Abstract: Quality function deployment (QFD) is becoming a widely used customer-oriented approach and tool in product design. The inherent fuzziness in QFD modeling makes fuzzy regression more appealing than classical statistical tools. A mathematic method to determine the relation functions between customer requirements and engineering characteristics and correlation functions among engineering characteristics using optimization theory combined with fuzzy regression theory is presented, and furthermore a modeling approach for QFD planning is proposed. 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 and fuzzy product design process. The proposed approach would allow a design team to reconcile tradeoffs among the various customer satisfaction levels as well as the inherent fuzziness in the system.

Key words: Fuzzy regressions, House of quality, Mathematic program model, Quality function deployment