Dyeing processing is a technology-intensive industry required to be both the high touch, e.g. shrink proof, water repellency, and high level functionality, and the sensorial characteristics, e.g., tactile impression and design, through chemical finish...
Dyeing processing is a technology-intensive industry required to be both the high touch, e.g. shrink proof, water repellency, and high level functionality, and the sensorial characteristics, e.g., tactile impression and design, through chemical finishing technology on fiber and textile use for catering to consumers’ tastes. The dyeing processing is the most important for high value textile products.
For producing a product fitted to customers’ needs, products attributes would be well matched to a high level of importance that customer thought. To do this, IPA (important performance analysis) is used to analyze the difference between customer satisfaction and importance. Incidentally, customer satisfaction would increase, if customer needs is reflected in the product design stage. Reflecting customer needs to product design is a crucial because high level of customer satisfaction leads to high level of firm’s future performance. Thus, QFD (quality function deployment) is used to reflect customer needs to the stage of product's design.
The purpose of this study is to find quality items that are located on both high level of customer importance and low level of customer satisfaction by using IPA. After then, QFD is used to extract engineering characteristics from the items to design and develop improved dye products.
Survey is performed on both customer attributes (or called by voice of customer) and customer satisfaction with four categories. The results of this study are followings as. First, the items in concentrate phase of IPA matrix are ‘effective program to solve employees’ complaint and problems’, ‘supplier participation in process setting’, ‘using run chart in work in place’ , and ‘high level of investment for quality, compared to sales’. These items are expected to large effect on customer satisfaction with less effort than other phases in IPA matrix and have the first priority to manage.
Secondly, among these items, the highest proportion of the importance is the using run chart in work in place. This item is needed to preferentially improve because importance is higher and satisfaction is lower than competitive firms. Second priority for improvement is the high level of investment/sales for quality, with a similar reason to first item.
Thirdly, the most important engineering characteristic is a process in terms of considering both engineering characteristics and weighted evaluation in dyeing processing to meet customer requirements.
Limitations of this study, first, could not compare to demand of employees who provide product to customers directly. The difference of demand between customers and employees is another element either to solve customers’ dissatisfaction or to improve product quality. Secondly, further researches is required to comprehend more accurate and various customer demands. Even with these limitations, this research has a contribution to make up framework for enhancing product quality in dyeing and finishing Industry by using both IPA and QFD.