Fuzzy Optimization Modeling Approach for QFD-Based New Product Design

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a planning and problem-solving tool for translating customer requirements (CRs) into the engineering characteristics (ECs) of a product. Owing to the typical vagueness of functional relationships in a new product, product planning is becoming more difficult under uncertainties. To tackle the vagueness or imprecision in QFD, numerous scholars have applied the fuzzy set theory to QFD and proposed various fuzzy QFD models. In this study, a fuzzy linear programming model is developed to determine the optimal level of ECs, where the objective function is the overall customer satisfaction and the cost constraint is fuzzified. Finally, we use a software product design as a numerical example, which demonstrates that the proposed methodology can help the QFD team realize the overall customer satisfaction of new products catching up with or exceeding the competitors in the target market