A QFD approach for distribution’s location model

Abstract

This article constructs a distribution’s location model, from the perspective of a firm’s customers, suppliers, and employees, by applying a systematic quality function deployment (QFD) approach. The proposed approach aims to assist a distribution company’s location decision in selecting an optimal location that satisfies the overall location requirements. The QFD procedure began by collecting possible candidate location requirements, followed by conducting the first stage of a sampling survey to identify the secondary location requirements. These were then sorted into major categories of location requirements. Then, the location evaluating criteria were derived from the location requirements and a central relationship matrix was established to display the degree of relationship between each pair of location requirement and location evaluating criterion. Furthermore, the second stage of a sampling survey was conducted to collect data for computing the importance weighting for each category of location requirement. During transformation of the QFD, the importance degree and the normalized importance degree of each location criterion were computed, respectively. The normalized importance degree was, finally, used as the evaluating weight in a distribution company’s location model for the analysis of location evaluation. An empirical study regarding the location decision for a distribution center in Taiwan was provided to demonstrate the proposed approach.