A Case Study of a Customer-Oriented Beeper Design using Fuzzy Linguistic Rating and Quality Function Deployment Concepts

퍼지 언어적 평가법과 품질기능전개개념을 이용한 무선호출기의 감성공학적 제품설계 응용사례

This study proposed a method to apply certain fuzzy-related Quality control concepts to design customer-oriented products considering user requirements and information starting with the product development stage. This approach showed how to define the importance level of design elements and how to Quantify complex subjective perception of products using the fuzzy linguistic rating method and quality function deployment concepts. Using this approach, various customer requirements could be interpreted and reflected on the early design phase of a new product. To validate the proposed method, an experiment was conducted for designing the shape of the beeper using 14 subjects and 10 commercial beeper products. Front area, width/length ratio, thickness, curve variance, weight, and display area were selected as design elements of the beeper. The results showed that among design elements, front area and weight are significantly related with the subjective perception of the products. Consequently, this study indicates that customer decision on product selection could be made by quantification of user perception for beeper products.