Abstract

The paper attempts to integrate the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method in the New Product Development (NPD) cycle. We propose a methodology to evaluate the voice of the customers in designing innovative products. The results presented after applying the methodology focus on the first stage of requirements capture for both the design phase and for the development of the actual product phase. There was considered as case study an innovative, newly patented product, a biometric identification system for emergency cases. The research methodology is inter, multi, trans- disciplinary approach for the development of innovative products. In the context of our study NPD was the pathway for the research steps to follow, and QFD the logic glue among the specialists from different fields, like quality management, electronics, computer programming and medicine. The methodology follows the general steps of the QFD formalism and consists in developing a mathematical model that quantifies by an overall index, that we call offset, the level of customer requirements achievement by the technical characteristics of the designed or developed innovative product.