Abstract:
Companies are increasingly looking up to QFD as a key to capture the customers
voice and to encourage team members to communicate more effectively with each
other. QFD is a complex and very time consuming process therefore difficult to
implement. Owing to the complexity of this technique in the European Automotive
Industries, its implementation generally relies upon specialists and consultants. A
lack of clear understanding between the industrial participants results in a
somewhat disrupted implementation. Moreover individual competitiveness and an
increasing need for recognition will prevent them from putting faith in the
mechanics of the technique and from reaching a team consensus. Under these
circumstances the QFD implementation will not be pure.
There is a great deal of QFD work which is available for all those with time to
analyze and argue its particular points. But there is an increasing desire in some
places i.e. the Automotive industry for practical information and applied knowledge
about QFD. Moreover a lot of automotive business like the idea of implementing
the technique but they don’t know how. Obviously there are places that people can
learn about QFD and there are consultants who can help them implement it. The
problem which arises by this approach is the lack of understanding within the
business. That means consultants may not understand a company and its needs
when implementing QFD but they will propose solutions. More important they
have no reason to argue with any of the company’s members therefore they can
easily agree for a look alike implementation of the technique.
Considering the above statements the purpose of this project is to eliminate any
misunderstanding of the technique, by describing the technique in a simple
manner recommending its implementation to the product development process
using fuzzy logic and a typical spreadsheet PC software. Finally an enhancement
in the communication between the members of the product development team and
the acceptance of the technique can be achieved representing the team member’s
preferences in a fuzzy manner and calculating the group decision using a
methodology proposed in this project. Therefore QFD will be available to industry
as a user friendly tool which can be applied to vital decision making during the
product development stage, ensuring that the end product is a good result, taking
the technique from the papers and putting it into practice.
