INTEGRATED APPROACH TO MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

New product developments are a moving target which become increasing complex due to a number of factors some known and others unknown. NPD is an interdisciplinary activity that transforms a market opportunity and technological concept to a successful product. The key steps towards creating a winning product must include a robust product strategy taking into consideration the positioning options, its viability and adopting a flexible development approach. The lack of structure to the allocation of product development resources causes customer expectations to get lost, in the complexity of the product development process. The replication of strategy and methods for a successful product may not guarantee success. Fuzzy Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods namely the analytic hierarchy process, analytic network process, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions (TOPSIS) and Elimination and choice translating reality (ELECTRE) offer valuable tools to handle complex situations incorporating the imprecise and uncertain information. As each method has its strengths it may be proper to explore and adapt different techniques according to product for sustainable development. Company should be able to put together the combination of features and value that unlocks a profitable new market.