A rough set-based quality function deployment (QFD) approach for environmental performance evaluation: A case of offshore oil and gas operations

Ming Yang, Faisal I. Khan*, Rehan Sadiq, Paul Amyotte

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Activities in offshore oil and gas (OOG) that cause environmental impacts can be systematically managed through an environmental management system (EMS). Environmental performance evaluation (EPE) is an essential part of an EMS. However, previous studies on EPE indicate that existing lists of indicators little insight into how indicators are modified to more accurately assess environmental performance. In this paper, a way is proposed to identify and define specific environmental performance indicators on a case-by-case basis, which consists of five steps: (1) describing environmental requirements; (2) determining favourable outcomes corresponding to the requirements; (3) identifying required activities or issues to achieve the outcomes; (4) searching for proper measures of the activities or issues; and (5) generating a list of key indicators. Based on these steps, a quality function deployment (QFD) approach is developed to determine key indicators and evaluate environmental performance. To handle uncertainties in QFD, the decision makers' evaluations are quantified through rough numbers using the concept of rough sets. The outputs of the proposed approach are different environmental performance indices. Using these indices, decision makers can easily determine whether an improved performance has been achieved through an EMS. The proposed approach is transparent and promising for use as a unified tool for EPE. An application of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a numerical example.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1513-1526
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Cleaner Production
Volume19
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Environmental performance evaluation (EPE)
  • Offshore oil and gas (OOG)
  • Quality function deployment (QFD)
  • Rough set theory

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