Ergonomic Design Using Quality Function Deployment and Design of Experiments

• Published in: Forest products journal Vol. 63; no. 7-8; pp. 257 - 262
• Main Authors: Horvath, Peter Gyorgy, Kovacs, Zsolt, Denes, Levente
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Madison Forest Products Society 01-07-2013
• Subjects: Chairs; Customer satisfaction; Dependent variables; Design and construction; Design engineering; Design of experiments; Ergonomics; Factorial experiments; Forest products industry; Furniture; Furniture industry; Independent variables; Methods; Studies; User needs; Variables; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0015-7473; 2376-9637
• DOI: 10.13073/FPJ-D-13-00025

User needs relating to products are expressed in the language of customers. Designers are facing the challenge of answering the question of how relatively subjective customer needs can be translated into precise target specifications. In most cases, some of these needs can be interpreted as ergonomic requirements. This is especially true for furniture. The question is what a piece of furniture has to do to bring about satisfaction in use. Ergonomic suitability has a number of components, each of which is determined by a given set of product properties. Therefore, ergonomic quality can be satisfied by using complex methods of analysis. Such methods include Quality Function Deployment (QFD). The adaptability of this methodology for the ergonomic design of seats was confirmed as a result of our study. Furthermore, it has been found that the components of ergonomic quality can be treated as dependent variables. The level of these dependent variables is determined by quantitative and categorical product-related independent characteristics. A model for evaluating and designing ergonomic quality on the basis of the method of Design of Experiments was conceived as a complement to the QFD-based approach and is demonstrated for sitting furniture.