Optimizing product form attractiveness using Taguchi method and TOPSIS algorithm: A case study involving a passenger car

Abstract

Form attractiveness is an important catalyst driving consumer preference for a particular product. However, a designer faces two major difficulties when attempting to enhance the attractiveness of a product form. First, consumer perception regarding form attractiveness involves a number of different intricate psychological and circumstantial evaluation bases. Second, variability exists between different consumer’s perceptions of the same product form. This study treats the task of satisfying consumer needs/desires for product form as a multi-objective design activity and develops a product form optimization method, which combines the Taguchi method with the TOPSIS algorithm. A case study involving the design of a passenger car form targeted at a particular consumer group is presented to demonstrate the operational procedure involved in the proposed method and to verify its performance. The results of the verification experiments confirm that the optimized design has a higher attractiveness in terms of each evaluation basis and results in a more consistent consumer evaluation than the non-optimized designs. The method proposed in this study is straightforward to implement and provide an effective means of reducing the time and costs associated with product form design.