JFET_V1_N2_RP1 Dr. Min An Journal on Future Engineering and Technology 2230 – 7184 1 2 39 47 Engineering design, fuzzy reasoning approach, safety and reliability, decision making To improve competitiveness, industrial companies have to reduce cost and environmental impact while improving safety and reliability in design and manufacture of their products. Selecting the most effective design option is usually timeconsuming; late decisions may eventually jeopardise the balance of the whole project. Because the processes of design assessment are very complex and the data and information available at the early design stage may not be complete for decision-making in many circumstances, it may be extremely difficult to assess the design options due to the great uncertainty involved. A fuzzy reasoning approach has demonstrated its usefulness and accuracy in assessing design option under combinations of conditions where there is a lack of design date and information. This paper presents the development of a new fuzzy-based intelligent decision making support system for modelling various design variables for engineering product design at the design stage. An example is used to illustrate the proposed methodology November 2005 - January 2006 Copyright © 2006 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=953