# Application of Quality Function Deployment for Product Design Concept Selection
## 4 Results
### Results of Selecting the Best New Design Concept  
In this step, we selected the best design concept and analysed the design concept's relative position versus the current design concept. To determine the weighted values between the V_comp_ and V_eff_, we applied group decision making using an AHP pair-wise comparison. We surveyed the priorities between concept competitiveness and development efficiency with ten internal experts. From the pair-wise comparison with the geometric mean of these rating scores, we determined the wt_comp_ and wt_eff_. The combined scores (V_comb_) are the final evaluation results for each design concept. Firms can use the V_comb_ to select the best design concept. Table 6 shows the combined scores (V_comb_) and rankings. The expert group evaluated that concept competitiveness (0.541) is more important than design development efficiency (0.459). The V_comb_ is the sum of the weighted competitiveness (Wt_Comp_) and the weighted efficiency (Wt_Eff_). The average Wt_Comp_ is 0.649 and the average Wt_eff_ is 0.423. The overall average of the combined scores is 1.072. As shown in Table 6, concept B was ranked first with 1.334 and concept E was ranked last with 0.793. Thus, we selected concept B as the best new concept. In addition, we conducted a quadrant analysis to separate the new design concepts into four categories. As represented in Figure 4, the vertical axis denotes the Wt_Comp_ such that a design concept with a Wt_Comp_ score higher than the current design's Wt_Comp (equal to 0.541) is located above the horizontal axis. The horizontal axis denotes the Wt_Eff_ such that a design concept with a Wt_Eff_ score higher than the current design's Wt_Eff_ (equal to 0.459) is located to the right of the vertical axis. As shown in Figure 4, concept A, B, and C are in quadrant I since they have higher concept competitiveness and development efficiency than the current product design. Therefore, these three new design concepts are candidates for the final design concept. Concept D and competitor Y are in quadrant II since they have higher concept competitiveness than the current design but lower design development efficiency. If process innovations for these new concepts reduce the development efficiency, these concepts can move to quadrant I. Concept E is in quadrant III, and is clearly inferior to the current design. Thus, we can remove this from the potential designs. Finally, competitor X is in quadrant IV since it has higher development efficiency than the current design, but lower concept competitiveness. From this hybrid approach, we selected concept B as the best design concept since it was ranked first. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Concept Competitiveness**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Development Efficiency**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Combined Score**} \\ \cline{2-10}  & **V\({}_{comp}\)** & **Wt\({}_{Comp}\)** & **Rank** & **V\({}_{\textit{eff}}\)** & **Wt\({}_{\textit{Eff}}\)** & **Rank** & **V\({}_{comb}\)** & **Rank** & **Quadrant** \\ \hline \multicolumn{10}{c}{(Combined weights)} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{(0.541)} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{(0.459)} \\ \hline Current design & 1.000 & 0.541 & 6 & 1.000 & 0.459 & 5 & 1.000 & 6 & Origin \\ Competitor X & 0.940 & 0.509 & 8 & 1.077 & 0.494 & 2 & 1.003 & 5 & IV \\ Competitor Y & 1.119 & 0.606 & 5 & 0.725 & 0.333 & 7 & 0.938 & 7 & II \\ Concept A & 1.558 & 0.843 & 1 & 1.052 & 0.483 & 3 & 1.326 & 2 & I \\ Concept B & 1.530 & 0.828 & 2 & 1.103 & 0.506 & 1 & 1.334 & 1 & I \\ Concept C & 1.276 & 0.691 & 3 & 1.023 & 0.469 & 4 & 1.160 & 3 & I \\ Concept D & 1.211 & 0.655 & 4 & 0.794 & 0.364 & 6 & 1.020 & 4 & II \\ Concept E & 0.957 & 0.518 & 7 & 0.599 & 0.275 & 8 & 0.793 & 8 & III \\ \hline Mean & & 0.649 & & & 0.423 & & 1.072 & & \\ Stdev & & 0.123 & & & 0.081 & & 0.177 & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Source: made by authors.  
\end{table} 
Table 6: Combined scores and quadrant analysis results.