Application of QFD for enabling environmentally conscious design in an Indian rotary switch manufacturing organisation

Many businesses are recognising that environmental consciousness is an important concept for survival in today's highly competitive market. This paper presents a project in which quality function deployment (QFD) for environment (QFDE) has been applied to an Indian rotary switch manufacturing organisation to enable environmentally conscious design at the early stage of product development. QFDE consists of four phases. QFDE phases I and II are concerned with the identification of the rotary switch parts that are important in enhancing environmental consciousness. QFDE phases III and IV are concerned with the evaluation of the effect of design improvement on environmental quality requirements. The results obtained from the case study revealed that QFDE could be applied in the early stage of rotary switch product development as it identified the vital components from an environmental perspective and enabled the options for design improvement to be effectively evaluated. The managerial implications of the case study have also been presented.