Application of a quality function deployment technique to design and develop furniture products

Abstract

It is important for furniture manufacturers to develop an effective organization, produce high-quality products, and develop new product designs which correlate with customer requirements to obtain more satisfactory output. Quality function deployment (QFD) was employed to design and produce new types of prototype plywood wardrobe. Customer product requirements were transformed into House of Quality of QFD. These require applied techniques to design the new forms of the product through changes in, for example, product shape, pattern, color, functionality, and quality of materials used. Product satisfaction was evaluated by customers composing of groups of product users and sales agent stores. The results revealed that the average satisfaction value of the new prototype increased from 2.71 to 4.08 points over the current products (an increase of about 54.87%). Hypothesis testing of customer satisfaction between the current and the new designs was found to significantly increase with regard to the QFD approach.