Trabajo

Satisfying Emotional Needs of the Beer Consumer through Kansei
Engineering Study.
Ricardo, Hirata O., M.Sc., Director of Keisen Consultores, Norte 81 No. 163, Col. Clavería,
México City, 02080, Mexico.
Mitsuo, Nagamachi, Ph.D., Dean of School of Human and Social Environment, Hiroshima
International University, 555-36 Gakuendai, Kurosecho, Hiroshima 724-0695, Japan.
Shigekazu, Ishihara,Ph.D., Assistant Professor School of Human and Social Environment,
Hiroshima International University, 555-36 Gakuendai, Kurosecho, Hiroshima 7240695, Japan.

ABSTRACT.
This paper describes the use of Kansei Engineering type I for the category classification of beer cans and the identification of
the design elements that can satisfy emotional and sensitive needs (sense of vision) of a specificmarket (Students of the
Hiroshima International University). Design elements that satisfy translated customer needs are defined.
Keywords: Kansei Engineering, Quantification Method I, Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Product Design.

1. INTRODUCTION.
The trend for shorter life cycles due to the constant changes in customer needs, is increasing the importance of
productdevelopment in the organizations who search for methods and technologies that can reduce development
cycle time and also reduce the gap between true needs and expectations of the customers vs. the developed
product.
Competitive organizations are clearly customer oriented and have found that the translation of the customer´s
feelings and sensorial as well as emotional needs (Kansei Voice of the Customer)are critical is in product
development.
The Japanese word Kansei has multiple meanings such as feeling, sensitivity and emotions. When a customer
wants to purchase a product or service, he or she has sensorial needs such as "elegant, feminine and
unexpensive…". This kind of feeling is called “Kansei” in Japanese. The Kansei means the customer’s
psychological feeling as well as thephysiological issues. For instance, if the product development target will be
a sophisticated automatic room air-conditioner able to control room temperature to give comfort to all people
working in the room, the mechanical function of the air-conditioner should be developed based on psychological
feelings as well as physiological requeirements basis.
The Kansei Engineering or the Kansei Ergonomics wasfounded by Mitsuo Nagamachi at Hiroshima University
about 30 years ago (Nagamachi, 1989; 1991; 1995; 1999) and the Kansei Engineering aims at the
implementation of the customer’s feeling and demands in the product functions and design. It is an ergonomic
human oriented technology for a new product development that has spreaded worldwide.
It is defined as “technology for translating thecustomer’s Kansei (feelings and image) into the product design
domain”. It is also called "Emotional Quality" or "Affective Design".
In conclusion, Kansei Engineering is a powerful technology for reducing the time and resources invested in new
product technology.

2. TYPE I: Category Classification Kansei Engineering.
Type I of Kansei Engineering, also named Category Classification is a method bywhich a Kansei category of a
planned target is broken down in a tree structure to determine the physical design elements. Study starts with the
definition of customer Kansei needs (represented by descriptive data or Kansei Words) in a specific target

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market and selected product and ends with the definition of design elements for the new product, to be tested in
the specific market andthen mass produced.
The general procedure for Kansei Engineering application and results in this study were:
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Selection of a product domain.
Collection of Kansei Words.
Collection of product samples.
Evaluation of product samples vs. Kansei Words on previously designed SD (Semantic Differential)
like scales in a laboratory experiment.
Identification of the most...