A Study of Design Demand of Applying Quality Function Deployment in Plastic Folding Chairs

Abstract

The design of folding chairs has long been focused on the low-price market targeting at mass gathering with high demand. Following the changes in society, a number of public have accustomed to use the folding chairs as household use, whereas the household folding chair with mid to high price range also emerge from the market eventually. The progress in science and technology, plus the continuous enhancement in plastic molding development and the injection molding technology as well as to the diversity in plastic materials, have all driven to the use of plastic folding chair. Nonetheless, the rise of consumer awareness and enhanced demand for product quality from the public have shifted the design of plastic folding chair from general folding chair to the designers perception oriented chairs. Hence, the study applied quality function deployment to establish user demand for plastic folding chairs, inducing the five expectations for plastic folding chair through the procedures in quality function deployment, namely into “aesthetics,” “convenience,” “structural safety,” “comfort,” and “environmental protection.” These five demands are placed into the House of Quality and transformed into the design elements and benchmark. The research results show that the first three projects and weights for customer requirements are sorted in the order of “parts unlikely to fall off (6.8%),” “non-pinching during use (6.7%)” and “ergonomic considerations (6.5%).” Among the parameter characteristics of design, the first three projects and weights are sorted in order of “use sliders or pullers to prevent pinching (10%),” “no screws used (9.4%)” and “holistic design of structure and form (8.5%).” The designers can fully understand customer demand through this transformation and the designers can add the above demand quality into the design of plastic folding chair during the conceptual design, attempt to assure the new product design can solve the existing inconvenience. The study analysis and results can be proposed as specific reference for the relevant design developers in designing plastic folding chairs.