Kansei Engineering and its Applications in Automotive Design 1999-01-1265

Kansei Engineering was founded by M. Nagamachi at Hiroshima University about 25 years ago and it is a powerful technology for new product development. Kansei is a Japanese word for psychological feeling or image that a consumer will have in mind when purchasing a product. For instance, the customer has such kansei as being “speedy, easy to control and stylish” for a passenger car. Kansei Engineering is able to transfer these “kansei” to design specifications. Therefore, Kansei Engineering is defined as a translating technology of customer's feelings (kansei) about a coming product into design elements. A typical example of a passenger car developed using Kansei engineering is Miata made by Mazda. Kansei Engineering has been applied to the industries of automobile, construction machine, home electric appliance, housing, costume etc. and it has spread out in Japan, Korea, England, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Korean Government are especially eager to invest on Kansei Engineering in Korean industries, and 47 organizations including some universities are engaged in the research.