Abstract: This study aims to design a sustainable maritime supply chain by taking customer requirements as the focus. This is achieved by an analytical approach combining Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) for guiding shipping companies’ design. An analysis of a major container shipping line is conducted to illustrate and validate the approach. The four main customer requirements are: (1) Cost and Price Competitive, (2) Pollution Reduction, (3) Efficient Use of Fuel and Resources, and (4) Health, Safety, and Security. The Use of Green Design Ships, Engines and Machinery is found to be the most important design requirement.

Abstract: This paper presents an integrated eco-design decision-making (IEDM) methodology that is formed using three stages: life cycle assessment, an eco-design process (Eco-Process) model and an enhanced eco-design quality function deployment process. All product sustainability considerations are conducted within a special eco-design house of quality. This brings together the analysis of factors relating to manufacturing processes, product usage and end-of-life strategy. The concentration of environmental considerations in one place insures that product sustainability is central to any design development and that the implications of change are fully identified and justified. The IEDM methodology utilises of a set of Eco-Process parameters and their associated relationships to allow users with complementary knowledge to enter and access information in a timely and controlled manner. They are then able to contribute their expertise to support decisions with the aim of providing more sustainable products. An application of the approach is presented in the context of a case study considering the redesign of a single-use medical forceps. The materials and production methods used are investigated with a view to quantifying their environmental impact. The resulting IEDM methodology can be seen to be widely and easily applicable.

Abstract: ContextSoftware quality models provide either abstract quality characteristics or concrete quality measurements; there is no seamless integration of these two aspects. Quality assessment approaches are, hence, also very specific or remain abstract. Reasons for this include the complexity of quality and the various quality profiles in different domains which make it difficult to build operationalised quality models. ObjectiveIn the project Quamoco, we developed a comprehensive approach aimed at closing this gap. MethodThe project combined constructive research, which involved a broad range of quality experts from academia and industry in workshops, sprint work and reviews, with empirical studies. All deliverables within the project were peer-reviewed by two project members from a different area. Most deliverables were developed in two or three iterations and underwent an evaluation. ResultsWe contribute a comprehensive quality modelling and assessment approach: (1) A meta quality model defines the structure of operationalised quality models. It includes the concept of a product factor, which bridges the gap between concrete measurements and abstract quality aspects, and allows modularisation to create modules for specific domains. (2) A largely technology-independent base quality model reduces the effort and complexity of building quality models for specific domains. For Java and C# systems, we refined it with about 300 concrete product factors and 500 measures. (3) A concrete and comprehensive quality assessment approach makes use of the concepts in the meta-model. (4) An empirical evaluation of the above results using real-world software systems showed: (a) The assessment results using the base model largely match the expectations of experts for the corresponding systems. (b) The approach and models are well understood by practitioners and considered to be both consistent and well suited for getting an overall view on the quality of a software product. The validity of the base quality model could not be shown conclusively, however. (5) The extensive, open-source tool support is in a mature state. (6) The model for embedded software systems is a proof-of-concept for domain-specific quality models. ConclusionWe provide a broad basis for the development and application of quality models in industrial practice as well as a basis for further extension, validation and comparison with other approaches in research.

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology with systematic metrics for logistics service providers (LSPs) to develop their environmental sustainability performance in the context of green supply chain management. Design/methodology/approach – An integrated analytical approach which combines analytical network process (ANP) with quality function deployment (QFD) is proposed to develop LSPs’ environmental sustainability performance. In the approach, QFD is used to translate customer requirements (CRs) for “green” concerns into multiple criteria for LSP’s design requirements (DRs). ANP is used to analyze the inter-relationships among the various CRs and DRs. Findings – The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by applying it to a global LSP. A case study shows how the proposed “ANP-QFD” technique can be deployed to understand customers’ expectation for environment management and develop tactics and measures with the aim to achieve the desirable outcome for LSPs’ environm...

Abstract: Purpose – Selection of logistics service provider (LSP) (also known as Third-party logistics (3PL) is a critical decision, because logistics affects top and bottom line as well. Companies consider logistics as a cost driver and at the time of LSP selection decision, many important decision criteria’s are left out. 3PL selection is multi-criteria decision-making process. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach, combining quality function deployment (QFD), and Taguchi loss function (TLF) to select optimal 3PL. Design/methodology/approach – Multiple criteria are derived from the company requirements using house of quality. The 3PL service attributes are developed using QFD and the relative importance of the attributes are assessed. TLFs are used to measure performance of each 3PL on each decision variable. Composite weighted loss scores are used to rank 3PLs. Findings – QFD is a better tool which connects attributes used in a decision problem to decision maker’s requirements. In total,...

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an effective approach to decide design details using benchmarking to capture the existing practice in sustainable design. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports a systematic method for sustainable product design. The method uses benchmarks as references searching for design details to achieve sustainable solutions. Quality function deployment is used to guide the search process for competitive products using benchmarking to meet quantitative targets of product and to increase knowledge for sustainable design. Findings – The proposed method can meet both functional and sustainable requirements of product design. 18.55 percent reduction in carbon equivalent emissions is achieved compared to benchmarks in wheelchair design. The research reveals that when weight, material and number of components used in product decrease, environmental footprints and cost of the product improve. Originality/value – The research improves the existing method of sustain...

Abstract: Purpose – Supply chain security has been recognized as an important part of managing business risks The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology with systematic metrics for logistics service providers (LSPs) to develop their security design to meet customer demands Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a three-stage process of desk research, content validation test, and in-depth case study The study demonstrates an integrated analytical approach which combines analytical network process (ANP) with quality function deployment (QFD), and then applies the approach to an international LSP Findings – A case study of an international LSP shows how the ANP-QFD approach can be deployed to understand customers’ expectation for security and develop tactics and measures with the aim to achieve the desirable outcome for LSPs’ security design Originality/value – The paper contributes to supply chain security literature and practice This study is among the research taking the first step to

Abstract: Recently, there have been many attempts to cope with increasingly-diversified and ever-changing customer needs by combining products and services that are critical components of innovation models. Although not only manufacturers, but also service providers, try to integrate products and services, most of the previous studies on Product Service System (PSS) development deal with how to effectively integrate services into products from the product-centric point of view. Services provided by manufacturers’ PSSes, such as delivery services, training services, disposal services, and so on, offer customers ancillary value, whereas products of service providers’ PSSes enrich core value by enhancing the functionality and quality of the service. Thus, designing an effective PSS development process from the service-centric point of view is an important research topic. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to propose a service-oriented PSS development process, which consists of four stages: (1) strategic planning; (2) idea generation and selection; (3) service design; and (4) product development. In the proposed approach, the PSS development project is initiated and led by a service provider from a service-centric point of view. From the perspective of methodology, customer needs are converted into product functions according to Quality Function Deployment (QFD), while Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed to prioritize the functions. Additionally, this paper illustrates a service-oriented PSS development that demonstrates the application of the proposed process. The proposed process and illustration are expected to serve as a foundation for research on service-oriented PSS development and as a useful guideline for service providers who are considering the development of a service-oriented PSS.

Abstract: Companies need to be innovative to survive in today's competitive market; thus, new product development (NPD) has become very important. This research constructs an integrated NPD framework for developing new products. In stage one, customer attributes (CAs) and engineering characteristics (ECs) for developing products are collected, and fuzzy interpretive structural modelling (FISM) is applied to understand the relationships among these critical factors. Based on quality function deployment (QFD), a house of quality is then built, and fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) is adopted to calculate the relative importance of ECs. In stage two, fuzzy failure mode and effects analysis (FFMEA) is applied to understand the potential failures of the ECs and to determine the importance of ECs with respect to risk control. In stage three, a goal programming (GP) model is constructed to consider the outcome from the FANP-QFD, FFMEA and other objectives, in order to select the most important ECs. Due to pollution an...

Abstract: For modern manufacturing companies the concept of product-service (PS) is representing a novel way to create new business opportunities, improve sustainability, support continuous innovation, and increase the product value. In this context, high-quality requirements elicitation is crucial for successful PS ideation and the following design. However, traditional product-centred approaches are not able to fully support manufacturing companies moving from product to services. This paper proposes a new methodology to support ideation and preliminary design of sustainable product-service systems (PSSs) within industrial chains. The method is based on quality functional deployment (QFD) approach and allows defining a set of robust requirements for creating new PSSs in respect with the specific customer needs and the sustainability principles of the industrial network. The research demonstrates the method validity on three case studies involving different industrial chains distributed all over Europe (i.e., white goods, machine tools, and textile industry). The case studies demonstrate how the method allows an easy definition of three distinctive PSS concepts starting for the specific market needs, and the robust requirements elicitation concerning both functional and ecosystem aspects.

Abstract: This paper provides a fuzzy Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) in a Group Decision Support System (GDSS) approach to ranking the technical requirements for the house of quality (HOQ) process in multi-criteria product design. The problem under study involves incorporating the design alternatives of a group of designers located in different geographies who often provide vague and imprecise linguistic design information to the HOQ process. As such, the proposed fuzzy PROMETHEE GDSS allows the quality function deployment (QFD) team of designers to minimize any deviation arising from the individual designer preferences and to capture the ambiguity of the imprecise design information when expressing the importance of customer needs and to delineate the linkage between customer needs and the technical requirements. The approach advances the HOQ group decision-making context in two important aspects. First, it treats each criterion and decision maker (DM) as unique in terms of the preference function and threshold levels. Second, it facilitates a rapid communication among DMs for the HOQ process. A case of a design team for an ergonomic chair manufacturer serves to validate this approach.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to improve service quality of liner shipping companies and investigates the quality function deployment (QFD) in terms of quality assessment method. Liner shipping is particularly characterised by the container transportation and the wider organisation including other logistics activities. The major customers of the logistics services are the industrial clients. The customer satisfaction is a key managerial task since competitiveness is a growing issue in the liner shipping industry. The QFD is one of the unique procedures to expose the requirements of customer and transform them into managerial tasks by cross-correlation analysis between requirements and technical measures. The empirical study is performed to investigate service quality of Asian liner shipping industry by focusing on a group of anonymous leading liner shipping companies. One of the major finding is the customer of liner shipping service tends to purchase a complete transport service including other logistics services. The important technical measures are the implementation of ISO 9001 framework, cheaper service and exemption on terminal handling fee.