
materials (MoM). It is a so-called a creative game performed by a group of
designers. In this session, the designers were required to come up with design
concepts based on some material samples provided and a fixed time with the aim of
familiarizing the designers with future materials, mainly NFC.
3.2 Materials Selection Method 29
3.2 Materials Selection Method
In general, there are two stage categories in the materials selection for NFC product
development, which are the screening method and the ranking method (Jahan et al.
2010). Details of the categories are describe as follows.
3.2.1 Screening Method
The purpose of the screening method in materials selection is to sort out and
identify the most suitable alternative(s) from a pool of material candidates based on
the product design specifications. The screening criteria can vary based on the
desired performance, such as physical attributes (density, price), mechanical attri-
butes (strength, modulus and energy absorption) and thermal attributes (coefficient
of thermal expansion, heat deflection). Based on the available literature, there are
two screening method applied in NFC materials selection, which are the Ashby
material selection chart (Ashby 1992) and the ternary diagram (Koronis et al. 2013).
Shah (2014) demonstrated the use of Ashby chart to select candidate reinforcement
materials for the plant fiber reinforced plastic construction. In addition, similar
Ashby plot was also used to compare two different properties at the same time
between different plant fibers with synthetic fibers during the screening process.
Figure 3.2 shows an example of the Ashby plot for several natural fibers based on
the tensile strength and density properties. In contrast, the ternary diagram consists
of three-dimensional selection criteria simultaneously to sort the possible candidate
materials. The ternary diagram helps to enrich the screening capability by including
more selection criteria into the process (Koronis et al. 2013).
3.2.2 Ranking Method
The ranking method is the most applied method is NFC materials selection. There
are many type of ranking method available to perform the MCDM process for NFC
materials selection, such as AHP, Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity
to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and V Ise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno
Resenje (VIKOR) method. The ranking method is used to determine the candidate
materials overall importance between each other based on the design requirements,
and identify the best candidate material which able to successfully meet the design
requirements. AL-Oqla and Salit (2017) provided detail account of materials
selection tools and techniques for NFC. Their comprehensive work covered many
different important topics in materials selection for NFC, such as different tools and
techniques, applications, and selection of constituent materials in NFC.
Fig. 3.2 Example of Ashby chart for natural fibers screening method using CES Selector software
(CES Selector 2013)
Among the examples on the application of ranking method for NFC materials
selection is by Sanyang et al. (2017). They utilized the modified Digital Logic and
WPM method to select the best NFC materials selection. In their study, five
bio-based matrix which are thermoplastic starch, polylacticacid (PLA), poly-L-
lactide (PLLA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-
hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) were analyzed to determine which of the matrix is the
most suitable candidate to be use for to produce non-structural spare tyre cover
using NFC composites.
Another example is by Mastura et al. (2017a, b, c) which performed materials
selection on hybrid NFC for automotive anti-roll bar. They applied the integrated
Environment Quality Function Deployment (QDFE) with AHP during the natural
fiber selection process, whereby the selection criteria were based on customer
requirement with consideration of cost, performance and environmental aspect.
Their study also involved the environmental life cycle assessment between the top
two candidate materials, to further assess each of the material performance in term
of environmental sustainability such as energy consumption and CO2 footprint.
3.2 Materials Selection Method 31
Ahmed Ali et al. (2015) also used AHP method to in performing materials
selection of NFC for automotive product development. Based on the listed design
specifications, the AHP method used ranked hemp natural fiber and polypropylene
matrix as the most suitable reinforcement and matrix material for the intended
application. Furthermore, the judgement results were also validated using sensi-
tivity analysis, giving priority to the environmental factors and sustainability.
In another report, Alaaeddin et al. (2016) applied the AHP method to rank the
importance several selection criteria for NFC towards their application in solar
photovoltaics. The AHP selection model was designed by establishing an analytic
hierarchy structure, usability calculations of fixed criterion and alternative criterion.
The AHP analysis showed that four major criterion are importantly highlighted for
the application of NFC in solar photovoltaics, which are density, thermal con-
ductivity, electrical conductivity, and absorption coefficient.
Futhermore, Sapuan et al. (2011) implemented AHP method in the materials
selection of final NFC materials for automotive dashboard panel application. In
addition, Mansor et al. (2013) also applied AHP method to perform hybrid com-
posites materials selection for the design of automotive parking brake lever com-
ponent. Moreover, the AHP method was also integrated with TOPSIS method for
NFC matrix materials selection. The AHP method was implemented to determine
the weightage of the selection criteria, and later TOPSIS method was used to
perform the ranking process of candidate thermoplastic matrix materials (Mansor
et al. 2014a).
The VIKOR method was also employed in NFC materials selection. A case
study by Ishak et al. (2016) applied the VIKOR method to select the best type of
natural fiber for the development of automotive front hood component using NFC
materials.
In the other hand, the NFC materials selection can also be approach through
statistic means. Noryani and Sapuan (2016) reported the application of Multiple
Linear Regression (MLR), response surface methodology (RSM) and Taguchi
method in natural fiber reinforced composites material selection. The performance
of the material was discussed by a mathematical modelling for each method
respectively. The best candidate natural fiber material was selected based on the
statistical criteria such as coefficient of determination, correlation and analysis of
variance (ANOVA).
The increase in environmental awareness by consumers has led product manu-
facturers to adopt more aggressive improvement in the product design, through the
use of environmental friendly materials. Similar environmental criteria has been
steadily adopted into NFC materials selection process, alongside conventional
materials selection criteria such as performance and cost (Lindahl et al. 2014).
Alves et al. (2009) reported the inclusion of life cycle assessment method together
with materials selection method to select the best NFC to construct the agriculture
sprayer machine electronic-command panel component. Despite the complexity due
to the added method, more holistic outcome of material selection process can be
achieved towards more sustainable product development.
3.3 Case Study on Materials Selection of Natural Fiber

Composite Products Using AHP Method
In this section, the application of the AHP for MCDM process is demonstrated
using a case study on the thermoset resin materials selection for student competition
based eco-race car composites bodywork. The eco-race car bodywork is intended to
be fabricated using NFC in order to attain higher eco-performance compared to
using synthetic composites. In addition, the use of NFC will also yield lightweight
body construction as well as geometrical design flexibility and ease of fabrication
for aerodynamic performance. The challenge in term of composite product design
for the component is to select the best type of resin as the polymer matrix material
for the composites construction. Initial screening process conducted for the type of
resin (either thermoset or thermoplastic) has point out the thermoset resin is the
most suitable type of resin to be applied for the composites bodywork due to better
mechanical performance and compatibility with the available hand lay-up manu-
facturing process compared to thermoplastic resin. Further literature review con-
ducted has revealed three (3) type of the most applied thermoset resin for
automotive application, namely polyester resin, vinylester resin and epoxy resin
(Holbery and Houston 2006). Thus, to perform the final decision in selecting which
type of thermoset resin suitable for the goal of fabricating the composites body-
work, the AHP method is applied to rank the best solution from the listed thermoset
resin based on the required performance requirements. AHP was selected due to its
capability in performing MCDM process involving multiple selection criteria and
multiple solutions with varying attributes systematically and simultaneously. In
general, the selection criteria selected in the case study comprised of three (3) main
performance requirements, namely weight, structural performance and cost.
Figure 3.3 shows the overall selection criteria and the corresponding material
attribute for the criteria while Table 3.1 shows the summary of the thermoset resin
material properties applied in the case study.
3.3.1 Developing AHP Hierarchy Framework and Defining

Project Goal, Criteria and Alternative
The multi-criteria decision making problem in this is case study is address using
AHP method by starting with developing the AHP hierarchy framework. The
hierarchy framework is a visual representation of the overall decision making
information. The basic AHP hierarchy consists of three (3) levels, whereby starting
from level 1 is the goal or objective of the problem to solve, level 2 listed all the
criteria involved in the decision making with respect to the goal, and finally at the
lower end of the hierarchy is level 3 which listed all the alternatives or potential
solutions which need to be chosen from which able to satisfy the goal of the
decision making process. The hierarchy level can be expanded into higher level
3.3 Case Study on Materials Selection of Natural Fiber Composite … 33
Weight • Low density
• High tensile strength

• High elastic modulus
Structural • High compressive strength
performance • High impact strength (High Izod impact notch)
• High dimensional stability (low water
absorption)
Cost • Low resin cost
Fig. 3.3 Overall selection criteria for composites bodywork resin material
Table 3.1 Thermoset resin materials properties (Holbery and Houston 2006)
Material properties Thermoset resins
Polyester Vinylester Epoxy
Density (g/cm3) 1.2–1.5 1.2–1.4 1.1–1.4
Elastic Modulus (GPa) 2–2.45 3.1–3.8 3–6
Tensile Strength (MPa) 40–90 69–83 35–100
Compressive Strength (MPa) 90–250 100 100–200
Water Absorption (24 h @ 20 °C) 0.1–0.3 0.1 0.1–0.4
Izod Impact Notch (J/cm) 0.15–3.2 2.5 0.3
Price (£/kg) 1–2 2–4 3–15
such as by adding information on the sub-criteria or sub-sub-criteria (if required)

involved in the selection process. In this case study, based on the selection criteria
information, a four-level AHP hierarchy framework is developed as shown in
Fig. 3.4.
As shown in the hierarchy above (Fig. 3.4), at level 1 is the goal of the project,
which is to determine the best type of thermoset matrix for eco-car composites
bodywork materials selection. At level 2, the main criteria involved for the selection
process are listed which comprise of three (3) elements, namely weight of the
matrix, structural performance and cost of the matrix raw material. Next at level 3,
all the sub-criteria linked to the main criteria are listed which comprise of seven
(7) thermoset matrix materials properties, namely density, tensile strength, elastic
modulus, compressive strength, impact strength, dimensional stability in term of
water absorption capability and matrix raw material cost. Finally, at the lowest
hierarchy level (Level 4), three alternatives which referred to the available candi-
date thermoset matrix materials (namely polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy) are listed.
Fig. 3.4 AHP hierarchy framework to find the best type of thermoset matrix for eco-race car
composites bodywork materials selection
The selection criteria covers the main elements for eco-race car composites body-
works design requirements which are lightweight for improved overall power to
weight ratio of the race car as well as low product cost with good structural
capability to ensure safe and functional operation.
As observed in similar hierarchy, there are connected lines between all selection
information across all levels. The connected lines symbolized the number of
pair-wise judgments which will be involved in the decision making process. Thus,
in the case where higher hierarchical structure are present, the total number of
judgments required to be completed by the decision maker will also increase, thus
increasing the time required to complete the whole selection process. However,
development of many computational program related to AHP analysis such as
Expert Choice and Super Decision as well as the present of spreadsheet application
such as Microsoft Excel have greatly assist in analyzing complex AHP hierarchy
model at faster rate and higher accuracy compared to manual calculation method.
3.3.2 Determination of the Weightage of the Selection

Criteria
The next stage in the resin materials selection process was to determine the
weightage of each selection criteria with respect to the overall selection goal. In the
decision making process involving multiple selection criteria, one of the major
difficulties faced is to perform systematic judgments of the importance or weightage
between each criteria with respect to the overall selection goal. This is contributed
to the subjective judgments that have to be made while rating the importance of the
criteria which may incurred inconsistency for the rating process and reduced the
reliability of the final decision obtained (Farag 2006).
The AHP method is one of the most applied methods for weighing the impor-
tance of the selection criteria especially for materials selection purpose. Based on
the developed AHP hierarchy, the weight of the selection main criteria and
sub-criteria are identified using pair-wise judgment method. The pair-wise judg-
ment method is a method to determine the relative importance between a pair of
criteria within the same hierarchy level with respects the goal (or a pair of alter-
natives with respect to the criteria). The relative importance between two infor-
mation are given a numerical value based on the predefined rating values for
pair-wise comparison as shown in Table 3.2.
The number of pair-wise comparison evaluations depends on the number of
criteria involved in the hierarchical framework, and is calculated using the n(n − 1)
rule where n is the number of criteria (Hambali et al. 2010). The judgments were
later recorded using a pair-wise comparison matrix were later. The judgments are
then synthesized by normalizing the values within the matrix and calculating pri-
ority vector, w. The pair-wise comparison matrices is constructed with the size of
size n n for each of the lower levels in the hierarchical structure with one matrix
for each element in the level immediately above and reciprocal values are auto-
matically assigned in each pair-wise comparison (Al-Harbi 2001). In this case
study, the Expert Choice software was used to perform the whole AHP analysis. All
the judgments for the main-criteria with respect to the goal and sub-criteria with
respect to the main criteria made were recorded in the pair-wise comparison matrix
formed the software. Figure 3.5 shows the pair-wise judgments made for the
main-criteria with respect to the goal and how the information was arranged within
the pair-wise comparison matrix using the Expert Choice software.
The hierarchical synthesis is later used to weight the eigenvectors by the weights
of the criteria and the sum is taken over all weighted eigenvector entries corre-
sponding to those in the next lower level of the hierarchy. The eigenvectors or the
priority vector, w can be calculated as using Eq. (3.1).
Table 3.2 Importance scale for pair-wise comparison analysis

Relative intensity Definition
1 Equal importance
3 Slightly more importance
5 Essential or high importance
7 Very high importance
9 Extreme importance
2, 4, 6, 8 Intermediate values between two adjacent judgments
Reciprocals Reciprocals for inverse comparison
Note (i) If judgment value on the left side, actual judgment value is taken, (ii) If judgment value on
the right side, reciprocal value is taken
Fig. 3.5 Pair-wise judgments for importance of criteria with respect to the project goal
1X n
a
w¼ P ij ; i; j ¼ 1; 2; . . .; n ð3:1Þ
n j¼1 ai¼1 aij
where w is the priority vector (or eigenvector), aij is the importance scale, i.e., 1, 3,
5,…, and n is the number of criteria.
Similarly, the Expert Choice software was used to analyze and determine the
priority vector values for all the selection criteria and sub-criteria involved in the
hierarchy framework. The priority vectors at the values which reflect the weight of
importance for each main criteria and sub-criteria related to this case study.
Figure 3.6 below shows the final weighting results for all the main criteria and
sub-criteria for the thermoset matrix materials selection.
As shown in Fig. 3.6 above, it is shown that cost obtained the highest impor-
tance in the selection process as compared to weight and structural performance to
achieve the intended goal in selecting the best thermoset resin for the eco-race car
composites bodywork application. Moreover, for the structural performance main
criteria, it is shown that the designer had decided all five (5) sub-criteria related to it
Fig. 3.6 Final weight values of the main criteria and sub-criteria for the thermoset matrix
materials selection
(density, tensile strength, elastic modulus, compressive strength, impact strength

and dimensional stability) have equal importance between them, with equal weight
importance value of 0.2. The weight value obtained from the analysis indicated the
level of preference between the selection criteria with respect to the same goal.
3.3.3 Ranking the Alternatives and Determining

the Consistency of Judgments
After the weight of importance for all the main criteria and sub-criteria are iden-
tified, the next step is to analyze the performance of each candidate materials based
on their material property attributes with respect to all the selection sub-criteria.
Similarly as previous section, the performance for each of the thermoset matrix
candidate materials was analyzed using pair-wise judgment method in the AHP
method. All the pair-wise judgments are also recorded and synthesized using a
pair-wise comparison matrix. The overall score of the analysis are also calculated in
the same manner, based on their final priority vector values obtained.
Figures 3.7 and 3.8 show the pair-wise judgments made between the candidate
materials with respect to impact strength sub-criteria and weight criteria for the
materials selection process, respectively. As observed in both shown figures,
the pair-wise judgments made were given different final values as compared to the
previous 1–9 relative importance scale. This is because for this exercise, actual
material property values were used to define the relative importance between two
compared alternatives. For example, in comparing the impact strength relative
importance between polyester and vinyl ester, the actual impact strength based on
average value as previously listed in the thermoset material properties data
(Table 3.1) was used. The average impact strength value for polyester and
vinylester is 1.675 and 2.5 J/cm, respectively. Thus, considering polyester at the
left side and vinyl ester at the right side of the pair-wise position, the relative
importance of polyester compared to vinyl ester with respect to the impact strength
Fig. 3.7 Pairwise comparison with respect to impact strength sub-criteria

Fig. 3.8 Pairwise comparison with respect to weight sub-criteria
sub-criteria is 2.5/1.67 = 1.49, which means that polyester has lower importance in
term of impact strength compared to vinyl ester. Based on AHP principle, if the
pair-wise judgment resulted in higher preference of the candidate place on the right
side, a reciprocal value of the relative importance (in this case 1/1.49) should be
inserted into the pair-wise comparison matrix. However, the Expert Choice soft-
ware does not permit the insertion of pair-wise judgment value less than 1. Thus, to
represent the actual relative importance with correct placement of the comparing
alternatives, all pair-wise judgment values which resulted in higher preference of
the candidate place on the right side is inserted into the pair-wise comparison matrix
as the actual value (not the reciprocal value), which is 1.49 for this case. However,
to indicate that the judgment value is actually representing the preference for the
material on the right hand side of the pair-wise situation to the user, the value
inserted is marked in red font colour.
The overall results of the priority vector analysis for all the candidate thermoset
materials with respect to the selection goal are shown in Fig. 3.9. The final results
showed that polyester matrix scored the highest priority vector value of 0.429,
followed by vinyl ester matrix (0.335) and finally epoxy (0.236). Based on the
scores, polyester matrix placed the highest rank among the candidate thermoset
Fig. 3.9 Synthesis of results on the overall score of the candidate thermoset material with respect
to the selection goal
materials, followed by vinyl ester in the second place and epoxy in the last place.
Thus, the results concluded that polyester matrix is the best type of thermoset
matrix which is most suitable type of material to be used to construct the eco-race
car composites bodywork, based on the given multi-criteria selection requirements.
The final proposed decision from the AHP analysis was later analyzed to
determine whether the judgments made during the pair-wise comparison previously
are consistent or not. The consistency of the judgments made can be assessed using
consistency ratio, CR value in the AHP method. The consistency verification
process is regarded as one of the most advantages of the AHP method especially
when subjective judgments are involved during the decision making process
(Hambali et al. 2011). The CR value calculated based on three (3) steps as follows.
Step 1: Calculate principal Eigenvalue, kmax using Eq. (3.2)
Pn
X
n
j¼1 aij wj
kmax ¼ ð3:2Þ
i¼1
wi
Step 2: Calculate consistency index, CI using Eq. (3.3)
CI ¼ ðkmax nÞ=ðn1Þ ð3:3Þ
where n is the matrix size or criterion

Step 3: Calculate consistency ratio, CR using Eq. (3.4).
CR ¼ CI=RI ð3:4Þ
where RI is the Random consistency index of the same order matrix. The value of
RI is taken based on Table 3.3.
The CR is acceptable, if it does not exceed 0.10 or 10%. If the CR value is
higher than 0.1, then the judgment matrix is deemed as inconsistent, thus reducing
the accuracy of the final decision obtained from the AHP analysis. Thus, to obtain a
consistent matrix, the subjective judgments must be reviewed and improved. Based
on the consistency analysis conducted through the Expert Choice software, the
overall consistency ratio value for the judgments made in the case study is 0.00,
Table 3.3 Random index value for AHP method (Hambali et al. 2009)
Size of matrix, n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Random 0 0 0.58 0.9 1.12 1.24 1.32 1.41 1.45 1.49 1.51 1.58
Index, RI
which showed very high consistency of judgments have been recorded throughout
the decision making process. High consistency of judgments made in the case study
is contributed to the use of objective values (actual material property data) during
the pair-wise comparison process, as compared to having to rely on subjective
judgment decision. Thus, it can also be concluded that the availability of actual data
to represent the attribute of the alternatives during the judgment process is very
valuable for decision makers to obtain very consistent judgment throughout the
selection process, thus able to increase the level of confidence in the decision made
for the user further action.
3.3.4 Results Verification Using Sensitivity Analysis
The final materials selection results through AHP method can also be further ver-
ified using sensitivity analysis method, as offered in the Expert Choice software.
The verification of the final results through sensitivity analysis is conducted by
studying the effect of different criteria defined in the earlier analysis (Sapuan et al.
2011). The final priorities among the alternatives (candidate materials) are highly
dependent on the priority vectors assigned to the main criteria, thus changing the
main criteria priority vector values (either increasing or decreasing it) will conse-
quently alters the final decisions or ranks of the alternatives (Chang et al. 2007).
Through the sensitivity analysis, the stability of the ranking results can also be
monitored.
The results of the sensitivity analysis performed in this case study is shown in
Figs. 3.10, 3.11 and 3.12. For each situation, the weight of the main criteria was
increased by 25% higher than the original value to simulate change of the overall
priority vector values for each candidate thermoset materials. Table 3.4 summarized
the overall sensitivity analysis results obtained from the simulation process.
Fig. 3.10 Sensitivity analysis results for weight main criteria with respect to goal when weightage
is increased by 25% (from 25 to 50%)
Fig. 3.11 Sensitivity analysis results for structural performance main criteria with respect to goal
when weightage is increased by 25% (from 25 to 50%)
Fig. 3.12 Sensitivity analysis results for cost main criteria with respect to goal when weightage is
increased by 25% (from 50 to 75%)
Based on summarized sensitivity analysis results from Table 3.4, it is observed

that for the simulated scenario, the rank for the candidate materials are maintained,
whereby the highest rank is obtained for polyester thermoset matrix, followed by
vinyl ester and finally epoxy. The results clearly indicated that show that polyester
is the most suitable type of thermoset matrix material for all the simulated scenarios
and are consistent with the previous AHP decision ranking attained. The polyester
thermoset matrix dominated all three simulated scenarios; therefore verifying earlier
Table 3.4 Overall results of the sensitivity analysis for three main criteria with respect to goal for
eco-car composite bodywork thermoset materials selection
Rank Weight Structural performance Cost
Increased by 25% Increased by 25% Increased by 25%
Final Priority Final Priority Final Priority
rank vector (%) rank vector (%) rank vector (%)
1. Polyester 36.8 Polyester 39.1 Polyester 51.5
2. Vinyl 33.4 Vinyl 35.3 Vinyl 31.8
Ester Ester Ester
3. Epoxy 29.8 Epoxy 25.5 Epoxy 16.8
results which pointed out that its suitability as the most suitable candidate to be used
for eco-car composite bodywork construction.
3.4 Summary
The materials selection process is one of the crucial stage towards successful NFC
product development. MCDM method can be utilized to perform the decision
making process, by allowing multi criteria and multi attributes information to be
analyzed simultaneously and systematically. The NFC materials selection can be
divided into two categories, which are the screening process and ranking process.
The case study on thermoset matrix material materials selection process using AHP
method for the development of automotive bodywork demonstrated the feasibility of
the MCDM method in performing systematic decision making. This allowed correct
decision to be made during the early stage of the NFC product development process.
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Chapter 4
Manufacturing Process Selection
4.1 Introduction
Another important aspect in NFC product development is manufacturing or pro-

cessing stage, apart from the product design and materials selection. Similarly to
materials selection stage, the manufacturing of NFC product is crucial to obtain
successful transformation of the NFC raw materials into the intended final product
shape and achieving the final product quality in term of functionality and appear-
ance (Faruk et al. 2014). The processing of NFC raw material into the desired final
products has been extensively studied to determine the optimum processing
parameters and the effect of processing to the final properties of the product.
Summerscales et al. (2010) listed several manufacturing methods utilized for the
production on NFC products, and also emphasized that the final product mechanical
properties were greatly influenced by the type of manufacturing process involved.
The composites pre-pregging process with autoclave consolidation was shown able
to produce the optimum NFC mechanical properties, followed by compression
moulding and infusion processes (such as resin transfer moulding and vacuum
infusion), and injection molding process. The hand layup process was also shown to
produce moderate final NFC properties despite able to use aligned fibers as raw
materials.
Up to date, all the manufacturing processes designated for synthetic composites
can be directly applied to produce NFC products, which is an important advantage
in term of its manufacturability. Other advantages in processing of NFC compared
to synthetic composites are the gain in energy savings, higher safety to process
operators when dealing the raw materials, as well as lower machine and tool wear
rate due to less abrasiveness property of the raw materials (Akil et al. 2011).
However, there are also several limitations which need to be considered during
manufacturing of NFC product compared to synthetic composites. One of factor is
the processing temperature. The processing temperature is often limited to temper-
ature less then 200 °C, based on the fiber temperature resistance. The temperature

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6591-0_4
46 4 Manufacturing Process Selection
limitation has reduced the choice of matrix to be used to form NFC products.
Processing temperature higher than the fiber temperature resistance will cause fiber
degradation due to excessive heat, which will reduce the final composites
mechanical properties (Väisänen et al. 2017). Apart from that, other processing
limitation during processing of NFC products are fiber agglomeration defect when
higher fiber contents is used (Pickering et al. 2016) and inhomogeneous fiber dis-
persion during processing (Fahimian et al. 2016). Moreover, for thin NFC products
(with thickness less than 1 mm), manufacturing issue often arise are incomplete
internal filling and residual stress build up in mould cavity, especially for injection
moulding process (Azaman et al. 2013). Among the current solution to the NFC
processing limitation are by using additives such as plasticizers, lubricants,
shrinkage control additives, filler and colourants (Tucker 2004).
The appropriate manufacturing process selection depends on many factors,
which can be group into three (3) main categories which are the material properties,
product geometry, and process economics (Fig. 4.1). The first category which
influenced the selection of NFC manufacturing process is material properties. Shah
(2013) described three (3) main material factors influencing the selection of NFC
product manufacturing process which are volumetric composition, reinforcement
form and type of matrix. The selection of appropriate manufacturing process greatly
depends on the type of matrix used, whether it is a thermoplastic based NFC or
thermosetting based composites. The resin transfer moulding (RTM), vacuum
assisted resin transfer moulding (VATRM), structural reaction injection moulding
(SRIM), hand layup, filament winding and sheet moulding compound
(SMC) methods are used NFC reinforced thermoset matrix. In the other hand, the
major manufacturing processes suitable to produce NFC reinforced thermoplastic
matrix are compression moulding, extrusion, pultrusion and injection moulding
(Ho et al. 2012). There are also processes which can handle both thermoset and
thermoplastic matrix, such as injection moulding, SMC (also known as bulk
moulding compound or BMC) and resin injection moulding.
In term of volumetric composition, in order to obtain optimum mechanical
properties of NFC products, the process selected should be able to process high
fiber volume input as well as produce low porosity. Both attributes can be achieved
through increasing the consolidation pressure during the processing. Among the
manufacturing processes which able to achieve the both requirements are vacuum
infusion or resin transfer moulding (RTM), pre-pregging (with autoclave consoli-
dation) and compression moulding. Hand layup process has the limitation of pro-
ducing high porosity to the final products, due to uncontrollable processing pressure
during manufacturing process (Fong et al. 2015).
The second category which needs to be considered in manufacturing of NFC
products is the product geometry. There are five (5) criteria within the product
geometry which are shape, mass, thickness, part tolerance and surface roughness.
Final product with small to medium size is suitable to be produce using injection
moulding and compression moulding processes, while large product is usually
produced through open moulding process such as hand layup and RTM process,
and normally coupled with autoclave curing process (Fong et al. 2015). In term of
4.1 Introduction 47
Selection of
Manufacturing
Process
Material Product Process

Properties Geometry Economics
Volumetric Economic Batch

Shape
Composition Size
Type of Matrix Mass Labour Intensity
Reinforcement
Thickness Capital cost
Form
Tolerance Production Rate
Surface
Tooling Cost
Roughness
Tool Life
Fig. 4.1 Overview of the factors influencing the manufacturing process selection for NFC product
product shape, there are three (3) general variations involved which are flat sheet,
disc sheet and 3D hollow sheet. The hand layup process for example is able to
produce all three product shapes. Apart from that, the pultrusion and extrusion
processes are often selected to produce NFC product with long and uniform
cross-section (Fairuz et al. 2015).
The final category involved in manufacturing process selection is the process
economics. In many cases, the feasibility of the process selected depends on the
overall production cost, which includes the economic batch size, labour intensity,
machine capital cost, production rate, equipment tool cost and tool life (Hambali
et al. 2009). In general, automated NFC manufacturing process such as injection
moulding will give benefits in term of higher production volume and production
rate as well as lower labour intensity. However, the drawbacks of automated pro-
duction are in term of higher investment cost such as more expensive machine price
and higher economic batch size. For small production batch size, open moulding
process such as hand layup is more preferred to gain capital cost advantages,
however require the use of higher labour intensity and lower production rate.
4.2 Additive Manufacturing of NFC Products
The advancement of manufacturing technology has seen the rise of additive man-
ufacturing (AM) as the key driver in product development for the future. The AM
(or also known as 3D Printing) manufacturing process has also been projected as
one of the key element in the 4th industrial revolution which will change the
landscape of current product manufacturing practices (Despeisse et al. 2017).
Manufacturing of NFC products using similar technology has also been steadily
explored by researchers, especially through the use of fused deposition modeling
(FDM) method, which utilized thermoplastic based matrix to as the filament to form
the product. Based on computer aided design (CAD) data, the AM technology is
able to produce very fast and accurate final 3D parts shape using without the need
of conventional mould or tools, as well as higher geometrical flexibility (Bikas et al.
2016).
Other advantages of the FDM process are high reliability, simplicity, affordable
equipment cost, minimum raw material waste during processing and high raw
material availability as compared to other AM processes such as stereolithography
apparatus (SLA), electron beam melting (EBM), laminated object manufacturing
(LOM) and selective laser sintering (SLS) (Gardan 2016). In addition, current FDM
process utilized pure polymer as the filament to produce 3D printed parts, such as
acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA). However, the use
of pure polymers have generated several limitations to the end product such as low
component strength, high raw material cost and part easily distorted. The addition
of renewable and biodegradable natural fiber to the existing polymer filaments has
seen the potential to provide improvement in term of component structural
4.2 Additive Manufacturing of NFC Products 49
properties with lower raw material cost, as well as increasing the environmental
sustainability aspect of the end product (Wang et al. 2017).
There are several examples on the use of 3D printing technology to produce
NFC products which can be highlighted. One of them is the use of wood-flour filled
PLA based filament. The addition of 5 wt% wood-flour to the PLA filament was
shown able to increase the mechanical properties and increase the initial defor-
mation resistant compared to pure PLA filament. A full scale barrel NFC product
was also shown able to be produced with acceptable geometrical specifications
using the FDM process (Tao et al. 2017).
In another report, Le Duigou et al. (2016) demonstrated the success of utilizing
wood fiber composites in FDM product manufacturing process. The NFC filaments
were made from blend of poly(lactic acid)(PLA) and poly(hydroxyalkanoate)
(PHA) matrix, reinforced with recycled wood fibers, at fiber fraction of approxi-
mately 15 wt%. The printing temperature were set to maximum 210 °C in order to
prevent fiber degradation due to excessive processing heat. The final products
printed was in the form of flat plate tensile test specimens, at fiber orientation of
0° and 90°, and varying product width. 3D printing process utilizing micro-ground
macadamia nutshells and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastics as the fil-
aments were also reported by Girdis et al. (2017). Utilization of waste macadamia
nutshells to form the NFC filaments was shown able to produce lower density
alternative to traditional wood filaments, which is very suitable to be applied for
lightweight and low cost product applications.
Elsewhere, Matsuzaki et al. (2016) showcased the use of 3D printing process
involving continuous thermoplastic composites using jute/PLA and carbon
fiber/PLA. Yarn type jute fiber were selected, and all samples were printed in
unidirectional orientation. Results of their experiment demonstrated that the use of
continuous reinforced composite filaments which were able to improve the tensile
strength of the printed products compared to neat PLA conventional 3D-printed
filaments.
4.3 Case Study on Manufacturing Process Selection

VIKOR Method
In this section, the manufacturing process selection for producing NFC product
based on thermoplastic matrix is demonstrated using VIKOR method. Developed
by Serafim Opricovic in 1979, the VIKOR method (also known as Multicriteria
Optimization and Compromise Solution method) was developed to assist decision
makers in performing multi-criteria decision making process, based on the idea of
selecting the best solution which is the closest to the ideal solution (Ishak et al.
2016).
Surface
finish
Wall
Tolerance
thickness
Capital
Mass
cost
Manufacturing
Process
Labour Selection Complexity
Cost
Criteria
Tooling Processing
Cost time
Production Production
rate volume
Fig. 4.2 Summary of manufacturing process selection criteria for producing thermoplastic based
NFC product
In general, manufacturing of thermoplastic based NFC product involved also

similar process as producing synthetic fiber thermoplastic product. Based on study
by Mastura et al. (2017a, b, c), there are five (5) candidate manufacturing processes
which are suitable to be used to manufacture thermoplastic based NFC product
which are injection moulding, polymer casting, resin transfer moulding, reaction
injection moulding and bulk moulding compound (BMC) moulding. In addition,
they also listed four (4) main selection criteria involved in selecting the best
manufacturing process for the intended application, namely geometry limitation,
process capability, cost control, and process performance. Figure 4.2 summarized
the manufacturing process selection criteria for producing thermoplastic based NFC
product, while Table 4.1 listed the description on the manufacturing process
selection requirements. Details on the selection process using VIKOR are described
in the following steps.
Step 1: Identify the selection attributes for all the candidate manufacturing
processes
The manufacturing process selection process started with the identification of all the
specific processing attributes related to the manufacturing process candidates. As
shown in Table 4.2, there are in total eleven (11) manufacturing selection criteria
4.3 Case Study on Manufacturing Process Selection of Natural Fiber … 51
Table 4.1 Description on the manufacturing process selection requirements (Mastura et al.
2017a, b, c)
General Specific Details
requirements requirements
Geometry Complexity Shape complexity of product influence the type of
limitation manufacturing process required to form the product. The
process which able to produce multiple shape configuration
will be more valuable as it is able to produce many different
product shape in a single machine. Among the type of
general product shapes are circular prismatic, non-circular
prismatic, flat sheet, dished sheet, solid 3D and hollow 3D
Mass Mass of product influence the type of manufacturing process
required to form the product
Wall Wall thickness of product influence the viscosity and fluid
thickness flow of the liquid materials for the manufacturing process
selected
Process Surface Surface finish in term of surface roughness and depends on
capability finish the type of manufacturing process selected. There are cases
where secondary manufacturing process is required to
produce the desired surface finish
Tolerance Degree of tolerance influenced the type of manufacturing
process required to form the product
Cost control Capital cost Capital cost depends on the complexity, level of automation
and size of the manufacturing process equipment
Labour cost Labour cost depends on the level of automation possessed by
the manufacturing process. Process with higher level
automation level required lower labour intensity for
operation
Tooling cost Tooling cost includes the cost to produce the tool to operate
the equipment such as mould and its accessories
Process Production Production rate is measured by unit per hour as an output of
performance rate the machine performance
Production Production volume is measured by the economic batch size
volume of the manufacturing process
Processing Processing time is defined as the rate to produce a product
time over a specific time. Processing time also depends on the
level of automation involved in the manufacturing process
involved for each of the manufacturing process candidates, with varying value of
attributes between them. Thus, the use of MCDM method such as VIKOR method
to analyze simultaneously all the different attributes with varying values among the
listed candidates will able to speed up the selection process and enable systematic
evaluation to be performed, in order to arrive to the conclusion of the best manu-
facturing process suitable for the intended application (Mardani et al. 2016).
Table 4.2 Manufacturing process candidate and their properties (Mastura et al. 2017a, b, c)
Properties Candidate manufacturing process
A1. BMC A1. Injection A2. Resin A3. A4.
moulding moulding transfer Reaction Polymer
(thermoplastics) moulding injection casting
moulding
f1. Mass range 0.03–60 0.01–25 0.8–50 0.5–25 0.1–700
(kg)
f2. Range of 1.5–25 0.4–6.3 2–6 2–25 6.25–
section 600
thickness
(mm)
f3. Tolerance 0.12–1 0.1–1 0.25–1 0.1–1 0.8–2
(mm)
f4. Roughness 0.1–1.6 0.2–1.6 0.1–1.6 0.2–1.6 0.5–1.6
(µm)
f5. Shape Medium High High High High
complexity
f6. Production 12–60 60–3000 1–8 6–60 1–10
rate (units/hr)
f7. Economic 5000–1 10,000–1 500–5000 100–10,000 10–1000
batch size 106 106
(units)
f8. Processing Medium Low Medium Medium High
time
f9. Labour Medium Low High Medium Medium
intensity
f10. Capital 66,000– 37,700– 9430– 18,900– 566–
cost (USD) 566,000 848,000 56,600 189,000 5660
f11. Tooling 9430– 3770–94,300 943–3770 943–9430 94.3–
cost (USD) 189,000 3770
Step 2: Construct the final decision matrix and identify the best fi* and
worst fi− for all criteria.
Based on Table 4.2, to perform the VIKOR analysis, the maximum value of the
attributes for all the manufacturing processes as selected. In addition. several
selection criteria with subjective ratings given to the attributes, such as for shape
complexity (F5), processing time (F8) and labour intensity (F9) which are rated
according to three (3) linguistic judgements, which are high, medium and low. The
linguistic judgments of high, medium and low are later converted into numerical
value of 3, 2 and 1, respectively. This is because VIKOR is only capable to analyze
numerical value in the analysis. Furthermore, the highest value is preferred the
criteria of mass range, thickness range, tolerance, shape complexity, production rate
and batch size. In the other hand, lower value are desirable for roughness, processing
time, labour intensity, capital cost and tooling cost. For VIKOR analysis, the
decision matrix is organized whereby j denotes the number of criteria, while
Table 4.3 Final decision matrix used based on maximum value for manufacturing selection
process using VIKOR method and the best fi* and worst f−i for all criteria
Manufacturing process Alternative/Candidate manufacturing process
selection
Criteria Criteria A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 Best Worst
weight value, value,
importance, fi* f−i
Wi
f1 0.091 60 25 50 25 700 700 25
f2 0.091 25 6.3 6 25 600 600 6
f3 0.091 1 1 1 1 2 2 1
f4 0.091 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6
f5 0.091 2 3 3 3 3 3 2
f6 0.091 60 3000 8 60 10 3000 8
f7 0.091 1 106 1 106 5000 10,000 1000 1 106 1000
f8 0.091 2 3 1 1 1 1 3
f9 0.091 2 1 3 2 2 1 3
f10 0.091 566,000 848,000 56,600 189,000 5660 5660 848,000
f11 0.091 189,000 94,300 3770 9430 3770 3770 189,000
i denotes the number of alternatives. Later, the best ( fi*) and worst ( fi−) values for
all criteria were determined. For conditions where the criteria with the request for the
minimum value as the target value, the lowest value is the best and the highest value
is the worst). The final data used for VIKOR analysis is summarized in Table 4.3.
Step 3: Calculate the value of Si and Ri, and identify the minimum and
maximum value for Si and Ri
The next step involved is to calculate the “closeness” for the compared solution to
the “ideal” solution, whereby to be as close as possible to the ideal is the rationale
of human choice (Opricovic and Tzeng 2004). They also stated that the VIKOR
method uses linear normalization and the normalized values do not depend on the
evaluation unit of a criterion. Furthermore, they also showed that as regards to the
aggregating function, the VIKOR method introduces an aggregating function rep-
resenting the distance from the ideal solution, considering the relative importance of
all criteria, and a balance between total and individual satisfaction.
For clarity and ease of calculation, the values of Dij was introduced to determine
the value for Si and Ri, which was defined as (Mančev 2013):-
Dij ¼ ðfi fij Þ=ðfi fi Þ ð4:1Þ
The Dij value is a method to determine the complex linear normalization, in order to
get all elements in the matrix as dimensionless number, which were previously have
different metrics. Then the values of Si (pessimistic solution) and Ri (expected
solution) are evaluated using Eqs. 4.2 and 4.3 below (Mančev 2013):-
Xn fi fij Xn
Si ¼ W
j¼1 j ¼ Wd
j¼1 j ij
ð4:2Þ
fj fj
and
Ri ¼ maxj Wj dij ð4:3Þ
After calculation the above values, the importance (or weightage) to these solutions
(pessimistic and expected solutions) which is denoted as v, are defined by the
decision makers. The value of v are defined as 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75, depending on
the weight of strategy of maximum group utility, where as (1−v) is the weight of
the individual regret. Normally the value of v taken is 0.5 (San Cristóbal 2011).
Then, the value of S* and S−, and R* and R−, are determined based on the
Eqs. 4.4–4.7 below (Mančev 2013):
S ¼ mini Si ð4:4Þ
S ¼ maxi Si ð4:5Þ
R ¼ mini Ri ð4:6Þ
R ¼ maxi Ri ð4:7Þ
Table 4.4 summarized the final scores of Si and Ri calculated for all the candidate
manufacturing processes. Results showed that the value for S* and S−, are 0.410
and 0.746, respectively; while the values for R* and R− are similar which are 0.091.
Table 4.4 Distance of alternatives to ideal solution using VIKOR method based on Si and Ri
scores
Criteria Dij ¼ ðfi fij Þ=ðfi fi Þ WiDij
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
C1 0.948 1.000 0.963 1.000 0.000 0.086 0.091 0.088 0.091 0.000
C2 0.968 0.999 1.000 0.968 0.000 0.088 0.091 0.091 0.088 0.000
C3 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.000 0.091 0.091 0.091 0.091 0.000
C4 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
C5 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.091 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
C6 0.983 0.000 1.000 0.983 0.999 0.089 0.000 0.091 0.089 0.091
C7 0.000 0.000 0.996 0.991 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.091 0.090 0.091
C8 0.500 0.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.046 0.000 0.091 0.091 0.091
C9 0.500 1.000 0.000 0.500 0.500 0.046 0.091 0.000 0.046 0.046
C10 0.335 0.000 0.940 0.782 1.000 0.030 0.000 0.085 0.071 0.091
C11 0.000 0.511 1.000 0.969 1.000 0.000 0.047 0.091 0.088 0.091
Si – – – – – 0.567 0.410 0.719 0.746 0.500
Ri – – – – – 0.091 0.091 0.091 0.091 0.091
Step 5: Calculate the VIKOR index and identify the candidate rank
The VIKOR index, denoted by the values of QSi, QRi and Qi (compromised
solution) are next calculated for each alternative, thus forming three independent
ranking lists as shown in Eq. 4.8 below (Mančev 2013):-
Qi ¼ v QSi þ ð1 vÞ QRi ð4:8Þ
where
Si S Ri R
QSi ¼ and QRi ¼
S S R R
The value QSi represents a measure of a deviation, which express a request for
maximum group utility (the first ranking list) while QRi represents a measure of a
deviation expressing a request for minimizing the maximum distance of an alter-
native from the ideal point (the second ranking). The value Qi represents the for-
mation of the compromise ranking list that combines the values of QSi and QRi
(the third ranking list). By choosing the value for v (the weight of the satisfaction of
the majority of the criteria), one may favour the influence of QSi and QRi in the
compromise ranking list Qi. Table 4.5 summarized the final calculated VIKOR
index score and rank for each alternatives at varying weight of strategy, v.
The best alternatives to be selected based on the analysis is the one which
obtained the lowest value of QSi criterion and that is at the first position in the
compromise ranking list. In addition, the best alternative should also score the
lowest for QRi criterion, and Qi criterion at v = 0.5. Hence, based on Table 4.5
results, alternative A2 which corresponds to injection moulding process scored the
lowest VIKOR index (based on the Qi) and ranked the first among the other
candidates, followed by polymer casting, bulk moulding compound, resin transfer
moulding and reaction injection moulding.
Step 6: Validating the results based on acceptable advantage (U1) condition
and acceptable stability (U2) condition.
In the VIKOR method, the final compromise solution can be finalized if and only
the alternative successfully satisfy two conditions U1 and U2 are satisfied. The set
of compromise solutions are composed of (Ishak et al. 2016):
Table 4.5 Summary of the VIKOR index score and rank for each alternatives at varying weight
of strategy, v
Weight of strategy At v = 0.5 At v = 0.25 At v = 0.75
QSi Rank QRi Rank Qi Rank Qi Rank Qi Rank
A1 0.468 3 0.000 1 0.234 3 0.117 3 0.351 3
A2 0.000 1 0.000 1 0.000 1 0.000 1 0.000 1
A3 0.920 4 0.000 1 0.460 4 0.230 4 0.690 4
A4 1.000 5 0.000 1 0.500 5 0.250 5 0.750 5
A5 0.268 2 0.000 1 0.134 2 0.067 2 0.201 2
U1. Acceptable advantage: Q(A(1)) − Q(A(2)) 1/(m−1), where A(1) is the first
position and A(2) is the second position in the alternatives ranked by Qi, respec-
tively; while m is the number of alternatives included in the selection process.
U2. Acceptable stability in decision making: Alternative A(1) must also be the best
ranked by QSi or/and QRi.
When one of the conditions is not satisfied, a set of compromise solution is then
selected. The set of compromise solutions is proposed, which consists of:
(1) Alternatives Að1Þ and Að2Þ if only condition U2 is not satisfied (or)
(2) Alternatives Að1Þ ; Að2Þ ; . . .; AðmÞ if condition U1 is not satisfied. AðM Þ is calcu-

lated using the relation Q AðMÞ Q Að1Þ \1=ðm 1Þ for maximum M.
Again, by referring to Table 4.5, analysis showed that the first rank alternative
(alternative A2) did not satisfy the U1 condition when compared to the second
ranked alternative (alternative A5), which showed that alternative A2 did not
showed acceptable advantage over alternative A5. In the other hand, alternative A2
successfully satisfy condition U2, whereby it scored the best ranked for QSi con-
dition, as well as in both ranking lists for Qi, for values v = 0.25 and v = 0.75. This
showed that alternative A2 has acceptable stability advantage of other alternatives.
In this context, if all sub-conditions for U1 and U2 are satisfied, therefore the
manufacturing process with least VIKOR index can be selected as the best man-
ufacturing process. Based on all there sub-conditions of U2, alternative A2 was
found to gained the lowest VIKOR index in Qi and QRi for v = 0.5; as well as has
the lowest VIKOR index in Qi for both v = 0.25 and v = 0.75. Thus, alternative A2
which is the injection moulding process can be selected as the best manufacturing
process to produce thermoplastic based NFC product, based on the sets of criteria
and attributes as required in the selection requirements.
4.4 Summary
The influence of manufacturing process has been explained towards obtaining high
quality NFC products with effective production cost. The manufacturing process of
NFC products depends on three main criteria, which are the material used,
geometry of the product and the production attributes. In addition, future trend in
NFC product manufacturing has seen the rise of utilizing additive manufacturing or
3D printing techniques, which has the potential to bring NFC product into new
applications, with faster production time, net shape product finishing and higher
design versatility as compared to conventional methods. Moreover, the case study
on manufacturing process selection using VIKOR method also demonstrated how
decision making process can be applied by composite product designers when both
multi criteria and multi attributes information are present, in order to select the best
process through systematic and scientific manners.
References 57
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Chapter 5
Conclusions
In overall, the book has showcased how NFC products can be developed during the
initial stage in the product development process using systematic concurrent
engineering tools. There are huge potential of utilizing NFC as the candidate
material for producing various products due to the advantages of renewability,
recyclability, biodegradability and low raw material cost especially as replacement
to conventional synthetic composites. Nevertheless, the challenges present are
dimensional instability and low mechanical properties, which restrict their current
application for low load bearing applications. However, as demonstrated through-
out this book, the limitations can be overcome through adaptation of innovative
product design process, particularly during the early stage of the NFC product
development process.
There are three key elements in the initial design stage of NFC products, namely
conceptual design, materials selection and manufacturing process selection. All the
three elements is very related to each other, thus need to be address by NFC product
designers to ensure all the design intent can be achieved prior to moving to the next
stage in the product development process. Three case studies for each element were
also presented in the previous chapters, using concurrent design tools such as TRIZ
and Morphological chart for generating design solutions, as well as AHP and
VIKOR methods for performing MCDM process. By utilizing appropriate con-
current engineering tools, product development process can be also be completed in
both systematic and scientific manner, which in return can greatly contribute to
generate effective design solutions, reducing the probability of design errors and
reducing the cycle time required to complete the initial design process. In return,
higher cost saving, faster product time to market and better product quality can be
achieved for the NFC end product.
There is a bright future for NFC products, and more solutions are continuously
being created and explored by researchers to overcome the current limitation of the
natural fibers. In product development point of view, new innovative product
design methods are being implemented and integrated with existing tools, such as
the TRIZ-biomimetics method, to product more effective design solutions using
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6591-0_5
60 5 Conclusions
nature as the inspiration to overcome the current material limitation. In addition,

more advanced computer aided design software are also being equipped with
integrated decision support tools (either for screening or ranking purposes) to help
designer in completing the NFC product conceptual design and materials selection
process parallel to each other. The future of NFC products development shall also
see higher utilization of advanced manufacturing process, particularly additive
manufacturing or 3D printing technology, which provide the advantages of pro-
ducing very fast and accurate final 3D parts shape using without the need of
conventional mould or tools, as well as higher geometrical flexibility.

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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN MATERIALS

• A timely report of state-of-the-art analytical techniques

Briefs are characterized by fast, global electronic dissemination, standard

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10111

ISSN 2192-1091 ISSN 2192-1105 (electronic)

© The Author(s) 2018

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

Durian Tunggal, Malaysia Muhd Ridzuan Mansor

Muhd Ridzuan Mansor

1 Overview on Development of Natural Fiber Composite

3.3.1 Developing AHP Hierarchy Framework and Deﬁning

Composites consist of two or more constituent materials, mainly ﬁber reinforce-

1.2 Natural Fiber Composites

© The Author(s) 2018 1

However, the major limitations of using natural ﬁbers as reinforcements in

1.3 Product Design Process

In general, the design process is modelled as a linear, step-by-step form by many

ill-formulated. Based on the deﬁnition of Rittel and Webber (1973), Buchanan

In the modern design, conceptual design is an important activity in the design

© The Author(s) 2018 7

Fig. 2.1 Matrix evaluation of NFC chair (Mahmood et al. 2016)

strategy canvass (value curve) in coming up with different concepts of automotive

2.2 Conceptual Design Development Methods

The purpose of conceptual design in NFC product development is to create the

Fig. 2.2 Example of

2.3 Case Study on Conceptual Design Development

2.3.1 Design Brief

Fig. 2.3 Example of ironing

Table 2.1 Product design Product design speciﬁcations

product will also be subjected to pre-production models development and testing by

Fig. 2.4 Overall concept

2.3.2 Problem Deﬁnition

Fig. 2.5 Function model of iron board product

2.3.3 Modeling the Problem

eco-friendly ironing board design problem, the resulting engineering contradiction

Based on both engineering contradiction statements above, it can be concluded that

2.3.4 Idea Generation for Solution

Table 2.2 TRIZ 39 system parameters

Table 2.3 Mapping speciﬁc requirements with TRIZ 39 system parameters

The TRIZ inventive principles are a set of solution principles found by

Table 2.4 Example of TRIZ contradiction matrix (San et al. 2009)

Weight of stationary object

Length of stationary object

Length of moving object

Area of moving object

Table 2.5 List of TRIZ 40 inventive principles (San et al. 2009)

inventiveness can be expected by combining more solution principles to solve the

Table 2.6 Contradiction matrix for eco-friendly ironing board design

user in exploring out-of-the-box ideas in based on similar principle (Luttropp and

2.3.5 Generating Speciﬁc Solutions for the New Ironing

2.3.6 Developing New Conceptual Design for Ironing Board

created through combination of rectangular-shape cross section, reinforced with

As shown in Fig. 2.6, by identifying different type of ribs possible to be

In overall, the conceptual design development of NFC products is aimed to create

Benyus, J. M. (1997). Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature. New York: HarperCollins

Airport Schiphol case. Journal of Cleaner Production, 48, 211–219. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.

© The Author(s) 2018 27

3.2 Materials Selection Method

3.2.1 Screening Method

3.2.2 Ranking Method

3.3 Case Study on Materials Selection of Natural Fiber

3.3.1 Developing AHP Hierarchy Framework and Deﬁning

Weight • Low density

Qi ¼ v QSi þ ð1 vÞ QRi ð4:8Þ