Abstract: Supplier evaluation and selection is an important group decision making problem that involves not only quantitative criteria but also qualitative factors incorporating vagueness and imprecision. This paper proposes a novel fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making framework for supplier selection integrating quality function deployment (QFD) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The proposed methodology allows for considering the impacts of inner dependence among supplier assessment criteria through constructing a house of quality (HOQ). The lower and upper bounds of the weights of supplier assessment criteria are identified by adopting fuzzy weighted average (FWA) method that enables the fusion of imprecise and subjective information expressed as linguistic variables. An imprecise DEA methodology is implemented for supplier selection, which employs the weights of supplier assessment criteria computed by FWA utilizing the data from the HOQ and the supplier ratings with respect to supplier assessment criteria. The application of the proposed framework is demonstrated through a case study in a private hospital in Istanbul.

Abstract: With increasing concerns on customer needs in today’s competitive market, the issue of incorporating customer requirements into product design arises the interest of both researchers and practitioners. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a well-known methodology for customer-driven product design. However, conventionally, QFD analysis has a major challenge in understanding customer needs accurately. Kano’s model, which studies the nature of customer needs, provides a way for a better classification of customer needs. However, seldom research contributions are found in terms of integrating Kano’s model with QFD quantitatively. In this research, a novel integration approach is proposed. At first, Kano’s model is quantified by identifying relationship between customer needs and customer satisfaction (CS). Next, both qualitative and quantitative results from Kano’s model are integrated into QFD. Finally, a mixed non-linear integer programming model is formulated to maximise CS under cost and technical constr...

Abstract: Increased demand for a greater variety of consumer products has forced many companies to rethink their strategies to offer more product variants. For manufacturers, producing a variety of products can satisfy this increasing demand and help companies gain more of market share; however, increased variety can lead to higher design and production costs as well as longer lead times for new variants. As a result, a trade-off arises between cost-effectiveness and satisfying diverse customer demand. Research has found that such a trade-off can be properly managed by exploiting product family design (PFD) and platform-based product development, an area that has been widely studied for the past two decades. New approaches have been proposed to address different issues related to PFD and platform development. Performance of these approaches has been assessed through case studies and applications to different industry sectors. This chapter focuses on reviewing the research in this field to classify recent advancements in PFD and platform development. We identify new achievements with regard to multiple aspects of PFD: customer involvement in design, market-driven studies, metrics for assessing platforms and families, indices for platform and family design, product family optimization issues, platform development issues, and, finally, issues relevant to supporting future platform design. Through a comparison with previous research studies, we identify ongoing challenges in this field along with potential directions for new research.

Abstract: Identifying appropriate decision criteria and making optimal decisions in a structured way is a complex process. This paper presents an approach for doing this in the form of a hybrid Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Cybernetic Analytic Network Process (CANP) model for project manager selection. This involves the use of QFD to translate the owner's project management expectations into selection criteria and the CANP to weight the expectations and selection criteria. The supermatrix approach then prioritises the candidates with respect to the overall decision-making goal. A case study is used to demonstrate the use of the model in selecting a renovation project manager. This involves the development of 18 selection criteria in response to the owner's three main expectations of time, cost and quality.

Abstract: Sustainable supply chains are the need of modern times. In order to make them successful, listening to voice of the customer and integrating them in the design and development phases of supply chains are very important. In this paper, we propose a technique called sustainability function deployment (SFD) developed on the concept of quality function deployment (QFD) to model customer and technical requirements, establish relationship between them and prioritise them for developing sustainable supply chains. SFD gathers customer and technical requirements for sustainable supply chain planning using C-REQ and T-REQ surveys, generates priority of customer requirements using Priority Matrix, performs screening of technical requirements using gap analysis, and generates requirements weights using QFD, thereby providing a structured approach to the decision-makers to select the right areas of improvement. Both the customer and technical requirements are captured from a socio-economic-environmental perspective. R...

Abstract: The philosophies of the quality discipline have been and are being established over a large period of our recent history by many contributors. How the profession defines “quality” has much to contribute to its fundamental philosophies. A comprehensive definition, suitable to the broad range of quality's involvement, is used in this paper to expose many of its philosophies. Keywords: aspects of quality; business excellence; CI ; common causes; competition; conservation; consumers; continuous improvement; cost reduction; design quality; environment; fact-based; FMEA ; government; innovation; ISO 14000; ISO 9000 quality management system; JIT ; Kaizen; leadership; learning organization; Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; management; manufactured quality; metrology; operations; philosophy; process; productivity; profitability; profound knowledge; prosperity; QFD ; quality; quality defined; Six Sigma; special causes; strategic; strategy; suppliers; TQM

Abstract: Purpose – Quality function deployment (QFD) is a method for structured product planning and development that enables a development team to specify clearly the wants and needs of customers. This method has been successfully employed in the construction industry in developed countries. However, the benefits of QFD have not been practically realised in developing countries such as Nigeria. Hence, this research aims to investigate the awareness and effectiveness of QFD as a quality control technique that enhances the satisfaction of clients in terms of quality, cost and project delivery time in design and build projects. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative and quantitative research approach in the form of in-depth telephone interviews and questionnaires was used to obtain the views of construction professionals such as civil engineers, architects, project managers, chief executive officers and trades people involved in design and build projects in the Nigerian construction industry, as well as 50 clie...

Abstract: The complementary effect produced by e-commerce integrated with home delivery service creates tremendous opportunities. These opportunities enable marketers to develop new services, allowing online shoppers to not only shorten their order cycle time but also allowing them multiple options to satisfy their shopping desires. Some studies have been performed to examine the issue of new service development (NSD) in an emerging market, but research is lacking on the development of home delivery services (HDS) for specialty foods from traditional markets. This study analyzes a Taiwan's home delivery company and uses an NSD model and quality function deployment (QFD) to develop a home delivery service model. In the voice of customer (VOC) area, the results reveal that online shoppers emphasize the security of personal information and trading mechanisms of that information. As for HDS for specialty foods from traditional markets, online shoppers focus on the speed of the delivery service, the freshness of the foods and quick responses from HD companies when problems occur during delivery. Furthermore, in the voice of engineering (VOE) area, the main suggestions for improvement are training staff, setting up a brand, and strengthening system effectiveness and information safety.

Abstract: Remanufacturing represents an activity that often offers significant profit opportunities and can provide substantial environmental benefits. Process plan selection is one of the most important operational decisions in remanufacturing because it directly affects the success rate of remanufacturing as well as cost and quality. There is a need for a decision-making aid which can optimize process plan selection in the presence of wide-ranging alternatives. In response to this need, a decision method has been developed that combines the strengths of quality function deployment (QFD) and fuzzy linear regression. In this method, quality function deployment is employed to not only frame the problem but also to establish relationships between remanufacturing performance and process quality characteristics of interest. Fuzzy linear regression is used to determine the functional relationships between remanufacturing performance and process quality characteristics and obtain the optimal solution. If desired, the most suitable process plan alternative may be determined. To assess the usefulness and practicality of the proposed method, an illustrative example is given and the results are discussed.

Abstract: This study applied the Kano two-dimensional quality model and quality function deployment (QFD) to develop the black bean’s reputation as a health food and identify quality attributes of consumers’ needs in order to effectively control the attributes. This study first conducted a literature review and summarized the product’s quality attributes and then carried out expert interviews to determine health food quality attributes and consumer need quality attributes. A questionnaire survey was conducted to discuss which quality attributes of black beans consumers perceived to be important when they were presented as a health food and classify their answers using the quality attributes in the Kano model in order to effectively control consumers’ needs. Consumers’ demand for quality attributes was transformed into a technique of product quality development. In a matrix of the two constructs, quality classification of health food in the Kano model and order of consumers’ satisfaction with eating types of health food products, quality factors were transformed into technical specifications of product development for QFD and the construction of the first-stage of the House of Quality matrix. The results serve as references for companies to effectively distribute resources and establish strategies of product development, enhance product quality and consumer satisfaction, reduce product development time, and increase the success rate of products in the market. The results contribute to the health food enterprises are not only can make profit of product but also meet customers’ need.

Abstract: Identifying appropriate decision criteria and making optimal decisions in a structured way is a complex process. This paper presents an approach for doing this in the form of a hybrid Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Cybernetic Analytic Network Process (CANP) model for project manager selection. This involves the use of QFD to translate the owner's project management expectations into selection criteria and the CANP to weight the expectations and selection criteria. The supermatrix approach then prioritises the candidates with respect to the overall decision-making goal. A case study is used to demonstrate the use of the model in selecting a renovation project manager. This involves the development of 18 selection criteria in response to the owner's three main expectations of time, cost and quality.

Abstract: Products reflect the needs of many different entities. People such as end-users and re-sellers, regulating bodies of authority, and individuals within manufacturing and engineering provide statements as “voices” that impact the physical structure of a product in different ways. A company establishes a strategy to realize the product that responds to these “voices.” There are various approaches to capturing a singular “voice of x” when realizing a product architecture. Modular function deployment differs from other architecture methods by providing a holistic approach to capturing multiple “voices” as a company strategy through the use of Module Drivers. This approach is demonstrated by actual industrial examples that explore the flexibility of Module Drivers applied in the creation of a conceptual modular product architecture.

Abstract: Purpose – Quality function deployment (QFD) is a methodology to translate the “voice of the customer” into engineering/technical specifications (HOWs) to be followed in designing of products or services. For the method to be effective, QFD practitioners need to be able to accurately differentiate between the final weights (FWs) that have been assigned to HOWs in the house of quality matrix. The paper aims to introduce a statistical testing procedure to determine whether the FWs of HOWs are significantly different and investigate the robustness of different rating scales used in QFD practice in contributing to these differences. Design/methodology/approach – Using a range of published QFD examples, the paper uses a parametric bootstrap testing procedure to test the significance of the differences between the FWs by generating simulated random samples based on a theoretical probability model. The paper then determines the significance or otherwise of the differences between: the two most extreme FWs and all...

Abstract: Companies pursuing extension of their activities and new companies in establishment phase are using various concepts and techniques to consider location decision, because location greatly affects both fixed and variable costs and on the overall profit of the company. This paper suggests a new use of quality function deployment (QFD) for facility location selection problem instead of applying it to traditional product quality promotion. Fuzzy sets concept is also incorporated to deal with imprecise nature of the linguistic judgments of decision makers. First, fuzzy QFD as a stand-alone approach is presented to address international facility location selection decision. To consider resource limitations and operational constraints, fuzzy goal programming is combined with fuzzy quality function deployment to present a developed approach to deal with global facility location-allocation decision. A demonstration of the applicability of proposed methodologies in a real-world problem is presented.

Abstract: Infrastructure owners or management agencies have well established quality control programs with the intent of achieving safe and effective maintenance. However, consumers are becoming more involved in economic, environmental, and social issues related to infrastructure. Therefore, a valid quality program would be more definitive by involving voice of the customer in the maintenance decision-process. In this paper, an innovative approach for achieving quality and customer satisfaction in infrastructure maintenance is proposed by implementing the quality function deployment (QFD) approach. Using bridges as an example, two separate applications of QFD have been proposed: (1) inspection prioritization, and (2) decision-making between replacement and/or rehabilitation scenarios. For both applications, an inspection house of quality is prepared for translating consumer demands (WHATs) into inspection requirements (HOWs) followed by prioritizing the inspection items (HOWs). For the inspection prioritization, hypothetical survey data is utilized. For the decision-making scenarios, a case study is furnished for a bridge located in Victoria, BC, Canada. The main conclusion as illustrated in the study is that QFD can be successfully adopted for improved management of civil infrastructure.

Abstract: Quality has always been a key concern for product and service operations. Decades have been spent in research for quality measurement and enhancement techniques. Various models have time and again been proposed by researchers around the globe. Inspite of the constant rigor in the study of this concept, very few tools devised and defined by researchers and academicians have been successfully put to practice. The underlying phenomena in service quality measurement are indeed complex to understand, interpret and measure. Through this paper the authors intend to present the developments of one such quality tool which has the ability to generate creative and novel solutions is Quality Function Deployment (QFD). This paper presents a detailed literature review on the topic and application of QFD in higher education. This literature review is based on publications and web sources.

Abstract: Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been perceived in Europe as a complex technique, and its implementation relies upon specialists and consultants who utilise it from their viewpoint. This becomes very time–consuming and error–prone, and has hindered its use in real product design decision making. The objective of this research is to simplify and rationalise application of QFD utilising fuzzy logic principles and common sense, gained from the participants' professional experience. In addition, the authors recommend a way to implement this technique using a PC spreadsheet or database software so that QFD will be available to industry as a user–friendly tool which can be applied to vital decision making during the product development stage, taking the technique from the papers and putting it into practice.

Abstract: Quality requirements, an important class of non functional requirements, are inherently difficult to elicit. Particularly challenging is the definition of good-enough quality. The problem cannot be avoided though, because hitting the right quality level is critical. Too little quality leads to churn for the software product. Excessive quality generates unnecessary cost and drains the resources of the operating platform. To address this problem, we propose to elicit the specific relationships between software quality levels and their impacts for given quality attributes and stakeholders. An understanding of each such relationship can then be used to specify the right level of quality by deciding about acceptable impacts. The quality-impact relationships can be used to design and dimension a software system appropriately and, in a second step, to develop service level agreements that allow re-use of the obtained knowledge of good-enough quality. This paper describes an approach to elicit such quality-impact relationships and to use them for specifying quality requirements. The approach has been applied with user representatives in requirements workshops and used for determining Quality of Service (QoS) requirements based the involved users’ Quality of Experience (QoE). The paper describes the approach in detail and reports early experiences from applying the approach. Index Terms-Requirement elicitation, quality attributes, non-functional requirements, quality of experience (QoE), quality of service (QoS).

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a methodology to design a supply chain with a view to achieve a strategic fit between competitive and supply chain strategies. Design/methodology/approach – Quality function deployment (QFD)-based optimization methodology is employed to design a supply chain for a product through aligning the competitive and supply chain strategies. Normal boundary intersection (NBI) method is adopted to obtain optimal weights of the supply chain design objectives. Weighted additive model is developed for multi-objective optimization. Utility-based attribute function, which structure the relationship between the elements of competitive and supply chain strategies is established. The utility functions and the information contained in the House of Quality (HOQ) of QFD are used to define the supply chain performance (SCP). Findings – SCP index is computed using the set of supply chain design objectives obtained by solving the weighted additive model. On the basis of SCP i...