Title: Redesigned quality function deployment process to ensure customer satisfaction

Authors: Cheol Hwoan Yoon, Yong Pil Kim, Deok Kyun Yun

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Hanyang University, 17 Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, 133–791, Seoul, Korea. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Hanyang University, 17 Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, 133–791, Seoul, Korea. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Hanyang University, 17 Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, 133–791, Seoul, Korea

Abstract: Quality Function Deployment (QFD) provides a systematic approach to product enhancement and has been widely implemented in modern enterprises. Despite its wide implementation, however, customer dissatisfaction continues to be an issue in QFD-designed products. This is mainly a result of the failure in determining correct Technical Importance Ratings (TIRs). To determine customer-oriented TIRs, we propose a method for reflecting the roof and adjusting the strength of the relationship between Customer Attributes (CA) and Engineering Characteristics (EC). The limiting probability of the Analytic Network Process (ANP) was used in the roof, and Extreme Pairwise Comparison with Median Rank (EPCMR) was used to determine the relationship strength, important ratings of EC, and CA. To illustrate, this paper includes a case study involving the results of a Six Sigma project in a Korean company.

Keywords: quality function deployment; QFD; house of quality; HoQ; extreme pairwise comparison; limiting probability; analytic network process; ANP; six sigma; customer satisfaction; business innovation; product enhancement; customer dissatisfaction; customer attributes; engineering characteristics; Korea.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2006.011094

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2006 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.149 - 169

Published online: 13 Oct 2006 *

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