The study concerns a design procedure of rule-based systems. The proposed rule-based fuzzy modeling implements system structure and parameter identification in the efficient from of "IF..., THEN..." statements, and exploits the theory of system optimization and fuzzy implication rules. The method for rule-based fuzzy modeling concerns the from of the conclusion part of the the rules that can be constant. Both triangular and Gaussian-like membership function are studied. The optimization hinges on an autotuning algorithm that covers as a modified constrained optimization method known as a complex method. The study introduces a weighted performance index (objective function) that helps achieve a sound balance between the quality of results produced for the training and testing set. This methodology sheds light on the role and impact of different parameters of the model on its performance. The study is illustrated with the aid of two representative numerical examples.