Efficient Decision-Making in Early Stages of Innovation: A QFD-Based Approach for Quality and Cost Optimization

The early stages of innovation are considered crucial for the success of innovation projects but challenging due to their weak structure and significant impact on final product quality, time-to-market and production costs. This paper proposes a methodological approach for managing these stages by optimizing product concepts. It uses the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to select the values of technical parameters (TPs) that maximize customer satisfaction, minimize costs, and maximize quality. The approach integrates three mathematical models. The first model is designed to identify the minimum number of TPs necessary to maximize customer satisfaction. The other two models are designed to determine the values of the identified TPs, with the second model focusing on minimizing cost and the third on maximizing quality of the product concept. The proposed methodology is illustrated through a specific problem. A numerical example demonstrates the approach's effectiveness in achieving feasible and optimal solutions within specified time limits.