The A-Kano model entails a series of interactions between the customers and
the producers, as shown in Figure 1. In general, the CNs tend to be imprecise
and ambiguous due to their linguistic origins (Jiao and Chen, 2006). And
hence it is difficult to apply analytical tools for CN analysis. As a quick fix,
the CNs are translated into explicit and objective statements, namely the
FRs. The distinction between CNs and FRs is in line with the domain mapping
principle proposed by Suh (2001). Essentially, what a customer de facto perceives
is the CNs in the customer domain, rather than FRs in the functional
domain. While providing customer-perceived diversity in CNs, the producer
must seek for an economy of scale in product fulfillment, which is meant by
FRs. In this research, analysis is carried out in the functional domain, and
the FRs are assigned different priorities for product fulfillment. From the customer’s
perspective, the priority assignment corresponds to different customer
perceptions. From the producer’s perspective, the FRs are mapped onto
various product attributes, which represent the physical form of a product
in fulfillment of the FRs.