Consumer-centered product design specifications using fuzzy multivariate regression analysis

To optimize product design, it is desirable that a functional model that describes the correlation between the product attributes and the design specifications is available. A new methodology which uses multivariate regression analysis is combined with fuzzy set theory to model the correlation between consumer-perceived product quality attributes and designer-controlled design factors. The fuzzy regression model is then utilized to predict the quality level of the intended design. This method is most suitable when a product has multiple quality attributes that could best be evaluated using linguistic terms.<>