A Novel Web-Based Approach to Quality Function Deployment

Quality Function Deployment (QFD), as an effective tool for customer-driven product development, has been widely adopted in manufacturing companies for many years. The main difficulties in using QFD lie in capturing the actual needs of customers, and in the conflicting conclusions provided by different experts while establishing the relationship matrix between customer requirements and engineering characteristics. This paper describes a novel approach to applying QFD. Firstly, the customer requirements are captured through Web-based technology. Secondly, the relationship matrix between customer requirements and engineering characteristics is established by handling coordinately fuzzy knowledge. Thirdly, the translation of a customer’s importance ratings into engineering weightings is carried out by fuzzy mapping technology. In order to reduce the complexity of HOQ, the less important customer requirements and engineering characteristics are identified and eliminated from the model by using α-cuts. Finally, an example using a refrigerator illustrates that the proposed approach is both available and practicable.Copyright © 2003 by ASME