A multi-enterprise quality function deployment paradigm with unstructured decision-making in linguistic contexts

This paper presents an operational framework of unstructured decision-making approach involving quality function deployment(QFD)in an uncertain linguistic context.Firstly,QFD is extended to the multi-enterprise paradigm in a real-world manufacturing environment.Secondly,hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets(HFLTSs),which facilitate the management and handling of information equivocality,are designed to construct a house of quality(HoQ)in the product planning process.The technique of computing with words is applied to bridge the gap between mechanisms of the human brain and machine processes with fuzzy linguistic term sets.Thirdly,a multi-enterprise QFD pattern is formulated as an unstructured decision-making problem for alternative infrastructure project selection in a manufacturing organization.The inter-relationships of cooperative partners are directly matched with a back propagation neural network(BPNN)to construct the multi-enterprise manufacturing network.The resilience of the manufacturing organization is considered by formulating an outranking method on the basis of HFLTSs to decide on infrastructure project alternatives.Finally,a real-world example,namely,the prototype manufacturing of an automatic transmission for a vehicle,is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed decision-making approach.

Product design on the basis of fuzzy quality function deployment

In the implementation of quality function deployment （QFD）, the determination of the target values of engineering characteristics is a complex decision process with multiple variables and multiple objectives that should trade off, and optimize all kinds of conflicts and constraints. A fuzzy linear programming model （FLP） is proposed. On the basis of the inherent fuzziness of QFD system, triangular fuzzy numbers are used to represent all the relationships and correlations, and then, the functional relationships between the customer needs and engineering characteristics and the functional correlations among the engineering characteristics are determined with the information in the house of quality （HoQ） fully used. The fuzzy linear programming （FLP） model aims to find the optimal target values of the engineering characteristics to maximize the customer satisfaction. Finally, the proposed method is illustrated by a numerical example.

QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT IN BOTTOM-UP PROCESS FOR DESIGN REUSE

To deal with a bottom up process model for design reuses a specific extended house of quality(EHOQ)is proposed Two kinds of supported functions,basic supported functions and new supported functions,are defined.Two processes to determine two kinds of functions are presented A kind of EHOQ matrix for a company is given and its management steps are studied.

An Improved Quality Function Deployment(QFD) Model

By introducing sequential and logical relationship factors into ASI (American SuppliersInstitute) Clausing/Makabe-QFD Model, a more practical model of QFD (Quality FunctionDeployment) is presented. Based on that the quality requirements are converted into designspecifications and technical measures step by step in this model, logical relationship factors canclassify the related Hows (how to do, the quality measures) into groups, each of which should belogical to individual What (what to do, the quality goal). Sequential factors can express theimplementing sequence of Hows. A feasibility evaluation method is proposed to eliminate the inferiorgroups of Hows. This improved QFD model can provide enough information to produce a practicalquality plan.

Improved approach to quality function deployment based on Pythagorean fuzzy sets and application to assembly robot design evaluation

Quality function deployment(QFD)is an effective method that helps companies analyze customer requirements(CRs).These CRs are then turned into product or service characteristics,which are translated to other attributes.With the QFD method,companies could design or improve the quality of products or services close to CRs.To increase the effectiveness of QFD,we propose an improved method based on Pythagorean fuzzy sets(PFSs).We apply an extended method to obtain the group consensus evaluation matrix.We then use a combined weight determining method to integrate former weights to objective weights derived from the evaluation matrix.To determine the exact score of each PFS in the evaluation matrix,we develop an improved score function.Lastly,we apply the proposed method to a case study on assembly robot design evaluation.

Quality Function Deployment Implementation in Construction: A Systematic Literature Review

The construction of new buildings represents a significant investment. The goal of new building construction is to maximize value and minimize cost while staying on time and within budget. Translating customer requirements into engineering terms for new construction design is vital for a construction project to be successful. Quality function deployment has been successfully used in product development to capture the voice of the customer and translate it into engineering characteristics. Quality function deployment then carries these parameters into production and service to ensure the voice of the customer is being met with the final product. The house of quality, a tool within quality function deployment, can provide a means for comparison of owner's project requirements and the proposed design, along with identifying how the design decisions impact meeting customer requirements and green building requirements. Quality function deployment can effectively link the project phases through design and construction and into operations and maintenance to ensure the owner's project requirements are met with the final building. This research identifies and categorizes studies of quality function deployment applications in construction.The research method used is a systematic literature review from databases related to quality function deployment in the construction industry published in the periodicals through 2016. The principal findings of implementations,practices, and integrated approaches are then summarized.This article intends to propel further research of quality function deployment in the construction sector.

The Determination Method of Product Engineering Features Based on Linguistic Variables

To overcome the problem of imprecise and unclear information in the development of quality functions,a method for determining the priority of engineering features based on mixed linguistic variables is proposed.First,the evaluation member uses the determined linguistic variable to give the correlation strength evaluation matrix of customer requirements and engineering features.Secondly,the relative importance of the evaluation member and customer requirements are aggregated.Finally,the priority of engineering features is obtained by calculating the deviation.The feasibility and practicability of this method are proven by taking the design of a new product of a long bag low-pressure pulse dust collector as an example.

Health Evaluation for Hypertensive Population Using Exercise Testing and Health-related Quality of Life Questionnaire

Objectives This study aims to assess the impacts of hypertension on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), as well as cardiovascular functional status (CVFS). Methods An instrument was presented based on WHOQOL-BREF and SP-16 questionnaire and exercise testing. 57 normotensive and 76 hypertensive subjects aged 35-65 year-old participated the health survey using this instrument. Based on the exercise testing results of the two groups, a discriminate function was established and used to investigate cardiovascular risk factors for hypertensive population. Results The results showed that persons with hypertension rated significantly lower scores on physical health (i.e. limitation in performing daily activities and problems with work or mobility) than did normotensives (P < 0.01). The discriminant score obtained from the exercise testing results was capable of reflecting the impacts of hypertension on CVFS. Conclusions The method presented in this paper provides a more powerful tool to estimate the effects of health interventions and medical therapy for hypertensive population than just self-rated HRQOL questionnaire.

Analysis of the Forming Process of Construction Enterprise Culture Based on the QFD Theory

In order to clarify the direction and way of construction enterprise culture,the method of construction enterprise culture based on quality function deployment(QFD)theory is put forward.Firstly,the paper analyzes the QFD theory and the forming process of construction enterprise culture and considers that the two have strong adaptability in the aspects of basic characteristics,implementation process,and logical relationship.Secondly,based on QFD,the basic framework of construction enterprise culture is established,which is divided into three stages:cultural planning,process planning,and implementation planning.Finally,the paper expounds on each link of the cultural planning matrix in detail.

TRIZ TECHNOLOGY FORECASTING AS QFD INPUT WITHIN THE NPD ACTIVITIES

As a result of the fierceness of business competition, companies, to remaincompetitive, have to charm their customers by anticipating their needs and being able to rapidlydevelop exciting new products for them. To overcome this challenge, technology forecasting isconsidered as a powerful tool in today's business environment, while there are as many successstories as there are failures, a good application of this method will give a good result. Amethodology of integration of patterns or lines of technology evolution in TRIZ parlance ispresented, which is also known as TRIZ technology forecasting, as input to the QFD process to designa new product. For this purpose, TRIZ technology forecasting, one of the TRIZ major tools, isdiscussed and some benefits compared to the traditional forecasting techniques are highlighted. Thena methodology to integrate TRIZ technology forecasting and QFD process is highlighted.

Hybrid customer requirements rating method for customer-oriented product design using QFD

Quality function deployment （QFD） is a well-known customer-oriented product design methodology. Rating the final importance of customer requirements （CRs） is really a very es- sential starting point in the implementation of QFD, since it largely affects the target setting value of design requirements. This pa- per aims to propose a novel method to deal with the relative importance ratings （RIRs） of CRs problem considering customers＇ diversified requirements and unknown information on customers＇ weights, which is an indispensable process for determining the final importance ratings of CRs. First, a new concept of customer＇s assessment structure is proposed according to the basic idea of grey relational analysis （GRA）, and then a constrained nonlinear optimization model is constructed to describe the assessment information aggregation factors of CRs considering customers＇ personalized and diversified requirements. Furthermore, an im- mune particle swarm optimization （IPSO） algorithm is designed to solve the model, and the weight vector of customers is obtained. Finally, a car door design example is introduced to illustrate the novel hybrid GRA-IPSO method＇s potential application in deter- mining the RIRs of CRs.

The Conceptual Design Method for a Pumping Unit Based on QFD and TRIZ

Quality function deployment （QFD） is a quality system, that can help to design novel products that meet customers＇ needs. Theory of inventive problem solving （TRIZ） is a very powerful tool in helping to solve difficult technical problems encountered in the design process. Introducing QFD and TRIZ into the conceptual design of the pumping unit combines advantages of these two theories, therefore meeting different demands of different users. It can tell us “What should we do it” with QFD and “How should we do it” with TRIZ. The conceptual design method, which is based on QFD and TRIZ, is introduced andused to analyze and evaluate the conceptual design project of a pumping unit.

Maturity assessment model for aircraft collaborative design software solution

In order to assure quality and control process in the development of the aircraft collaborative design software, a maturity assessment model is proposed. The requirements designing—house of quality is designed to evaluate the maturity degree of the solution, and the evaluation results can help to manage and control the development process. Furthermore, a fuzzy evaluation method based on the minimum deviation is proposed to deal with the fuzzy information. The quantitative evaluation result of the maturity degree can be calculated by optimizing the semantic discount factor aim for the minimum deviation. Finally, this model is illustrated and analyzed by an example study of the aircraft collaborative design software.

FUZZY OPTIMIZATION MODEL OF MAINTENANCE DESIGN FOR PRODUCT LEVEL REUSE

Most used products must be maintained before they are reused. The modelingmethod for maintenance design of product level reuse based on quality function deployment ispresented. A fuzzy linear optimization model is developed under financial uncertainty. Objective ofthe model is to maximize improvement rate of customer satisfaction level. Maintenance cost constrainis fuzzy. The algorithm for solution to the model is given. Its optimized results not only giveattention to satisfaction degree of cost constraint, but also maximize objective value. Anillustrative example involved water bump reuse is studied and the results show that the proposedmodel can effectively help maintenance planner determine the better design scheme.

Group Decision-making Models on Determining the Importance Ratings of Technical Characteristics

Determining the importance ratings of technical characteristics is a typical group decision-making process. The linguistic-based approach can effectively manage the imprecise and multi-granularity information i;n quality function deployment and facilitate decision-making in deriving the importance ratings. Based on the linguistic weighted averaging （LWA） operator and the linguistic hybrid averaging （LHA） operator, a practical approach is proposed to first aggregate the individual judgments into a collective value for each technical characteristic under linguistic environment, and then measure the deviation degree of linguistic variables to obtain the importance ratings of technical characteristics. A case study shows the application of the proposed method.

Application of Fuzzy QFD to Aircraft Top Hierarchy Design

In this paper, based on the Quality Function Deployment ( QFD) method, theFuzzy Quality Function Deployment (FQFD) theory and the step-by-step hierarchy structure in aircrafttop decision design are studied. The fuzzy model for computing competitive factor in evaluation ispresented. The decision of key technologies for improving the performance and affordability of afixed-wing aircraft is studied using the model, and the result proves the feasibility of this model.

Effects of changing cognitive factors on the quality of life in patients with functional dyspepsia

Objective To explore the effects of cognitive intervention on the quality of life in patients with functional dyspepsia(FD).Methods From May 2013 to February2015,a total of 412 patients with FD were enrolled,cognition of the disease and the quality of life were assessed by disease cognitive simple questionnaire(B-IPQ)and Nepean dyspepsia index(NDI).The patients also re-

Effects of a soybean milk product on feto-neonatal development in rats

Since estrogenic pollutants and phytoestrogens can cause the disorder of the reproductive system, the effects of a soybean milk product（Vegemil^（？） containing 162 ppm isoflavones） on the feto-neonatal development, including male reproductive function, were investigated. Pregnant rats were fed the soybean milk（5% or 100% in drinking water）from gestational day（GD） 6 to parturition or to post-natal day（PND） 56. Specifically, the rats were divided into 4 groups： the control group（drinking water）, the GD5% group（5% soybean milk during only the GD period）, the GDPND5% group（5% soybean milk during the GD and PND periods）, and the GD-PND100% group（100% soybean milk instead of water during the GD and PND periods）. During the gestational, lactational, and developmental periods, the reproductive and developmental parameters of dams and offspring were observed. Feeding soybean milk did not affect the birth and physical development of both male and female offspring. At PND57, the weights of the testes and epididymides of F1 males significantly increased by feeding a high concentration of the soybean milk（GDPND100%）. In addition, feeding of the soybean milk during both the GD and PND periods（GD-PND5% and GDPND100%） enhanced the sperm counts and motility. The results indicate that soybean milk is safe for embryos,fetuses, and offspring, and improves the post-generational development of male reproductive function.

DESIGNING THE OPTIMUM CONFIGURATIONS OF CIRCULAR AND SPHERICAL PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS FOR MULTIPLE QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS

As an integral part of tolerance design in the context of design for six sigma, determining optimal product specifications has become the focus of increased activity, as manufacturing industries strive to increase productivity and improve the quality of their products. Although a number of research papers have been reported in the research community, there is room for improvement. Most existing research papers consider determining optimal specification limits for a single quality characteristic. In this paper, we develop the modeling and optimization procedures for optimum circular and spherical configurations by considering multiple quality characteristics. The concepts of multivariate quality loss function and truncated distribution are incorporated. This has never been adequately addressed, nor has been appropriately applied in industry. A numerical example is shown and comparison studies are made.