Product planning in quality function deployment using a combined analytic network process and goal programming approach

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a customer-oriented design tool with cross-functional team members reaching a consensus in developing a new or improved product to increase customer satisfaction. QFD starts with the house of quality (HOQ), which is a planning matrix translating the customer needs into measurable product technical requirements (PTRs). A robust evaluation method should consider the interrelationships among customer needs and PTRs while determining the importance levels of PTRs in the HOQ. This paper employs the analytic network process (ANP) to fulfill this requirement. Furthermore, the proposed analytic procedure should take into account the multi-objective nature of the problem, and thus, incorporate other goals such as cost, extendibility and manufacturability of PTRs. This paper presents a zero–one goal programming methodology that includes importance levels of PTRs derived using the ANP, cost budget, extendibility level and manufacturability level goals to determine the PTRs to be considered in designing the product. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the application of the decision approach.