This paper introduces an application of non-linear partial least squares for vibro-acoustic regression modeling and for an industrial sewing machine. In the vibro-acoustic regression model, the vibration accelerations of reference points are defined as explanatory variables, while the noise sound pressure of target points is defined as response variables, and the number of explanatory variables is determined initially by a correlation analysis in the time domain. To improve predictive accuracy while a non-linear relationship exists between the explanatory and response variables, the explanatory variables are preprocessed by kernel function transformation. The comparison of regressive noise sound pressure to experimental data indicates that the non-linear partial least squares regression model has high predictive accuracy. Furthermore, the contributions of vibration accelerations to noise sound pressure are analyzed, by which the structure optimizations are guided and practiced. The comparison of noise test results before and after optimization testifies to the effectiveness of the contribution analysis.