Design concept evaluation using soft sets based on acceptable and satisfactory levels: an integrated TOPSIS and Shannon entropy

Among several phases of new product development, concept selection is the most crucial activity and it gives perfection to further progress of a product. Customer’s ideas and linguistic requirements are often substantial in concept specifications to assess quantitative criteria, which gives satisfaction for a product to progress in the markets. This work aggregates concept selection on design parameters values by merging acceptable- and satisfactory-level needs of the customers. A promising framework is developed based on soft sets, TOPSIS and the Shannon entropy. Customer’s preferences on incorporating design values are identified based on acceptable- and satisfactory-level needs, and these preferences are weighted through Shannon entropy. By performing AND operation on the soft set of level requirements of one customer with the soft set of requirements of another customer, several weighted tables of soft sets are obtained on the pair of design parameters values. To obtain the best concept on different levels of requirements, TOPSIS is performed which provides several integrated evaluations. An illustration is considered for the demonstration of the method, brings the best concept for two customers which is acceptable for both of the customers, satisfactory for both the customers and vise-versa. Finally, the comparisons are presented with recent major existing methods.