Modeling of efficiency and sustainability activities in advanced product quality planning (APQP) processes in the quality function deployment (QFD) perspective

In the early 1980s, Advanced Product Quality Planning, which came up with the automotive industry, enabled companies to understand their customers very well and to systematically analyze their demands and expectations in the process of commissioning new products. By the 2000s, it was not only limited to the automotive sector, but also in the steel manufacturing and wind turbine sectors. Providing customer satisfaction, regardless of sector, is a structural method that makes it possible to plan and realize sudden customer requests. In this study, in the Advanced Product Quality Planning stage, which plans to commission production in the order of sample production in a company operating as a bolt, nut and gasket supplier of wind turbine companies, determination of customer's wishes and requirements, documentation and modeling of the process in light of these expectations were made. For this purpose, Quality Function Migration (QFD) method was used to present customer wishes and expectations in a clear and understandable manner. Thus, critical level of customer requests are characterised and it is aimed to provide customer satisfaction and quality product presentation by prioritizing these characteristics. In this context, the process that constitutes the inputs process and outputs of the flow of advanced product quality planning process in the enterprise is discussed. As a result of the process, the sub-factors of sales, profitability, number of customers, employee workforce turnover rate, machine postures, production operations periods, production error rate change rates were obtained from the "Human Resources, Production, Customer Relations Management and Financial Affairs" departments from the company functions discussed in order to evaluate efficiency and sustainability. This data is interpreted in Microsoft Excel. Consequently, the percentage of sustainability factor impact in the context of advanced product quality planning process is approximately 5 times the percentage of exposure of the efficiency factor. This has shown that sustainability efforts are also affected as a result of productivity activities carried out within the scope of advanced product quality planning studies in the company. Furthermore, as a result of interviews with the relevant process managers in the company, it was determined that communication with the customer is important in the process studies, that it is necessary to comprehend the process by the employees and that all processes of the process are related to each other.