Prioritizing Sensor Performance Characteristics for Automotive Seat Weight Sensors in Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

Abstract

Quality function deployment (QFD), a key tool to convert the customer needs into product features, is generally integrated into the New Product Development (NPD) process at the design stage. Prioritizing customer needs in a QFD process leads to using the resources (time, money, and staffing) effectively by eliminating the unimportant customer needs. The overall goal of the research was to develop a textile-based optical fiber sensor for automotive seat occupancy. The findings of this paper were focused on the design of experiments in our previous publication. In this paper, a research study was conducted to better understand market demands in terms of sensor performance characteristics for automotive seat weight sensors, as a part of the QFD House of Quality (HOQ) analysis. A survey was sent to more than 20 companies operating in the field of automotive seat weight sensors, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) via e-mail. Only five companies participated in this study due to competitive concerns and confidentiality reasons. However, the companies responded to the survey were of quality relevant to the research and could be perceived as representative of the group of experts. All 5 companies participated in the survey agreed on the first 5 most important sensor characteristics: reproducibility, accuracy, selectivity, aging, and resolution, where The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to prioritize the sensor characteristics.

Customer-Focused Aircraft Seat Design: A Case Study With Ahp-QFD

“…Indeed, QFD has been used to improve the comfort and ergonomics of driver seats (Fahma et al, 2015), aircraft seats (Bekiaris, 1999), to reduce rearward space intrusion in aircraft seats (Koh, 1999), to compare different concepts in aircraft seats (Teo, 1999), for development of seat cushions with temperature control (Malkiewicz, 2011), to predict seat comfort (Amer, 2012), for development of vertical passenger seats (Dasuki & Romli, 2018), for designing car seats (Mat et al, 2020;Purba et al, 2020), in aircraft seat attachment systems (Kimball et al, 2020), and design of configurable seat track systems (Sun et al, 2021). Then, AHP-QFD was used to prioritize sensor performance characteristics of automotive seats (Haroglu et al, 2016), to design tractor seats (Hridoy et al, 2020), and to identify key passenger needs for seats (Yang et al, 2021). Then there are further attempts to develop car seats with AHP-QFD augmenting the methodology by additional techniques such as DEMATEL (Karasan et al 2022).…”

An Integrated of AHP–QFD Methodology For Poduct Design: A Review

“…Meanwhile, Haroglu et al [38] proposed QFD combined AHP to better understand market demand in terms of performance sensors for automotive heavyweight sensors, as part of the QFD house of quality (HOQ) analysis. They applied the integration model of QFD-AHP to develop textile-based optical fiber sensors for automotive seat occupants.…”

“…Parameter Method Applications [35] Technical requirements Material selection for vehicle structure [21] Customer needs, Technical requirements Design of washbasin ceramics [36] Customer needs, product attributes Chair design [37] Customer needs, Technical requirements, Product attributes Bathtub [38] Customer needs, Technical requirements, Product attributes Automotive Weight Sensor [39] Technical requirements, Product attributes Blender Table 3 above shows that the QFD integration model with AHP is used to identify and define design parameters and variables. AHP is useful for weighing choices against effective consumer needs.…”

“…[37] The advanced model of integration is more focused on topical rules than AHP models, and the integrated model is only decided to the first phase of QFD, disconnect to the second phase. [38] Customer input data and technical specifications are not explained, as well as the results of the advanced integration model are not reflected in QFD matrices, so the results of the integration were unknown. [39] The integrated model developed is more focused on the AHP model, and the integration into the QFD process only stops in the QFD first phase.…”

The Application of Quality Function Deployment in Car Seat Industry

“…Then, the vibration of the car seat is very important to avoid discomfort in driving a vehicle (Nawayseh, 2015). Meanwhile, the weight sensor of the car seat is also a part of the quality advance to introduce to the customers through QFD (Haroglu, Powell, & Seyam, 2016).…”