Systematic Customer Value Analysis: A Case Study in the Automotive Industry

Authors

  • Tolga Cakmak Valeo Automotive Industry and Trade Co., 16245 Bursa, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9751-4953
  • Koray Altun Department of Industrial Engineering, Bursa Technical University, 16330 Bursa, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0357-9495
  • Mustafa Oktay Aksoy Valeo Automotive Industry and Trade Co., 16245 Bursa, Turkey

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6977/IJoSI.202112_6(6).0004

Abstract

Providing high quality with competitive prices is generally essential in the automotive industry because of the customers (directly automotive OEMs and indirectly their end-users) demanding new and costly features without showing additional willingness to pay. For this reason, accurate analysis of customer value can be very helpful for developing new concepts, and hence for correct positioning in this competitive area. Although one of the most important parts of the engine in an automobile is the clutch, there are very limited studies on its value analysis in the literature.  Correspondingly, to fill this gap, this paper analyses the customer value of automotive clutch components and their functions by using a two-phase QFD methodology, and a fuzzy-logic based data-fusion methodology. While the former phase determines relative weights of the benefit through the House of Quality, the latter phase performs the parts (and cost) deployment to determine the costs of the clutch functions by using a reverse costing analysis incorporating the product teardown cost information. Having obtained benefit, cost, and technical difficulty information, a fuzzy-logic model evaluates the competitive importance of each clutch function. This work identifies the three most important clutch functions and their related subcomponents.

Keywords: Automotive clutch, customer value analysis, fuzzy systems, quality function deployment.

Author Biographies

Tolga Cakmak, Valeo Automotive Industry and Trade Co., 16245 Bursa, Turkey

Dr. Tolga ÇAKMAK received his BSc, MSc and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Uludag University, Turkey in 2004, 2007 and 2018, respectively. He works in VALEO Automotive Company in Turkey since 2007. He has received a Research Fellowship at the von Karman Institute, Belgium in 2006 during his master thesis study. He has experience in sheet metal cold and hot forming, heat treatment, casting technology and metallurgical analysis. His research interests include vehicle dynamics, design optimization, simulation and testing. He has been nominated as VALEO expert in January 2016 due to his innovative achievements in his field, the proven depth and range of his personal expertise and ability to transfer the benefits of this expertise to others.

Koray Altun, Department of Industrial Engineering, Bursa Technical University, 16330 Bursa, Turkey

Dr. Koray ALTUN is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at TU Bursa, and a Research Collaborator (former a Senior Researcher) at GLORAD Center for Global R&D and Innovation, a research organization with centers in PR China, the US, Latin America, and Europe. He is also the founder and manager of a start-up focused on digital innovation & software consultancy. He holds PhD and BSc degrees of Industrial Engineering from Gaziantep University and Erciyes University, respectively. He has published his papers in some well-respected journals and he has led many consulting engagements in many reputed companies with the focus on R&D, technology and innovation management. His recent research interests include; Innovation Excellence Model, Systematic Innovation, Digital Innovation.

Mustafa Oktay Aksoy, Valeo Automotive Industry and Trade Co., 16245 Bursa, Turkey

Mustafa Oktay AKSOY received his BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Uludag University, Turkey in 1985 and 1989, respectively. He has been working in VALEO Automotive Company in Turkey as R&D Coordinator since 2015. Before VALEO-Turkey, he worked in Grammer Seating Systems-Turkey as Project Coordinator for 6 years and in Magneti Marelli-Turkey as project engineer, project leader and R&D Section Manager for 18 years respectively. During this period, he managed numerous national and international projects for automotive industry. Currently, he is in charge of university-industry cooperation projects, R&D Projects funded by government and innovation activities in VALEO-Turkey.

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Published

2021-12-11

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 6 (2021): International Journal of Systematic Innovation

Section

Regular full papers

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