A spreadsheet‐based multiple criteria optimization framework for quality function deployment

A new optimization model for setting the target values of the technical attributes of a product is presented. The framework not only considers customer satisfaction targets, but also the cost target. This enables one to weigh the trade‐off between these two objectives according to his preferences. The formulation is capable of generating a set of Pareto‐optimal solutions with respect to customer satisfaction and cost thus allowing the development team to explore their viability in relation to the subsequent houses of quality. At the same time, the scheme is simple enough to be implemented using a spreadsheet and the Excel solver. Uses a desirability function approach to represent the technical attributes’ values so as to adapt to different directions of improvement for different technical attributes. For illustration purposes, a case study of a digital camera is presented using a simpler variant of the model so that various sensitivity analyses can be performed.