Designing the Ergonomic Properties of Pruning Shears Using Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the use of Quality Function Deployment - methodology in designing the ergonomic properties of pruning shears. Ergonomic design is an essential part of product design. To join ergonomic design successfully to the design process, it is necessary to follow good design tradition and to take into account the special characteristics of ergonomics. QFD is a planning tool which can be used to identify user requirements and to interprete these requirements into product characteristics. QFD can be used for improving ergonomics and usability of products, and it has also features similar to participatory ergonomics. Both methods and approaches tend to integrate the end-user into the design process. This application of QFD - methodology described in this paper is at the moment at the stage where it can be used as a design help when aiming for more ergonomic pruning shears. It is especially suited to the initial steps of the design process when the first concepts of a new pruning shears are being developed. This application does not give any new information for the technical design, but it gathers the existing knowledge together into a form in which it is easily available. This way available resources can be allocated for those tool characteristics where they might give the most promising results. This application can be used during the whole design process e.g. in the form of a checklist or to compare prototypes with products already on the market. This research was supported by the European Community under the Industrial and Materials Technologies Programme (Brite Euram III) and it was part of the Eurohandtool Project (Contract no BRPR-CT96-0350).