S. Emre Alptekin

Product planning in quality function deployment using a combined analytic network process and goal programming approach

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a customer-oriented design tool with cross-functional team members reaching a consensus in developing a new or improved product to increase customer satisfaction. QFD starts with the house of quality (HOQ), which is a planning matrix translating the customer needs into measurable product technical requirements (PTRs). A robust evaluation method should consider the interrelationships among customer needs and PTRs while determining the importance levels of PTRs in the HOQ. This paper employs the analytic network process (ANP) to fulfill this requirement. Furthermore, the proposed analytic procedure should take into account the multi-objective nature of the problem, and thus, incorporate other goals such as cost, extendibility and manufacturability of PTRs. This paper presents a zero-one goal programming methodology that includes importance levels of PTRs derived using the ANP, cost budget, extendibility level and manufacturability level goals to determine the PTRs to be considered in designing the product. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the application of the decision approach.

Application of a hybrid intelligent decision support model in logistics outsourcing

Outsourcing is an increasingly important issue pursued by corporations seeking improved efficiency. Logistics outsourcing or third-party logistics (3PL) involves the use of external companies to perform some or all of the firms logistics activities. This paper proposes an intelligent decision support framework for effective 3PL evaluation and selection. The proposed framework integrates case-based reasoning, rule-based reasoning and compromise programming techniques in fuzzy environment. This real-time decision-making approach deals with uncertain and imprecise decision situations. Furthermore, the integration of different methodologies takes the advantage of their strengths and complements each others weaknesses. Consequently, the framework leads to a more accurate, flexible and efficient retrieval of 3PL service providers (alternatives) that are most similar and most useful to the current decision situation. Finally, a real industrial application is given to demonstrate the potential of the proposed framework.

A hybrid MCDM methodology for ERP selection problem with interacting criteria

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is an information system to plan and integrate all of an enterprises subsystems including purchase, production, sales and finance. Adopting such a comprehensive framework may result in the great savings in both costs and man hours. This research explores the application of a hybrid multicriteria decision making (MCDM) procedure for the evaluation of various ERP alternatives. The proposed evaluation framework integrates three methodologies: Analytic Network Process (ANP), Choquet integral (CI) and Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH). ANP produces the priorities of alternatives with respect to the interdependent evaluation criteria. The conjunctive or disjunctive behaviors between criteria are determined using MACBETH and CI. Numerical application of the proposed methodology is implemented on the decision making problem of a firm that faces with four ERP projects. The final ranking is compared to the one obtained by ignoring the interactions among criteria. The results demonstrate that the ignorance of the interactions may lead to erroneous decisions.

An integrated decision framework for evaluating and selecting e-learning products

A sound decision methodology for evaluating and selecting e-learning products should consider multiple and conflicting criteria and the interactions among them. In this paper, a decision framework which employs quality function deployment (QFD), fuzzy linear regression and optimization is presented for e-learning product selection. First, a methodology for determining the target values for e-learning product characteristics that maximize overall customer satisfaction is presented. The QFD framework is employed to allocate resources and to coordinate skills and functions based on customer needs. Differing from earlier QFD applications, the proposed methodology employs fuzzy regression to determine the parameters of functional relationships between customer needs and e-learning product characteristics, and among e-learning product characteristics themselves. Finally, the e-learning product alternatives are evaluated and ranked with respect to deviations from the target product characteristic values. The potential use of the proposed decision framework is illustrated through an application on e-learning products provided by the universities in Turkey.

A fuzzy decision support system for digital camera selection based on user preferences

Highlights? This work provides end-users with a decision support framework for selecting the best digital camera according to their preferences. ? The proposed framework is based on fuzzy set theory. ? Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy compromise programming methodologies are applied in order to determine the relative weights of sub-criteria and criteria and to rank the digital camera alternatives, respectively. ? The priority weights have demonstrated that different end-users have different requirements and the best digital camera depends on the end-user preference. Mobile phones have been the most rapidly spreading development in the field of communication and information technologies over the past decades. Nowadays, digital cameras have taken their place. The wide product range in the market, each with numerous heterogeneous technical attributes, complicates the selection of the most convenient camera for end-users. The aim of this work is to provide end-users with a decision support framework for selecting the best digital camera according to their preferences. End-users and photography experts use subjective assessments when determining their requirements and making their evaluations. The proposed decision support tool is built on the basis of fuzzy set theory. The imprecision of the subjective assessments are transformed to fuzzy triangular numbers. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy compromise programming methodologies are applied in order to determine the relative weights of sub-criteria and criteria and to rank the digital camera alternatives, respectively.

Product development process using a fuzzy compromise-based goal programming approach

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a product/service design and improvement tool which is basically a transformation of vague and imprecise customer needs into measurable product/service attributes. This article integrates compromise programming based goal programming into the QFD process to determine to what extent the product/service attributes should be improved. The fuzzy set theory is applied to the model to deal with the imprecise nature of data. Differing from existing QFD applications, our proposed methodology applies analytic network process to evaluate the inner dependencies among customer needs, among product attributes and also the relationships between them. Furthermore, it determines the best product/service in the market as the goal employing compromise programming. Finally, the methodology ends with the goal programming method which consists of this predefined goal and the product/service providers budget limitation. A real-world application on e-learning products provided by the higher education institutions in Turkey illustrates the applicability of our proposed methodology.

Product Improvement by Selecting Appropriate Suppliers: A Case Study

Supplier selection and evaluation is considered as one of the most critical issues for the success of an organization, as its correctness is directly or indirectly related to the cost, quality and the customer satisfaction. This paper presents a methodology for the supplier selection process in respect to changing customer requirements. It is based on a genetic algorithm that is a search heuristic based on biological evolution. We aim at selecting the optimum supplier set that maximizes the quality, performance of delivery time and minimizes costs at the same time. The proposed management methodology is applied on a real world case in the textile chemicals industry. The results of the algorithm show that the proposed methodology could be used as a decision support system for producers with complex product configurations.

A Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment Approach for Differentiating Cloud Products

Cloud computing is defined as an on-demand large-scale distributed network to provide and realize computational resources. This flexibility expectation of cloud products forces cloud service providers (CSPs) to tailor their products to the needs of their customers. The framework in this paper proposes a fuzzy logic-based decision support tool for CSPs guiding them in differentiating their cloud offerings for different customer profiles. The tool aims to replicate human reasoning process by making use of fuzzy logic as a computational intelligence framework. The quality function deployment (QFD) approach in the tool systematically handle the product design process. The applicability of the proposed framework is shown using a real life cloud product design scenario with three customer profiles.

An Integrated Approach for Defining Pricing Strategies in Competitive Markets

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a customer-oriented decision support tool with cross-functional team members reaching a consensus in developing a new or improved product to increase customer satisfaction. In this paper, we concentrate on showing the strong effect of QFD methodology on customer satisfaction and on the price determination of a product. The end-users demand to the newly developed or existing products depends not only on the quality level and the price of that producer, but also upon those of its competitors. Our proposed pricing model applies game theory as its mathematical base. The equilibrium point of the game gives the best pricing strategy for the producers. We use the QFD methodology to obtain end-user preferences and quality levels of the competitors. Besides, QFD enables the producer to determine on which product technical requirements to concentrate in order to get more market share.