PRIORITY DECISION OF KEY TECHNOLOGY ELEMENT IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN QFD AND TAGUCHI METHOD

Abstract

Technology innovation or new product development (NPD) is composed of various process elements that require specialized knowledge/know-how needed for the application of fundamental technologies on actual product development. With the widespread use of techniques such as PERT/CPM, a major part of project management efforts focuses on resource allocation and time scheduling. In a multi-project environment of high-technology product development, prioritizing technology elements within a full spectrum of required developments is relatively more important than resource allocation or cost-reduction. Furthermore, disagreements between project managers and researchers in setting the priorities of project elements should be resolved and managed systematically to leverage a successful execution of the whole project. In this study, modified QFD and modified Taguchi method are suggested for setting priorities among elemental technologies. As a first step, the authors interviewed project managers from two companies in order to identify elemental technologies and competitiveness factors of the project in scope. Then, the priorities of elemental technologies for both projects are measured using two different methods. In the modified QFD method, the relationship matrix (HOQ, house of quality) is used to determine the priorities. In the modified Taguchi method, the priorities are determined by evaluating contributions of each elemental technology on competitiveness factors with participant's opinions as noise variables. The results of the two methods are compared. A post-hoc survey showed that project managers and researchers slightly prefer the QFD method.