Fuzzy-QFD approach for Innovation Project Assessment and Prioritisation to support the Decision-Making: Metal-Mechanical Industry evaluation case

Abstract

The concept of innovation has increased importance in the industrial environment to maintain a competitive advantage in the global market. Thousand innovation projects are proposed daily to create or rethink new or existing products. All this change directly impacts the whole manufacturing system, supply chain, and deliverables. The decision-making process to choose which innovation project will bring better benefits or opportunities follows the criteria of the company’s managers. However, the criteria are subjective or without relevant information for a bold decision, leading to a wrong decision. Based on this context, this research proposed a Fuzzy-QFD approach to assess and prioritise innovation projects based on 40 criteria divided by faces of innovation (desirability, technical feasibility, and economic feasibility) and maturity levels (ideation, preparation, validation, incubation). This approach was tested in two innovation projects in the metal-mechanical industry to determine the priority between of them. As a result, Project 01 has a higher maturity level than Project 02, proving the benefit of the proposed approach to support the decision-making process in a Metal-Mechanical industry.