Framework of a fuzzy quality function deployment system

SUMMARY Quality function deployment (QFD) is a planning methodology for translating customer needs into appropriate product features. In QFD operation, relationship matrices are used to describe the relations between different customer needs, between different design requirements and between customer need and design requirement. These relations are expressed using linguistic or crisp variables. Linguistic variables are characterized by ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning. Current research in QFD focuses on two areas: simplification of the documentation process and computerization of QFD. Effort to address the semantic in the linguistic variables, however, has been neglected. To fully automate the laborious manual QFD operation, the ability to interpret the semantic of the linguistic variables has become necessary. In this work, an approach centred on the application of possibility theory and fuzzy arithmetic has been developed to address the ambiguity. Details of the approach and the framework of a fuzzy quality function deployment (FQFD) system will be presented. In this work, an example is used to illustrate the approach developed.