Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making in Quality Function Deployment for Offshore Renewable Energies

Abstract

Quality function deployment (QFD) is now used in various fields, such as product development, design, manufacturing, planning, and quality management services, as a planning tool to achieve customer requirements and needs while improving performance and sustainability concerns. This paper presents a systematic literature review of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodologies integrated into QFD over the last year. In 2022, 56 research papers on planning strategies, the supply chain, and product development using QFD were published. Other fields such as energy, academia, and environment have also shown considerable interest in the integration of MCDM methodologies in QFD to improve decision-making processes. This research shows that the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions (TOPSIS) methodologies are mainly used to rank customer requirements and weigh their importance in the house of quality (HoQ) structure. The use of fuzzy logic has been incorporated into the correlation matrix to evaluate the relationships between customer requirements and technical requirements. Methodologies such as decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and fuzzy cognitive maps are implemented to deal with contradictions, and they have also been used to rank engineering characteristics. In the field of energy and renewable technologies, only few studies related to the integration of MCDM methodologies in QFD were found, but it is forecasted that their use will be used more often as they offer improvements and benefits in the ocean energy sector.