Application of Fuzzy-Based Hybrid Taguchi Method for Multiobjective Optimization of Product Form Design

In today’s competitive market, industrial product form design is moving towards being consumer centric. Affective responses relate to customers’ affective needs and are receiving increasing attention. To design a product form that can appeal to consumers, designers should consider multiple affective responses (MARs). This paper proposes a robust design approach that uses a fuzzy-based hybrid Taguchi method to derive the optimal product form design concerning MARs. First, design analysis is used to identify design variables and MARs. According to the results, a Taguchi experiment is designed in which fuzzy sets are used to measure the MARs; then, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios are calculated. Subsequently, a fuzzy questionnaire with multiple answers is employed to acquire consumers’ preference weights for MARs, following which Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) is adopted to transform the multiple S/N ratios into a multiperformance characteristic index (MPCI). On the basis of the MPCI, the effects of design variables are identified through analysis of variance and the response table and the response graph are obtained. Consequently, the optimal form design is achieved. A car profile design was used as an example to demonstrate the proposed approach. The results indicate that this approach can effectively improve consumers’ affective response qualities and can be used as a robust design approach to optimize product form design.