Improving the quality of corporate technical planning: dynamic analogues of QFD

Abstract

This paper proposes a forecasting methodology based on a combination of QFD and S‐curve analysis, In process industries there is a need to strengthen the linkages between process attributes, product attributes, and customer requirements. Industry planning processes accept the relationship between technological positioning, project portfolios, and market life cycles, but specific methods are seldom discussed. QFD(Quality Function Deployment) can be used to translate customer requirements into product specifications and in turn to specify the process capabilities required to meet those customer requirements. The paper recommends that managements use analogues of QFD adapted to the need for dynamic changes in process capability. This approach would focus on the interaction between key variables of customer requirements and the technological capabilities of the firm and its competitors, at present and in the future. Historical industry‐wide capabilities would be projected through S‐curve analysis, while customer requirements can be related to these capabilities through information from QFD studies focused on future customer requirements. Because of their potential complexity, these analyses should deal with only a very limited number of interacting attributes and special care should be given to the management of their implementation.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 15 citations exist upstream.