Using grey-quality function deployment to construct an aesthetic product design matrix

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a systematic approach to transform customer requirements (CRs) into product engineering characteristics (ECs). Traditional QFD relies on market research or customer questionnaires to collect a series of ambiguous and uncertain CRs. As a result, evaluating the weighting of CRs and determining the design matrix between CRs and ECs have become the focus and difficulty of QFD. This paper proposes the grey system theory in artificial intelligence technology combined with QFD to develop grey-QFD to solve the issues mentioned before. First, collect the average evaluation values between the aesthetic images and customer satisfaction of representative products. The grey prediction GM (1, N) model is used to obtain the weight of aesthetic needs relative to customer satisfaction and import it into the left QFD. Second, the domain experts decomposed the product form into a morphological analysis table, and fuzzy Delphi screened key ECs and imported them into the ceiling of QFD. Finally, grey relationship analysis established the aesthetic product design matrix between CRs and ECs, and calculated and ranked the final weights of each ECs by using grey relationship degree. The research uses the security camera in the smart home as an experimental object. After operating the proposed grey-QFD, the aesthetic quality of the target product (lively, intelligent, friendly, personalized, and fashionable) and the optimization of the corresponding product ECs are obtained. The result provides a theoretical reference for designers and significantly improves customer aesthetic satisfaction. © The Author(s) 2023.