Quality Function Deployment Technique Research Articles

Flexibility in Enhancing Supply Chain Resilience: Developing a Resilience Capability Portfolio in the Event of Severe Disruption

The current study aimed to determine alternative configurations of supply chain resilience strategies for managing supply chain performance (SCP) during a severe disruption. To do this, a multi-method and multi-study approach was adopted. Phase 1 of the study employed a qualitative approach to explore supply chain risk factors and their mitigation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Phase 2, the quality function deployment technique was used alongside quantitative case studies to determine the most critical risk factors and most crucial resilience strategies. The final phase, Phase 3, used fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to determine the alternative portfolio of strategies for SCP to create flexibility when employing resilience strategies. The results revealed that implementing resilience strategies alone is ineffective in improving SCP, while resilience strategies combined with the nullification of risk factors enhance SCP. The study also revealed two alternative configurations of resilience strategies to tackle the relevant risk factors. These findings can be used to guide managers toward identifying the most suitable configuration of resilience strategies to manage severe and unprecedented supply chain risk. The alternative configurations of resilience strategies can also provide flexibility to managers in deciding the best course of action for their firms.

Designing of Yogurt Packaging Product Using Quality Function Deployment Technique (Case Study at UMKM Ceriyogurt)

Yogurt is a dairy product made through a fermentation process. Currently, yogurt packaging uses bottle-shaped plastic material. The current problem with yogurt packaging is that the visual image of the packaging, packaging shape, material thickness, packaging size and completeness of the packaging label is still low, so it is considered that it does not meet customer needs. Currently, yogurt packaging uses bottle-shaped plastic material. The problem of yogurt packaging is that the visual image of the packaging, packaging shape, material thickness, packaging size and completeness of the packaging label is still low, so it is considered that it does not meet customer needs. This research aims to identify a list of customer needs, a list of technical characteristics, directions of improvement, and the priority of technical characteristics of Yogurt product packaging. The research methodology uses the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique with the House of Quality (HOQ) matrix. The research generates 5 customer needs which were interpretated into 7 technical characteristics with directions for improvement, namely increased material thickness, fixed packaging volume size, reduced packaging length, reduced packaging width, reduced packaging height, improved visual image design, and increased label component completeness. The House of Quality produces a priority order of improvement, with the weight of importance of each technical characteristic, namely packaging length (90), packaging width (90), packaging height (90), packaging volume size (60), visual image size (60), completeness of label components (60), and thickness of packaging material (45).

Resilience strategies to mitigate “extreme” disruptions in sustainable tourism supply chain

PurposeDrawing on the dynamic capability view (DCV), this research determines the suitable configurations of resilience strategies for sustainable tourism supply chain performance amidst “extreme” disruptive events affecting the entire supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThis research applies a multi-study and multi-method approach. Study 1 utilizes in-depth interviews to identify a list of tourism supply chain sustainability risks and resilience strategies. Study 2, using quality function deployment (QFD) technique, determines the most important resilience strategies corresponding to highly significant risks. Study 3, on the other hand, adopts a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to determine the best recipe of resilience strategies and risks to make the tourism supply chain performance sustainable.FindingsThe findings reveal that sustainable tourism performance during an extreme disruptive event (e.g. COVID-19 health crisis) depends on the combined effect of tourism resilience strategies and risks instead of their individual effect.Practical implicationsThe research findings offer significant managerial implications. Managers may experiment with multiple causal conditions of risks and resilience strategies to engender the expected outcome.Originality/valueThis research extends current knowledge on tourism supply chain and offers insights for managers to mitigate the risks and ensures sustainable performance in the context of extreme disruptive events.

Using Quality Function Deployment for the Rubber Sheet Machine Design

The purpose of this research was to improve the process and production process of flat rubber sheets by using the Quality Function Deployment technique (QFD) since the traditional rubber sheet production process is human-intensive causing fatigue and delays. The customer needs were identified by groups of rubber farmers in Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, and Bueng Kan Provinces in Thailand. The house of quality (HoQ) of QFD was then applied to translate the customer needs into design targets. The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) was applied to minimize conflicts between technical requirements. An experiment was designed to determine the optimum speed and distance between the rolls. The results showed that the optimal motor speed was 400 rpm and the optimal distance between the rollers in rubber sheet extrusion was 3.0 millimeters. The average measurements in terms of width, length, and thickness were 448, 849, and 3.82 millimeters, respectively, which conformed to raw rubber sheets standard 2 with the thickness of the rubber sheet not exceeding 4 millimeters and the weight not exceeding 1,200 grams. The production process was reduced from 19 to 14 steps. The product movement distance was reduced from 16.90 meters to 10.25 meters. The production process was reduced from 263 minutes to 187 minutes for 60 sheets. The developed rubber sheet machine has reduced the production time by 76 minutes for 60 sheets, with a high customer satisfaction level (Mean 4.63, S.D. = 0.49).

Lessons learnt from COVID-19 vaccine operations and distribution performance: challenges and resilience strategies

PurposeGrounded in dynamic capability view, this research develops a decision support model, which enables determining consistent and sufficient configurations of resilience strategies to mitigate vaccine operations and distributions (O&D) challenges and thus improve O&D performance (i.e. O&DP).Design/methodology/approachThrough qualitative in-depth interviews, the authors first identified challenges and resilience strategies related to vaccine O&D. Next, using the quality function deployment technique, three quantitative case studies were performed to determine the most important challenges and resilience strategies. Finally, utilising fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, the authors determine sufficient conditions of challenges and strategies leading to improve vaccine O&DP.FindingsThe findings reveal that strategies alone are not effective instead a combination of strategies and nullification of challenges is needed to enhance vaccine O&DP. Further, the findings revealed that not only the presence of challenges, but also the lack of strategies reduces the vaccine O&DP.Practical implicationsThe authors' findings will assist the health service decision-makers for strategizing an effective and efficient vaccination program by selecting the right combination of challenges and resilience strategies.Originality/valueThe authors' study develops a novel decision support model and offers significant learning for the future vaccine O&DP.

Quality function deployment technology applications and their impact on value engineering Exploratory study of a number of private hospitals in Baghdad1

The value engineering method works to improve the performance of projects and productive organizations and tries to keep the cost at its lowest levels by improving the performance of activities and eliminating non-value-adding ones, and at the same time, the quality function deployment technique improves the quality of the product, by listening to the consumer’s voice, and from this point of view, the research problem has been determined by the gap that has emerged and exacerbated in the patient, and the health care institutions that are looking to attract him and improve his value. Several questions have crystallized about the research problem, the most important of which centered on the impact of the dimensions of the quality function deployment technique in value engineering by the organization in order to improve patient satisfaction, and what is the nature and level of interest in research variables (publishing the quality function and value engineering) in hospitals the research sample, so we will try in this The research clarifies whether there is an effect of the technique of spreading the quality function on value engineering to enhance the quality of services provided by the health sector in Iraq, using a questionnaire distributed over three premium-class private hospitals in the city of Baghdad, and a number of appropriate statistical methods were used to process the data. As for the most prominent conclusions, the results of the multiple linear regression analysis of the research variables revealed that the technique of publishing the quality function has a direct significant impact on value engineering in the surveyed hospitals, specifically the results showed that the publication of the quality function with its moral dimensions (voice of workers, technical comparison) respectively and after deleting the two non-significant dimensions of it , able to explain about (67%) of the changes that occur in value engineering.

After the Spread of COVID-19: A Study of Board Game Design Factor for Game-Based Learning

This research had the objective to study the design factors of board games for game-based learning by being classified into two parts: 1) Studying the design factors for board games for learning through a systematic review. 2) Studying the design factors for board games of the customers’ needs from the quality function deployment technique based on the data gathered from structured questionnaires. The population group comprised 100 board game customers, and the results found that there were two significant factors in designing the board game for promoting learning with the customers’ needs that were related to the playing patterns or the mechanisms. Thus, both factors enabled the players to gain the motivation for participation in learning through the board games, including the design factors of the board games for promoting learning until they could respond to customer satisfaction at the same level as existing board games that are appropriately sold in the markets.

An integrated QFD and fuzzy TOPSIS approach for supplier evaluation and selection

PurposeSupplier evaluation and selection is an essential (multi-criteria decision-making) MCDM process that considers qualitative and quantitative factors. This research work attempts to use a MCDM technique based on merging fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (F-TOPSIS) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) ideas. The study attempts to find the supplier's attributes (HOWs) to accomplish its goals after determining the product's characteristics to suit the company's needs (WHATs).Design/methodology/approachThe proposed research methodology comprises the following four steps: Step 1: Determine the product purchase requirements (“WHATs”) and those pertinent to supplier evaluation (“HOWs”). In Step 2, the relative importance of the “WHAT-HOW” correlation scores is determined and also the resulting weights of “HOWs”. In Step 3, linguistic evaluations of possible suppliers in comparison to subjective criteria are given to the decision-makers. Step 4 combines the QFD and F-TOPSIS techniques to select suppliers.FindingsA fuzzy MCDM method based on fusing and integrating fuzzy information and QFD is presented to solve the drawbacks of conventional decision-making strategies used in supplier selection. Using the F-TOPSIS method, fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS) and fuzzy negative ideal solution (FNIS), the relative closeness coefficient values for all alternatives are computed. The suppliers are ranked by relating the closeness of coefficient values. This method permits the combination of ambiguous and subjective data expressed as fuzzy-defined integers or linguistic variables.Originality/valueQFD and TOPSIS, two widely used approaches, are combined in this article to rank and evaluate suppliers based on the traits that the suppliers choose to prioritize. This study demonstrates that the method employed could address multiple-criteria decision-making scenarios in a computationally efficient manner. The effectiveness and applicability of the method are illustrated using an example.

Integration of safety quality function deployment in ferry services: Empirical study of Indonesia

This research has employed a modified quality function deployment (QFD) technique to explore the safety quality of ferry services according to hazards and events, safety management system standards, and the safety culture of the ferry service provider, referred to as the safety quality function deployment (SQFD). The SQFD involves a three stage House of Quality (HoQ) matrix. Interviews and questionnaires were sent to expert practitioners engaged with ferry services in Indonesia to evaluate the matrices — likewise, a survey was conducted of a sample of passengers to measure their perceived safety service satisfaction. The survey was conducted both online and offline and obtained 26 respondents from among the expert practitioners and 506 respondents from the passenger sample. Based on the HoQ matrices analysis, important items need to be prioritized to improve the ferry services' safety quality. ‘Safety equipment in vessel’ was found to be the first priority to enhance the ferry passengers' satisfaction. After that, ‘safety training’ was the main point needed to improve the ferry services' safety quality.

Performance of small firms in a circular economy: configuring challenges and entrepreneurial orientation

PurposeSociety's concerns about environmental degradation have tightened competitive pressure and brought new challenges to small firms. Against this backdrop, this study develops a decision model to determine a suitable configuration for entrepreneurial orientation to help small firms manage circular economy challenges and improve their performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a multi-study and multi-method approach. Study 1, through qualitative in-depth interviews, identified a portfolio of circular economy challenges and entrepreneurial-orientation components. Study 2 applied the quality function deployment technique to determine the most important components of entrepreneurial orientation. Study 3 adopted a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to determine the best configuration for challenges and components.FindingsThe findings reveal a set of challenges and identify the salient need to combine the negation of these challenges with the components of entrepreneurial orientation; this combination will improve the performance of small firms. The research extends the current knowledge of managing circular economy challenges and offers decision-makers insights into improving their resilience.Originality/valueThe use of the dynamic capability view, together with the multi-study and multi-method approach, may lead to an appropriate reconfiguration of entrepreneurial orientation, which, to date, has received limited empirical attention in the small-business-management discipline.

The interval grey QFD method for new product development: Integrate with LDA topic model to analyze online reviews

As the development of the consuming environment, the way consumers give feedback on product experience changes from passive feedback to active reviews, and the development of artificial intelligence technology brings new possibilities for companies to obtain information on Customer Requirements (CRs) and Market Competition Information (CIs) needed for new product development. In the previous New Product Development (NPD) process, CRs and CIs often need to be corrected through market surveys and questionnaires. To acquire the corrected data from experienced experts without user and designer cognitive bias is very laborious and more subjective. Under the situation of key information shortage for business developers and NPD efficiency & accuracy cannot be guaranteed, online reviews provided a good source for data analysis to enhance the market competition. This study integrates Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), Apriori algorithm, interval grey number, and Quality Function Deployment(QFD) techniques to propose the Latent Dirichlet Allocation-Interval Grey Number Quality Function Deployment (LDA-IGQFD) method, which can use text mining and analysis methods to obtain objective information about CRs and CIs contained in users’ online reviews, transformed them into data and input into Interval Grey Number Quality Function Deployment (IGQFD) to drive product development. LDA-IGQFD can help product developers identify CRs and Engineering Characteristics (ECs) important information and provide suggestions for product development. The aim of the research process under the LDA-IGQFD method is explained with the design of a dishwasher as an example, and the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method is scientifically verified.

Incorporating management opinion in green supplier selection model using quality function deployment and interactive fuzzy programming.

The need for environmental protection and involvement of ecological aspects in the business operations is forcing the organizations to re-examine their action plans and rebuild their supply chain activities. Many organizations are incorporating environmental rules and regulations in their everyday matters by focusing on green supplier selection. The proposed research paper develops a multi-objective interactive fuzzy programming model for the selection of suppliers. This model works on a business quartet of green appraisal score, cost, quality, and time. The model uses an environmental scale for different green parameters and all the suppliers are scored based on this scale. In this research model, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology is integrated with the multi-objective interactive fuzzy programming. QFD technique is utilized to compute the weights of several green factors used for the selection of suppliers. The model uses a Fuzzy linguistic scale and a triangular membership function to link expert opinions along with their experience to solve the problem. Finally, the model is validated on a numerical case study of the textile industry for green supplier selection which achieves a 100% satisfaction for cost and time, 75% satisfaction for green appraisal score, and 93.95% for the quality. The proposed model assists the decision-makers in selecting green suppliers to improve the overall sustainability of their organizations.

Assessing the Risks and Success Factors of Telehealth Development Projects in an Academic Setting

The development of a telehealth technology in an academic setting is a complex project that faces several obstacles. The early assessment of the project risks plays a critical role in the translation of promising telehealth innovations into healthcare practice. This paper presents a decision support tool based on Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) techniques to associate the project risks to relevant success factors. Certain modifications in both techniques are applied to deploy them for project risk assessment. The project risks and success factors used in the tool are identified from the literature. The proposed decision support tool enables researchers to manage the risks in their telehealth development projects and identify action items to overcome such risks. The application of the proposed tool is illustrated with a telehealth development project for virtual physical therapy.

Integration of Six Sigma methodology of DMADV steps with QFD, DFMEA and TRIZ applications for image-based automated inspection system development: a case study

Purpose This paper aims to present the development of an automated inspection system (AIS) using an image-based analysis mechanism, called i-AIS. The development process of i-AIS used the Design Six Sigma (DSS) methodology. The steps of define, measure, analyze, design and verify (DMADV) are applied and integrated with specific analyses techniques of the quality function deployment (QFD), design failure mode effect analysis (DFMEA) and theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ). The production process of adhesive tape is the focused case study in this research project, motivated by the high product defect rate complained by customers. Design/methodology/approach The development process of i-AIS was divided into five standard steps based on the DSS methodologies of DMADV. One of the key processes in this development was to systematically identify the right and intended features of i-AIS. This was carried out based on the application of the QFD technique. Another important process was to further investigate the possible causes of i-AIS failure, to function as intended. This investigative process was carried out based on the DFMEA technique, while the solution to minimize the risk of the identified failures was obtained from the TRIZ method. The final prototype of i-AIS was then presented in the design step. Findings Verification of the i-AIS prototype revealed its operation at an optimally intended mode that fulfilled the requirements of internal customers. Verification results also revealed that the sigma level has improved from 3.87 to 4.33. Meanwhile, the defect reduction rate is improved to 74.4% and downtime rate also recorded a significant improvement at 80.7% of reduction. Research limitations/implications The presented research work is carried out based on a customized case study. Although the proposed methodology can be applied to others cases towards design-based solution, some modifications maybe required based on to the unique features of the case study under consideration. Practical implications The presented research project indicated that the proposed methodology was successful to facilitate a structured and systematic process towards defect identification, classification, evaluation and generation of a solution. Originality/value The paper presents the development process of an AIS by considering comprehensive managerial aspects that are currently absent in the literature. An integrated DSS structure is proposed to systematically guide the development of i-AIS. The related managerial aspects such as identification of critical defects problem, customer requirement mapping, prototype design analysis and comparison measurements before and after i-AIS installation are considered in this research project.

A hesitant fuzzy linguistic QFD approach for formulating sustainable supplier development programs

Buying companies increasingly need to establish supplier development programs to improve the economic, environmental, and social performance of their suppliers. However, decision models that support the analysis and choice of sustainable supplier development programs (SSDPs) are relatively scarce in the literature. Given this context, this study proposes a model to support the formulation of SSDPs based on the HFLTS-QFD method, which combines Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Term Sets with the Quality Function Deployment technique. This model was applied to a European automotive company based on the judgments of an expert who evaluated six SSDPs regarding a set of buying company requirements. In this application, cost and quality were considered to be the most important requirements, whereas the programs related to the adjustment of production capacity, cost reduction, and the creation of a Kaizen system were classified as priorities for implementation. The results of the sensitivity analysis tests considering pessimistic and optimistic scenarios reinforced the robustness of the model. When compared with previous approaches, the proposed model presents several advantages, such as: it allows decision makers to use more than one linguistic term and linguistic expressions to evaluate buying company requirements and SSDPs; it considers the difficulty of implementation as a decision factor in selecting the most suitable SSDPs; and it provides an implementation ranking for the selected SSDPs based on the estimated implementation time and its potential to generate benefits for the buying company.

Mapping the customer centric weather index insurance service design using quality function deployment

PurposeThe present paper aims to propose a framework on weather index insurance (WII) service design by using quality function deployment (QFD).Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes QFD technique to propose a customer oriented framework on WII service design. In initial phase, customer and design requirements were gathered to derive the relationship between customers' and managers' voice for construct the house of quality (HOQ). Later on, prioritized customer and design requirements as QFD outcome were utilized to develop the action plan matrix in order to suggest the future action plans.FindingsThis study proposed a customer centric framework on WII service design to address the customer requirements. Findings show that adequate claim payments, hassle free prompt claim payment and transparency in losses computation are prioritized customer requirements with highest importance rating, whereas, accurate claim estimation, claim management system and advancement of technology are prioritized service design necessities with highest importance rating.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed WII service design can enhance the quality of WII service by attain the higher standards of WII service in order to completely satisfy the customers.Practical implicationsThe proposed WII service design can provide a solution to the problems faced by WII industry by improve the customer's service experience and satisfaction.Originality/valueBased on best of author's knowledge, this paper first proposed a framework on WII service design by integrating customer and design requirements by using QFD.

An OWL-Based Ontology Structure for representing Multimodel Process Improvement Framework

Software and systems improvement requests to merge various interpretations from several improvement models and techniques. A particular challenge is the multitude of models for requirements and quality, which can get time consuming and error prone to trace, change, and verify. Lately, Ontologies have been used across several domains and for numerous purposes to be applied for many applications. Besides, recent work in Artificial Intelligence is discovering the use of formal ontologies as a way of identifying content-specific agreements for the sharing and reuse of knowledge among software entities. Therefore, this paper describes how ontology engineering is used to construct an Ontological structure of the proposed SPI-CMMI framework –which based on using Six sigma approach integrated with CMMI-Dev model and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique- with its progressive phases, related activities, recommended tools and the CMMI-Dev 1.3 representation. The SPI-CMMI Ontology provides a shared improvement terminology, defines precise and unambiguous semantics for the software enterprises and enables reuse of improvement phase’s knowledge; in addition it makes domain assumptions explicit and separate domain knowledge from the operational knowledge.

Design of a Thermal Hotel Based on AHP-QFD Methodology

The aim of this investigation was to help select design criteria that highlight customer satisfaction, and thus improve the design quality in buildings, specifically in a building of a thermal hotel. The methodology is based on applying the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique to listen to the voice of the customer, in addition to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which allows selection of the best design alternative. The literature shows that QFD–AHP methods have been tried in different areas of the building industry, but there are few examples of combining building design processes. In the study process, collaboration environments between stakeholders were established and the operability of the method used was tested with real actors. The matrix solutions realised in the horizontal and vertical sections of the framework of the model can be reused in different projects with different user demands. This added a modular and developable feature to the model. This study revealed that the most important customer needs, in order of importance, are “health”, “service”, “comfort”, and “functionality”. These are followed by “accessibility”, “aesthetics”, and “energy conservation”. According to the findings, QFD was shown to be an appropriate method for transferring customer (occupant) requirements to designs in the most accurate manner, given the complex structure of thermal hotel buildings.

문형금속탐지 장비 성능 인증을 위한 환경시험에 관한 연구

Purpose: Owing to the increase in the terror activities related to aircraft, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure the safety and security of civil aviation. However, no performance certification system exists for aviation security equipment in the domestic context. Therefore, in this study, environmental test criteria were established for walk-through metal detectors.<BR>Methods: A five-phase process was proposed to establish environmental test criteria for walk-through metal detectors. First, an event scenario that may occur during the operation of walk-through metal detectors was generated, and 13 environmental stress factors and environmental stress factors were selected through the quality function deployment technique. Thereafter, environmental test items were determined according to each environmental stress factor, and an appropriate test method was implemented by comparing the existing environmental test standards. Finally, certain test stress levels were tailored considering the Meteorological Agency data and technical characteristics.<BR>Results: Several environmental test items and methods were identified in the context of the environmental test criteria for walk-through metal detectors in the domestic aviation domain.<BR>Conclusion: The findings can provide guidance to secure technology for domestic aviation security equipment and reduce the dependence on foreign equipment. In addition, this work can support the development of related industries and overseas expansion.

The impact of marketing strategy on logistics decisions and the implementation of JIT

Marketing has a significant impact on logistics systems and corporate performance, so it is nowadays necessary to define a marketing logistics strategy in the lives of larger companies so that logistics decisions are not distorted by the marketing strategy. According to the current direction of development, smaller and smaller quantities of goods are constantly being moved, with ever shorter deadlines. Therefore, companies prefer to use the Just In Time (JIT) system, which results in a gradual reduction in inventory costs, but increases the burden on the environment. In this article, we analyze the interaction between marketing and logistics and the logistics environment required to implement a JIT system. For research we have used the matrix of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique to evaluate the needs of the customer with respect to the JIT system, thus clarifying the logistics strategy applicable to the introduction of the specific product.