Fuzzy multicriteria models for quality function deployment

An integrated formulation and solution approach to Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is presented. Various models are developed by defining the major model components (namely, system parameters, objectives, and constraints) in a crisp or fuzzy way using multiattribute value theory combined with fuzzy regression and fuzzy optimization theory. The proposed approach would allow a design team to reconcile tradeoffs among the various performance characteristics representing customer satisfaction as well as the inherent fuzziness in the system. In addition, the modeling approach presented makes it possible to assess separately the effects of possibility and flexibility inherent or permitted in the design process on the overall design. Knowledge of the impact of the possibility and flexibility on customer satisfaction can also serve as a guideline for acquiring additional information to reduce fuzziness in the system parameters as well as determine how much flexibility is warranted or possible to improve a design. The proposed modeling approach would be applicable to a wide spectrum of design problems where multiple design criteria and functional design relationships are interacting and/or conflicting in an uncertain, qualitative, and fuzzy way.