Application of quality function deployment for improving supplier features in supply chain management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) includes the flow of material, information and financial assets in a network consisting of suppliers, producers, distributors and customers. The goal of SCM is to increase utility and effectiveness by correlating the processes of customers and suppliers. In this context, the selection and evaluation of the supplier becomes a significant matter. For a SCM to be successful, a long term collaboration should be established between the supplier and the customer that depends on mutual trust among both parties. Quality Function Deployment (QFD), which is used in developing products via converting customer demands into engineering parameters for the sake of marketing higher quality and economic products to customers, can also be used for improving existing products, selecting suppliers and improving critical activities relating to products and customers. This paper explores a study including a Quality House application in the context of QFD that is used as a tool for determining which customer needs should be given higher priority by the suppliers and which supplier features they have to work on improving.In this method the expectations of the manufacturing company from its suppliers are determined and thorough consulting with the purchasing people of the company, they are asked to evaluate the properties of the suppliers. Consequently, the results obtained via Quality House application didn?t exactly match with the predetermined supplier strategies of the manufacturing company. In the light of this application study it is concluded that the relations with the suppliers need to be revised.