An Approach to Enhancing the Product Competitiveness of a Marine Equipment Manufacturer

Purpose This paper aims at enhancing the product competitiveness of a marine equipment manufacturer by using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and fuzzy set theory.Methods This research identifies customer requirements through literature review and customer survey and determines the engineering characteristics of a product by expert interviews with the quality function deployment. The fuzzy set theory is introduced to transform subjective and vague customer requirements into more objective numerical values.Results A HoQ (House of Quality) reveals the most important engineering characteristics in terms of customer requirements for the product considered in this study.Conclusion The approach of this paper can help a marine equipment manufacturer improve the quality of its existing product by effectively considering the feedback of its customers.