Human Factor in Quality Function Deployment

Abstract

Quality Functions Deployment (QFD) is a mechanism which helps to provide product competitiveness. But we should not oversee the fact that this approach is based on the analysis of consumers' opinions, therefore specifics of human perception should be considered while using QFD. From the Weber-Fechner law it is known that improvement of one of product characteristics does not always lead to changes in consumer perception of product qualities. Therefore, consumer assessment of product quality as well as comparison of two competing products should be used in calculations considering the Weber-Fechner law. The fact that consumer assessment should not be used as a linear scale leads to revision of importance calculation of product characteristics and to the need of specifying plans of product improvement.