Title: Development of a web-based quality function deployment system

Authors: Smit Shah, Horace Guo, Xun Xu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand

Abstract: Quality function deployment (QFD) is an important tool in product planning and development. It helps improve customer satisfaction and shortening product development lifecycle. Due to the fact that QFD is a team tool and assists group process, geographically distributed team members pose a challenging issue on the common practice and usage of QFD. In this research, a prototype web-based QFD system is proposed and implemented in order to mitigate the aforementioned concern. Based on the potential deficiency in technical correlation matrix, the proposed application adopts a new approach in managing the engineering correlations. An example of a software module design has been used to demonstrate and approve the developed system. Positive results, including improved communication and collaboration among team members and shortened and smoothed product development lifecycle, are gained through the case study.

Keywords: quality function deployment; web based QFD; technical correlation; product design; software design; product development; collaborative design; collaboration; distributed QFD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2011.039211

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2011 Vol.3 No.1, pp.16 - 31

Published online: 27 Nov 2014 *

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