Modified rough VIKOR based design concept evaluation method compatible with objective design and subjective preference factors

Design Concept Evaluation (DCE) is a crucial step in new product development. In complex DCE task, the designer as a decision-maker has to make a comprehensive choice by considering the design concept's inherent objective design factor as well as external subjective preference factor from evaluators (designer, expert or customer). However, most of DCE methods only limited to one of two factors, which unilaterally evaluate the alternatives and miss the optimal one. To find more reasonable design concept, this study attempts to better compatible with objective design and subjective preference factors in evaluation process, and proposes a new DCE method using new integrated ideal solution definition (I-ISD) approach in modified VIKOR model based on rough number, named as R-VIKOR(I). To be specific, this study puts forward four definition rules to select the positive and negative ideal solution elements respectively for benefit-like quantitative attribute, cost-like quantitative attribute, important qualitative attribute and less important qualitative attribute by utilizing the information originated from design and preference data, and calculates the deviation between alternative and redefined ideal solution through rough VIKOR to obtain the best one. Three comparative experiments have been carried out to validate the performance of R-VIKOR(I) by analysing its robustness (experiment I), comparing it with other classical DCE methods based on rough TOPSIS, rough WASPAS and rough COPRAS (experiment II) and exploring the applicable of the proposed IISD approach (experiment III). Experimental results verify that R-VIKOR(I) could better balance the objective design attribute values and the subjective evaluator preference values to provide more reasonable evaluation result, especially this method has obvious advantage when evaluators have different preferences for design attribute values, a common case in modern personalized product development. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study proposes a new DCE method, R-VIKOR(I), in an attempt to better balance objective design and subjective preference factors in the evaluation process. By introducing new integrated ideal solution definition approach, the method aims to provide a more reasonable evaluation result, especially in cases where evaluators have different preferences for design attribute values. The performance of R-VIKOR(I) is validated through three comparative experiments, demonstrating its advantage in modern personalized product development.