A Consensus-Reaching Approach to the Evaluation of Product Design Alternatives with Multiple Preference Structures.

Area of Science:

• Product Design
• Decision Science
• Engineering Management

Background:

• Contemporary product design increasingly relies on interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Evaluating design alternatives involves diverse experts with heterogeneous characteristics.
• Existing methods struggle to reconcile varied evaluator preferences, impacting result credibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a consensus-reaching approach for product design alternative evaluation.
• To accommodate and integrate multiple, diverse evaluator preferences.
• To improve the credibility and effectiveness of group decision-making in design.

Main Methods:

• Evaluators assess alternatives using familiar preference structures.
• A transfer function unifies diverse preferences into a complementary judgment matrix.
• The Hybrid Weighted Averaging (HWA) operator aggregates preferences, and a consensus measurement method refines them via feedback.

Main Results:

• The approach successfully integrates heterogeneous evaluator preferences.
• A consensus measurement method quantifies agreement among evaluators.
• A feedback mechanism guides preference modification to achieve group consensus.
• Demonstrated feasibility through evaluating multichannel fluorescence immunochromatography analyzers (MFIAs).

Conclusions:

• The proposed consensus-reaching approach effectively handles diverse preferences in design evaluation.
• This method enhances the credibility of group decisions in interdisciplinary product design.
• The approach provides a structured framework for achieving consensus among heterogeneous expert groups.