Product development involves multiple phases. Design review
(DR) is an essential activity formally conducted to ensure a
smooth transition from one phase to another. Such a formal DR
is usually a multicriteria decision problem, involving multiple
disciplines. This paper proposes a systematic framework for
DR using fuzzy set theory. This fuzzy approach to DR is considered
particularly relevant for several reasons. First, information
available at early design phases is often incomplete and imprecise.
Second, the relationships between the product design parameters
and the review criteria cannot usually be exactly expressed
by mathematical functions due to the enormous complexity. Third,
DR is frequently carried out using subjective expert judgments
with some degree of uncertainty. The DR is defined as the reverse
mapping between the design parameter domain and design requirement
(review criterion) domain, as compared with Suh's theory
of axiomatic design. Fuzzy sets are extensively introduced in
the definitions of the domains and the mapping process to deal
with imprecision, uncertainty, and incompleteness. A simple
case study is used to demonstrate the resulting fuzzy set theory
of axiomatic DR.