application of quality function deployment (qfd) to improve product design using qualitative characteristics analysis* case study: tehran secondary school furniture

the quality function deployment (qfd) is a very helpful method to analyze the customer's desires with solutions of problems along a new design to generate high quality and competitive developed products to generate high quality and competitive ergonomic products and processes. this method employs a wide range of applications for translating customers’ needs into technical requirements to fulfil customer satisfaction. in the present study a qfd analysis was performed to improve design of school furniture in tehran. the study extended the widely used qfd into a complex set of customers’ needs about the school furniture and showed the step-by-step application of qfd that focuses on the first matrix or house of quality (hoq) matrix. in the first set of analysis, the quality requirements were considered, and the issues of scheduling were subsequently evaluated. the analysis was started by identifying the problem statements, specifying the objectives and designing the scopes of school furniture. one hundred sixty boys and girls students of three high schools, located in three different areas of tehran, participated in the present study. student’s requirements were collected and translated into the technical requirements using qfd. data gathering was carried out through survey, questionnaire distribution and structured interview. the collected data were then analysed to find the best solutions of the problems. the results of hoq matrix, were used to provide suggestions and solutions to decrease the problems. from students’ points of view comfortable seat was the most important issue which may cause back, neck and leg pains. the other important issues were height of the table and chair and comfortable support. moreover, dimensions of table and chair, space for tools, ease of use and enough space in book bookshelf, appropriate slope, additional equipment and no damage to clothes were placed in the next level of priorities. also the results showed that student’s requests are quite simple and feasible with low cost. as, students’ prior request from designers is to solve ergonomic and dimensional problems. almost all of the classroom equipment have been found with low quality in comparison with company’s products. the latter shows that the equipment, with priority of tables and chairs, need to be improved immediately because low quality school furniture may cause several serious physical or mental problems for students. the study also showed that qfd method can help demonstrators to ascertain inter-relationship between operation requirements and measurements of performance. the current study indicated that how furniture defects can lead to student satisfying or exhausting during education process. according to the hoq, improvement of table and chair designs may solve furniture problems and satisfy students, but confirmation of this issue needs a time course analysis study after using the product. qfd has been proven to be an effective means of process and product deployments, and it is a proper method to solve problems along with school furniture in the future. this study provides basic information about student and their requirements in classroom by which future studies could solve student's problems with school furniture and equipment.