Application of quality function deployment (QFD) method for pultrusion machine design planning

Machine design and manufacture is the key to the advancement of manufacturing industry. Before any machine can be designed, it is important to establish requirements of the machine. Identifies quality function deployment (QFD) as one of the tools that can be used to identify customer needs and link the needs to product design. By bringing forward customers’ requirements into the design process, design rework and unnecessary iteration between design and manufacture can be reduced. In this project, QFD for a pultrusion machine design has been chosen as a case study. QFD was applied at the front end of the design process. The QFD process started with identifying the customers and determining their needs. These needs were translated into engineering requirements which were then used to formulate general specifications of the machine. A step by step approach was introduced to make the QFD process more manageable. Reports on the first phase of a research project in which QFD was used to capture all vital information from the customers and translated that into engineering requirements.