Company certification program design for DIN 6701-2 Standard: An integrated AHP-QFD approach

Durable, faster, and lighter... Due to the increasing population and developing technology, society's demand for faster and safer transportation creates new application areas for advanced production technologies such as adhesive bonding. In the field of adhesive bonding, the only available application standard is "DIN 6701 Adhesive bonding of railway vehicles and parts - Part 2: Qualification of manufacturer of adhesive bonded materials." A certification program is a fundamental document prepared separately by all 3rd party auditor companies. It sets all related rules and describes the procedures for the certification and audit services of the company. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce new analytical approach for DIN 6701-2 certification program design for future DIN 6701-2 audits in Turkey by defining customer specifications through the usage of an integrated Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) - Quality Function Deployment (QFD) model. In this integrated method, requirements weighting of the QFD model is done by using the AHP method to conduct a rational decision analysis. Because of this study, an important guide for DIN 6701-2 certification services will be obtained in the Turkish railway sector, where bonding applications are increasing rapidly. In addition, integrated AHP-QFD approach will be a useful tool by introducing mathematical approach for decision-making and reduces complex decisions into a series of pair-wise comparisons so that decision makers of for 3rd party audit companies and services can make informed decision about the problem.