Applying fuzzy quality function deployment to identify service management requirements for an ocean freight forwarder

In this paper, a Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (FQFD) to identify service management requirements for an ocean freight forwarder is developed. First, customer needs, with importance and satisfaction degrees, have been investigated, followed by the development of service management requirements for satisfying the observed customer needs. Furthermore, a fuzzy relation matrix to link service management requirements and customer needs based on cross-functional expertise is also constructed. The aggregated fuzzy assessments of various service management requirements are ranked to determine their importance priority. Finally, an empirical study for identifying the service management requirements of the ocean freight forwarder company is used to demonstrate the proposed approach.