Title: Fuzzy and AHP approaches for designing a hospital bed: a case study in Bangladesh

Authors: Ripon Kumar Chakrabortty; Md. Asadujjaman; Md. Nuruzzaman

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Rajshahi-6204, Bangladesh ' Helicon Ltd., Plot No. 127, Old EPZ, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh ' Youth Group (Comfit Composite Knit Ltd.), Youth Tower, 822/2, Rokeya Sarani, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh

Abstract: Ergonomics in his recent revolution phase has emerged on diversified areas which pushed the authors to consider the major anthropometric considerations for designing a hospital bed for sensitive patients. In this paper, the authors tried to show some relationships among physical demands with anthropometric factors for normal hospital bed design in Bangladesh, where the concepts are relatively new and obvious. In this study, 35 patients and 35 doctors have given their opinion through a set of questionnaires. A total of 103 students from a public university in Bangladesh were targeted as the sample area for measuring anthropometric measurements. For prioritising among different design parameters, analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy logic techniques were used. Finally, at the end portion of this research work a linear regression analysis has been carried out to show the relationship of stature height with other anthropometric measurements related to normal hospital bed design.

Keywords: anthropometry; ergonomics; AHP; analytical hierarchy process; fuzzy logic; Bangladesh; hospital bed design; hospital beds; case study; anthropometric measurements; linear regression analysis; healthcare services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2014.062541

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2014 Vol.17 No.3, pp.315 - 328

Published online: 25 Jul 2014 *

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