The integration of Quality Function Deployment and Computer Aided Design in seat comfort design and analyses

The concerns of comfortable seat grew more momentous as this era brought new technologies leading to nonstop flights and more dependence on computers; hence, individuals spend more time seated to perform everyday activities. Uncomfortable prolonged sitting may reduce the quality of such activities and may yield health implications. Seat comfort evaluations are conventionally done post-production i.e. a fully produced seat is usually required in order to evaluate its level of comfort. Also, the inputs from the customer which could have significant impression on the comfort level of the seat are usually not considered during the design stages. This study proposes a solution with a system that performs seat comfort design and evaluation by integrating a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tool with Computer Aided Design (CAD) technique. Several laboratory tests were performed to validate the proposed technique and the obtained results verify that the system can be a valid tool that can surrogate the traditional techniques for comfort analyses. The proposed system offers a comprehensive and systematic tool for the design and prediction of seat comfort by integrating the voice of the customer via QFD into CAD. Taking everything into account, the proposed system will diminish the need for physical prototyping, limit the involvement of human subjects and facilitate information sharing.