The improvement of Kansei engineering by using the repertory grid technique

Management and Production Engineering Review Volume 6 • Number 3 • September 2015 • pp. 77–82 DOI: 10.1515/mper-2015-0029 THE IMPROVEMENT OF KANSEI ENGINEERING BY USING THE REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE Falk Steinberg, Philipp Tursch, Ralf Woll Chair of Quality Management, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, Germany Corresponding author: Philipp Tursch Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg Chair of Quality Management Siemens-Halske-Ring 14, 03046 Cottbus, Germany phone: (+49) 355-69-3947 e-mail: Received: 7 April 2015 Accepted: 26 June 2015 Abstract A customer-oriented approach to product development with particular consideration of emotions is represented by Kansei Engineering. Developed by Mitsuo Nagamachi, Kansei Engineering is characterized by the possibility to capture customer perceptions and to translate them into product features. In order to assess these perceptions, a semantic space is generated. For this purpose it is necessary to identify Kansei words that are gathered up through research in marketing concepts, scientific journals and service reports. This procedure though displays the disadvantage of not being able to identify all emotions referring to the investigated product. One way to improve the identification of Kansei words is Repertory Grid. The Repertory Grid technique makes it possible to gather unaltered perceptions through in-depth interviews from the direct interaction with customers. Thus, the interview phase of the Repertory Grid technique offers an improved approach to identify of Kansei words. Keywords Kansei Engineering, Repertory Grid, emotion, product development. Introduction product. These perceptions are often too difficult to be captured in numbers and characteristics. Therefore it is necessary to define a systematic approach to implement these factors in product development and use [2]. To be successful in today’s global market, changes in product development lead to manufacturers increasingly having to deal with the development of their products’ performance in terms of function, design, quality and cost. Products need to have unique selling points that induce customers from a wide selection of consumer goods to buy a certain product [1]. To create these unique selling points it is necessary that the product is sighted holistically in the development process. This holistic approach includes requirements such as compliance with certain technical specifications or the availability of certain features, alongside increasingly important “softer” factors determined by design, haptic, or brand image. The collection and analysis of these softer factors, however, implicate other challenges than the compliance with technical tolerances. The perceptions of customers have to be detected and transferred to the requirements in order to be considered later on in the This paper aims at introducing the Kansei engineering method, identifying potential for improvement such as clamping of the semantic space, and elucidating an approach for an improved use of the Repertory Grid technique. A system will be developed that makes it possible to capture and analyze the multiple factors that impinge upon the involvement of emotions. Presentation of the Kansei engineering with special emphasis on the semantic space Kansei is a multi-faceted concept that features different aspects depending on the definition [3, 4]. 77 Management and Production Engineering Review The definition of Kansei researcher Mitsuo Nagamchi is: “Kansei refers to the state of mind where knowledge, emotion, and passion are harmonized; people with rich Kansei are full of emotion and passion, and able to react adaptively and sensitively to anything.“ Kansei Engineering’s focus lies on the perception of an object and the thereby evoked responses [1, 5]. It is a method that combines feelings and emotions with the product development. This combination is then translated into product features. Mitsuo Nagamachi began the research on Kansei Engineering in the 1970s. The main aim was to feature the needs and demands of customers in terms of emotional aspects [5]. With the help of diverse advancements, the Kansei engineering system could be transferred to a variety of industries and applications [5]. The current developments and the number of publications in the field of Kansei engineering show that dealing with emotions in the product development process undergoes a strongly increasing significance [1, 3–5]. 4. Finally, design a new Kansei product. Without numeration. The Kansei system: the way to a Kansei product A general approach is used to introduce Kansei Engineering by the scheme shown in Fig. 1. Product development based on emotions The systematic collection and analysis of feelings and emotions renders new insights by being combined with psychological, ergonomic, medical or scientific methods which then can be translated into product specifications [1, 5, 6]. Regarding emotional demands in the product development process provides the developing companies and organizations with added value to meet the needs of customers, to establish unique selling points of their product on the market and to create distinguishing features. In many cases, emotions are rarely considered within the product development process. Kansei Engineering supplies their companies and organizations with a methodology that adopts a procedural thought and prescribes a clearly structured approach to product development based on emotions. Additionally, Kansai Engineering can also be integrated into the already existing product development process. Nagamachi [5] phrases the required process steps as follows: 1. Grasp the consumers Kansei in the specific product domain [...] using psychological or psychophysiological measurements. 2. Analyze the Kansei data by statistical, medical, or engineering methods in order to clarify the Kansei structure. 3. Interpret the analyzed data and transfer the data to the new product domain. 78 Fig. 1. The way to a Kansei product. (1) Decision on Kansei Engineering and the strategic business unit: The strategic product field for the use of Kansei Engineering can be both new product development and product improvement. In product improvement, Kansei Engineering can be applied to the component level as well as the total product. (2) Identification and recording of emotions by the spanning out the semantic space: To identify emotions, Kansei engineering especially uses the Kansei words [7]. By using these words, the investigated products are delineated emotionally and thus a semantic space is spanned. Traditional sources for the identification of Kansei words can be e.g. marketing reports, customer or employee feedback or depictions from the product requirement document and functional specification document. With the help of Kansei words the emotional level of an object can be conceived. These words form a basis for subsequent analysis. The traditional co (...truncated)