Determination of an optimal set of design requirements using house of quality

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been used to translate customer needs and wants into technical design requirements in order to increase customer satisfaction. QFD utilizes the house of quality (HOQ), which is a matrix providing a conceptual map for the design process, as a construct for understanding Customer Requirements (CRs) and establishing priorities of Design Requirements (DRs) to satisfy them. Some methodological issues occurring in the conventional HOQ are discussed, and then a new integrative decision model for selecting an optimal set of DRs is presented using a modified HOQ model. The modified HOQ prioritization procedure employs a multi-attribute decision method for assigning relationship ratings between CRs and DRs instead of a conventional relationship rating scale, such as 1–3–9. The proposed decision model has been applied to an indoor air quality improvement problem as an illustrative example.