Title: A customer–manufacturer–competitor orientation model for product life cycle analysis based on QFD, AHP/ANP and TRIZ

Authors: Jiachen Hou, Daizhong Su

Addresses: Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Center, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK. ' Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Center, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK

Abstract: With the rapid development of technologies and turbulent market environment, manufacturing industry is challenged with the task of managing products in each stage of Product Life Cycle (PLC). A Customer–Manufacturer–Competitor (CMC) model is developed, which helps manufacturers to analyse customer|s, competitor|s and manufacturer|s orientation and related issues within the PLC. The CMC model consists of three evaluation processes, namely, customer-based evaluation, manufacturer-based evaluation and ideal formulation. In this paper, the characteristics of PLC and the six evaluation sets for assessing the performance of a manufacturer and its competitors in each PLC stage are presented; the advantages of integrating Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) and Analytical Hierarchy Process/Analytical Network Process (AHP/ANP) into the CMC model are discussed and then the CMC model is described, followed by a case study illustrating how the CMC model can be applied in the PLC analysis.

Keywords: product life cycle; PLC; quality function deployment; QFD; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; analytical network process; ANP; TRIZ; ideal formulation; evaluation sets; life cycle assessment; LCA; customer orientation; competitor orientation; manufacturer orientation; theory of inventive problem solving.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDE.2007.015338

International Journal of Design Engineering, 2007 Vol.1 No.1, pp.104 - 124

Published online: 10 Oct 2007 *

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