New Product Development with the use of Quality Function Deployment

The New Product Development (NPD) process is an investment for every manufacturing company. For this kind of investment resources of all type are needed. A cost which is funded by the company with the target of short or long term return by the success of the new product in the market, which is determined by the demand. In Greece the business landscape is in a critical situation. The companies, in order to have a future, can no more rely to the low demand of the domestic market so, they have to try to promote their products abroad. This means more resources and effort for promotion, for gaining the trust of the consumers abroad. As a result the NPD process for a Greek manufacturer is an investment with higher cost. QFD is a powerful, proactive decision support method for the NPD process, probably the most powerful. It has been developed with the economic environment in mind and it is based on sequences of matrices which links the NPD teams for the purpose of calculating numerical information and imprint them in graphic charts, for better understanding and making the decision making easier.