Customer requirement acquisition system and requirement expression guidance based on ant colony optimization. (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Qin; Jiao, Haisen; Song, Fei; Pan, Gaofeng; Wei, Daozhu
• Is Part Of: Advances in mechanical engineering. Volume 9:Number 6(2017:Jun.)
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: Customer requirement -- requirement node -- requirement expression guidance -- expression path -- ant colony optimization; Mechanical engineering -- Periodicals; 621.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1687814017704412
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-8132

Abstract

Customer requirement is a crucial factor for a company to provide customized products. In order to better acquire customer requirements and instruct customers to express their requirements, customer requirement acquisition system is proposed in this article. First, requirement node and the form of requirement expression are constructed as the base of this system. Customer requirements are transformed into the description of requirement nodes. The form of requirement expression limits specific method of describing requirement nodes avoiding ambiguous requirements. Then, requirement expression guidance is proposed to rational plan expression path. Optimal expression path is beneficial for customer to concentrate on significant requirement nodes. Ant colony optimization is used to search for it. As a result, complete and clear customer requirements are acquired and the focus of customer requirements is recognized, which improves the design efficiency of enterprises. Finally, an example of automated guided vehicle is used to illustrate the validity of the proposed method.