Incorporating heterogeneous customer preferences with dirichlet process mixture model for product positioning in environmentally conscious design

Yuan Zhao, Deborah Thurston

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Increased environmental protection legislation forces manufacturers to employ environmentally conscious design and manufacturing methods. In addition, customer preferences for energy efficient and environmentally sustainable products influence manufacturers design strategies. In order to influence customer buying behaviors for environmentally friendly products, manufacturers need to understand customer preferences first. Manufacturers can make optimal design decisions based on inference on customers' decision making models. It is recognized that consumers are heterogeneous in their response to different attributes for any given type of product or service. In this paper, we proposed a framework for incorporating heterogeneous customer preferences with Dirichlet Process mixture model for product positioning in environmentally conscious design. The uncertainty about the functional form of the customer preference distribution can be expressed by using a nonparametric prior, in which the number of clusters grows without bound as the amount of data grows. An automobile design case study is used here to demonstrate the proposed approach.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2012
Pages501-515
Number of pages15
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
EventASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2012 - Chicago, IL, United States
Duration: Aug 12 2012Aug 12 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
Volume7

Other

OtherASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago, IL
Period8/12/128/12/12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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