A stakeholder‐oriented innovative product conceptualization strategy based on fuzzy integrals

Knowledge, experiences and skills of corporate members promote new ideas into products, in the context of innovative design. This dynamism is especially important in the critical product conceptualization stage. In customer‐oriented design paradigm, most methodologies focus on exploiting end‐user requirements, instead of considering project stakeholder requirements in a holistic manner. Previous research in the area of innovative product conceptualization focused on such aspects as functional, cognitive, marketing and commercial perspectives. It involves the participations of customers, designers, engineers, marketers and business managers. Accordingly, a stakeholder‐oriented innovative product concept development system (IPCDS) is established to integrate the bespoke four perspectives so as to evaluate product concept innovation comprehensively. To resolve the incomplete, ambiguous, uncertain and subjective nature of innovative design knowledge, the product platform represented in a design knowledge hierarchy (DKH) is generated using general sorting. Subsequently, an innovative design criteria matrix (DCM) constructed using repertory grids technique is rated with regard to specific design option. The ratings are then used as input features to the fuzzy integrals technique, for the purpose of innovative design. A case study on cellular phone design is used for system illustration and the results are discussed on the basis of product concept innovation.