A group decision-making method with fuzzy set theory and genetic algorithms in quality function deployment

Quality function deployment (QFD) has been developed by Toyota Motor Corporation in order to reduce time and shorten design times. QFD is composed of a set of matrices referred to as the house of quality (HOQ). A HOQ matrix can help the cross-functional team to translate customer requirements (CRs) into engineering goals. The importance of CRs and the relationships between CRs and technical characteristics (TCs) are obtained by a group of people with vague and fuzzy decision-making processes in the HOQ. In the conditions, a group decision-making method by using the combination of fuzzy set theory and genetic algorithms (GAs) can be used in QFD to determine the importance of each TC. Besides, a numerical example is illustrated to show that this group decision-making method by using the combination of fuzzy set theory and GAs can be reliably and precisely applied in QFD including TCs at the two-level hierarchy with the consideration of some constraints regarding budget and time limits of TCs for prioritizing TCs to effectively make decisions with fuzziness and ambiguousness.     

A combination of QFD and imprecise DEA with enhanced Russell graph measure: A case study in healthcare

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a proven tool for process and product development, which translates the voice of customer (VoC) into engineering characteristics (EC), and prioritizes the ECs, in terms of customer's requirements. Traditionally, QFD rates the design requirements (DRs) with respect to customer needs, and aggregates the ratings to get relative importance scores of DRs. An increasing number of studies stress on the need to incorporate additional factors, such as cost and environmental impact, while calculating the relative importance of DRs. However, there is a paucity of methodologies for deriving the relative importance of DRs when several additional factors are considered. Ramanathan and Yunfeng [43] proved that the relative importance values computed by data envelopment analysis (DEA) coincide with traditional QFD calculations when only the ratings of DRs with respect to customer needs are considered, and only one additional factor, namely cost, is considered. Also, Kamvysi et al. [27] discussed the combination of QFD with analytic hierarchy process–analytic network process (AHP–ANP) and DEAHP–DEANP methodologies to prioritize selection criteria in a service context. The objective of this paper is to propose a QFD–imprecise enhanced Russell graph measure (QFD–IERGM) for incorporating the criteria such as cost of services and implementation easiness in QFD. Proposed model is applied in an Iranian hospital.     

Optimization tools for design and marketing of new/improved products using the house of quality

Quality function deployment (QFD) has helped many firms realize significant reduction in product design costs and development time. The QFD process includes ranking customer preferences, rating the competitors, and parts deployment for the new/improved product. Prior to this research, such activities have been performed based on expert opinion, or the “best-in-class” approach. We develop and solve optimization models for the identification of consensus rankings and ratings, that take into account the priorities and perceptions of all the customers in a target market. Then, based on the consensus rankings, we identify a parts mix for the new/improved product that satisfies a budget constraint and matches or exceeds the performance expectations of all customers surveyed in the target market. Finally, we show how the QFD charts can be used to identify competitors that are falsely perceived as superior, as well as areas where the firm's marketing strategies have had the desired effects. Such insights are useful in developing the future marketing strategy of the firm.     

Applying fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) to identify solutions of service delivery system for port of Kaohsiung

The main purpose of this paper is to apply fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) model to identify solutions of service delivery system (SDS) for port of Kaohsiung from the viewpoints of customers. At first, to facilitate the main issue of the QFD problem, however, the ‘what’ question of customer needs and ‘how’ problem of the services have to be made, which are two major components and be emphasized on the house of quality (HOQ) matrices. In conjunction with fuzzy sets theory, hence, the systematic procedures using fuzzy QFD were proposed in this paper. Subsequently, a case study for port of Kaohsiung demonstrated the systematic appraisal process for identifying solutions of SDS. The results of empirical study show that (1) 10 key factors are deemed as to have priority to improve the quality of SDS for Kaohsiung port; and (2) eight feasible solutions for improving service quality performance are identified. Moreover, it is suggested that port Authority of Kaohsiung should listen attentively the voice of customers and emphasize on exploiting these customer requirements effectively. And then develop the ‘how’ issues of profiles of solutions, which should continuously strengthen the perspectives of customer, internal business process, and learning and growth, respectively.     

Using OWA aggregation technique in QFD: a case study in education in a textile engineering department

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic approach that considers customer needs through design, production, marketing, and support stages. Customer needs are the main input for QFD, so voice of customer must be understood well and changes, innovations, and treatments must be held in this view. In QFD applications, determining the priorities of customer needs is a fairly important stage. This is mostly held by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) a multicriteria decision making technique. Nonetheless, Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) is an aggregation technique mostly used in decision making for multicriteria decision problems. So, combining these two techniques will give a different viewpoint for prioritizing the customer needs in QFD applications. The aim of this study is to show the use of Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) aggregation technique in QFD applications. For this purpose a case study in Dokuz Eylül University Textile Engineering Department was held. It was aimed to support the efforts on increasing the education quality by determining the students’ needs and opinions using QFD with OWA.     

QFD理论下高校教学质量设计与评估

运用QFD理论于高等职业教育教学质量设计反映以"顾客"需求出发的设计思想,通过量化学生能力需求及与课程的关系,提出了QFD理论下高等职业教育教学质量屋的设计方法,并以广东纺织职业技术学院2010纺织品设计专业为例,对课程体系的设计进行了量化评估。     

A fuzzy-QFD approach to supplier selection

This article suggests a new method that transfers the house of quality (HOQ) approach typical of quality function deployment (QFD) problems to the supplier selection process. To test its efficacy, the method is applied to a supplier selection process for a medium-to-large industry that manufactures complete clutch couplings.The study starts by identifying the features that the purchased product should have (internal variables “WHAT”) in order to satisfy the company's needs, then it seeks to establish the relevant supplier assessment criteria (external variables “HOW”) in order to come up with a final ranking based on the fuzzy suitability index (FSI). The whole procedure was implemented using fuzzy numbers; the application of a fuzzy algorithm allowed the company to define by means of linguistic variables the relative importance of the “WHAT”, the “HOW”–“WHAT” correlation scores, the resulting weights of the “HOW” and the impact of each potential supplier.Special attention is paid to the various subjective assessments in the HOQ process, and symmetrical triangular fuzzy numbers are suggested to capture the vagueness in people's verbal assessments.     

基于质量功能展开的顾客满意度研究

质量功能展开是基于顾客要求的结构化产品开发方法。把质量功能展开（Quality Function Deployment,QFD）方法引入顾客满意度研究中,建立了顾客满意度测评的质量屋模型。通过多阶段的QFD模型将总体顾客满意度逐步展开为易于顾客判断的指标,进而实施了顾客满意度指数的测评;并通过某家电企业的顾客满意度测评实例,说明了这种方法实施过程。     

A fuzzy group decision-making approach in quality function deployment

Quality function deployment (QFD) is comprised of two major group decision-making processes. One is to collect the customer requirements from a group of customers, whereas the other is to determine the relationship between customer requirements and technical measures by a cross-functional team. Generally, different and/or even subjective opinions are quite often in a group decision-making process due to the limitations of experience and impreciseness. Obviously, the importance of each customer requirement and the relationship between customer requirements and technical measures are determined by a group of people with imprecision and vagueness. Under such circumstances, a fuzzy group decision-making approach can be applied in QFD to deal with a group decision-making process when the information is imprecise and fuzzy. Moreover, an example is provided as well as the computational steps to show this fuzzy group decision-making approach can be effectively used in QFD to make decisions with imprecision and vagueness.     

顾客需求变化对供应商选择影响的一种量化方法

本文在零部件供应商参与产品设计的背景下,根据顾客需求权重的变化,利用QFD技术中的产品规划质量屋、部件配置质量屋及两者之间的关系,以客户满意度最大化为尺度,建立整数数学规划模型,求解各部件的变化情况,实现了从顾客需求变化到外包给供应商部件变化的转换,从而为供应商的动态选择提供依据,并给出了数值实例。     

基于QFD的汽车技术服务企业服务质量体系研究

本文首先介绍了基于质量功能展开(QFD)的汽车服务质量模型,并根据企业调研的客户需求和客户满意度,得出服务质量特性指标和重要度,将QFD运用到汽车技术服务企业服务质量的提升中。从该模型中找到汽车技术服务企业服务质量的薄弱环节并给出相应的提升服务质量的对策,帮助汽车技术服务企业提高服务质量。     

A method for determining customer requirement weights based on TFMF and TLR

‘Customer requirements’ (CRs) management plays an important role in enterprise systems (ESs) by processing customer-focused information. Quality function deployment (QFD) is one of the main CRs analysis methods. Because CR weights are crucial for the input of QFD, we developed a method for determining CR weights based on trapezoidal fuzzy membership function (TFMF) and 2-tuple linguistic representation (TLR). To improve the accuracy of CR weights, we propose to apply TFMF to describe CR weights so that they can be appropriately represented. Because the fuzzy logic is not capable of aggregating information without loss, TLR model is adopted as well. We first describe the basic concepts of TFMF and TLR and then introduce an approach to compute CR weights. Finally, an example is provided to explain and verify the proposed method.     

Quality Function Deployment in Education: A Curriculum Review

The curriculum of the Tyre Technology Department at the Kocaeli University Köseköy Vocational School of Higher Education (KU-KVSHE) has been reviewed by using the quality function deployment (QFD) technique. The principal stakeholders for this review were identified as the local tyre companies and the department’s lecturers. The stakeholders’ expectations from the graduates of the department were determined by direct interviews using a special questionnaire. The customer needs were categorized, shortened and prioritized. The requirements of the two stakeholders were found to be almost the same but with a different order. The requirements were then converted into quality characteristics. After a comprehensive analysis on the contents and duration of the courses in the actual curriculum, taking into consideration stakeholder expectations, a substantial revision was deemed necessary. In conclusion, a new curriculum for the Tyre Technology Department was proposed in order to meet customer needs. The university senate has approved the new curriculum proposed in this study and the school management has decided to apply the new curriculum as of fall term of the 2002–2003 school year.     

Multi-layer quality function deployment (QFD) approach for improving the compromised quality satisfaction under the agency problem: A 3D QFD design for the asset selection problem in the shipping industry

The aim of this paper is to improve the quality function deployment (QFD) method by utilizing requirements of both the major customer and the service provider. The QFD method was first applied to the shipbuilding industry and the main goal of the method is to improve the production processes by using customer requirements in connection with the related technical measures of the product. However, one of the critical criticisms of the QFD is based on the lack of proper budget assessment and the satisfaction of the producer (or service provider). The multi-layer QFD design is proposed to collect responses from both customer and the service provider so as to ensure satisfaction of all parties including financial feasibility of the intended improvements. Hence, the agency problem between parties will be eliminated.     

How can manufacturers make decisions on product appearance design? A research on optimal design based on customers’ emotional satisfaction

With changing customer attitudes toward consumption and function homogenization, product appearance designs have an increasing influence on the purchase decision. Customer characteristics and emotional factors play an important role here. This study proposes a novel approach for modelling satisfaction and accomplishing a configuration that overcomes the limitations of conventional methods to precisely predict satisfaction, provide optimal product recommendations, and advise manufacturers on product appearance design. The newly proposed approach considers satisfaction, clusters customers through the Kansei perspective, and constructs a satisfaction model for each cluster. Additionally, the study employs data mining to understand the basic design principles and conflicted combinations that must be followed and avoided, respectively. The bidirectional association rules-constrained genetic algorithm is presented to limit configuration freedom, ensuring that results are in the range of control. Comparing prediction errors and recommended sample votes between the novel and conventional approaches revealed the presented approach’s efficiency and accuracy, thereby providing suggestions for manufacturers to make precise decisions on launching new product appearance designs through predicting customer emotional satisfaction.     

基于质量功能展开的连锁家饰店服务质量研究

质量功能展开(Quality Function Deployment,QFD)是一种透过质量屋的运作,系统地将顾客需求转换成工程要求的技术的方法。文中应用QFD导入PZB服务质量模式,整合模糊理论、Kano二维质量模式及顾客满意效益系数,分析连锁家饰店顾客服务质量需求的权重与排序,再以灰关联分析理论确定连锁家饰店各项工程要求质量的灰关联度值与排序,有助于经营者明确提高服务质量的重点。     

Service Guarantee Strength: The key to service quality

While most authors describe a service guarantee as a “zero-one variable” indicating the presence or absence of an explicit written service guarantee, this paper develops a construct called “Service Guarantee Strength” (SGS) that is a continuous variable. This construct measures the degree to which a firm sets clear service quality standards for itself on dimensions that customers care about, and has an formal policy for quickly giving meaningful compensation to customers when these standards are not met.The paper builds upon established micro-level behavioral theory to develop the “Service Guarantee Strength Framework”. This framework posits that high Service Guarantee Strength leads to improved service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty through three intervening variables—marketing communications impact, employee motivation and vision, and learning through service failure.An empirical investigation was conducted to test the SGS Framework using both employee and customer data from three pairs of firms, with each pair in a different industry. None of these firms had an explicit service guarantee. Unlike many behavioral research studies, this study measured both employee and customer perceptual data and compared the two. The research finds that Service Guarantee Strength is positively related to customer perceptions of service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.     

用模糊层次分析法确定QFD中消费者要求权重

质量功能配置(QualityFunctionDeployment,QFD),是能在产品开发及生产的各个阶段,将顾客要求转化为合理的技术要求的整体概念。在实施QFD的过程中,确定消费者的要求权重是一个关键而不可缺少的步骤。本文将模糊一致矩阵引入层次分析中,通过建立模糊一致矩阵来确定QFD中消费者要求权重。由于模糊一致矩阵更符合人们在决策过程中的心理特性,因此,它能提高确定消费者的要求权重的准确性。最后,用一个实例阐述了这种方法在QFD中确定消费者的要求权重中的应用。     

基于质量功能展开的顾客满意研究

把产品设计的质量功能展开(QFD)方法引入到顾客满意研究中,提出了顾客满意的质量屋模型,该模型从驱动顾客满意的产品质量功能特性角度,围绕质量屋的七大要素,给出了提升顾客满意度的基本方法,最后通过某品牌手机顾客满意评价的实例说明了这种方法的实施过程。