QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT IN TEXTILE INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY FOR EMBROIDERY MACHINES

Abstract

According to existing literature, quality function deployment is a tool that can be used to relate the requirements of customers with the technical characteristics of products in order to satisfy these requirements. Since its development in Japanese industry, quality function deployment is subject to much literature that describes its employment in different fields. The existing literature also illustrates the use of quality function deployment in different areas of the textile industry. Nevertheless, quality function deployment has been less used for embroidery machines. Within this context, the aim of this study is to present the employment of quality function deployment for the linkage of the requirements of customers with the technical characteristics of embroidery machines. A case study illustrates the approach, which was conducted taking into account three embroidery machines (one of the machines was considered as Our Product, the other two were considered as Competitor A and Competitor B). Following the approach described in the existing literature, the main steps of the employment of quality function deployment for embroidery machines are shown: the establishment of the requirements of customers; the establishment of the technical characteristics; the development of the matrices of the quality function deployment: the planning, relationship, correlation and technical matrix.

Keywords

• qfd
• customer requirements
• technical characteristics
• embroidery
• machines