英文摘要 |
Apparel design is a very complicated task dependent on manufacturing technology available, expert experience and customer requirements. Customer requirements are considered as an important determining factor of success in apparel design. This research aims to link effectively customer requirements with functional characteristics using the concept of quality function deployment (QFD) in the apparel design process. In this study, the theory of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is also employed to evaluate the importance of customer requirements so as to improve precision and verify consistency. The results demonstrate that among all customer needs, 'good perspiration-absorbance and vapor-permeability' (N14) has the largest relative weight of 21.59%, followed by the traditional customer requirement of 'good-looking and appealing style' (N21) with a high relative weight 14.77%. This indicates that the balance between aesthetics and functionality can reflect the real customer requirements. Moreover, functional apparel that can allow perspiration to evaporate, keep warmth, and resist both rain and wind (C52) contributes the most overall customer satisfaction. This implies that the higher priority the customer requirements and design characteristics have, the greater the satisfaction they contribute. These requirements and characteristics are key factors determining the success of new product design and should thus be allocated most of the design resources. In addition, the QFD method shows advantages in creating and redesigning products as well as reducing time and cost of production, thus enhancing competitiveness. |