CENTRE FOR GRADUATE STUDIES

FACULTY OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

MPSW 5053/PPSW 6053

QUALITY SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

HOUSE OF QUALITY
BY

ZURAIMI BIN RAMLE

BAHRIN IKRAM BIN REDZUWAN
MOHAMMAD FIRDAUS BIN ANI

M051410011
M051410010
M051410023

SUBMITTED TO:
PM IR. DR. SIVARAO A/L SUBRAMONIAN

INTRODUCTION
Ergonomic is one of the crucial part need to be considered while working in office. In
maintaining while improving the productivity, all the aspects should be taken including
ergonomic. Mostly workers will feel fatigue and discomfort due to the awkward postures in the
workplace. Thus, their muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels can be damaged
and those known as Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSDs.) Hence, the design of the chairs should
consider the principles of ergonomics.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Poor posture while sitting for extended periods of time has the potential to lead to many negative
side effects. We all know that sitting improperly has a definite impact on our bodies, especially
our backs. However, there are many unseen impacts that you might not have considered.
Complications from sitting incorrectly can be felt not only in your body, but also in your mind.
Its effects can greatly impact your ability to physically, mentally, and emotionally function.

i.

Improper Digestion
Sitting all day is one of the worst things you can do for your health (article: What happens
when you sit all day). By remaining in seated position for a long period of time, your
digestive organs become compressed and not capable of functioning at ideal levels. This is
bad for the digestive process, as it is dramatically slowed down, potentially leading to
discomfort, constipation, or delayed metabolic conversion.

ii.

Mood
Bad posture has been proven to have a negative effect on mood. Those who sit for extended
periods of time report higher levels of depression (read more). Those who sit for more than 7
hours per day are at a 47% higher risk of depression than those who sit for 4 hours or less.
When you remain seated your external and internal processes are slowed and your energy
levels also decrease, further affecting your overall mood.

iii.

Work Performance
As much as we like to abide by the dont judge a book by its cover attitude, the reality is
that we are all guilty of doing it. Bad posture affects the way that you are percieved by
others. If you are hunched over at your desk, co-workers or supervisors may assume that you
are tired, disinterested, or unmotivated. On the contrary, improving the way you carry
yourself increases alterness, decreases fatigue, and allows you to be more productive at work,
benefiting both you and your employer.

iv.

Varicose Veins
Sitting still for long periods of time can lead to the formation of spider veins, particularly in
women. The increased pressure of sitting and lack of circulation throughout the body is to
blame for this.

v.

Increased Stress Levels

Compressing your body is bad for breathing, which in turn affects the nervous system. To
compensate for this constriction, our lungs and heart have to work harder causing taxation
and ultimately stress in the body. To further illustrate the effect that slouching has on creating
stress, we can look at nature. When a cat gets frightened its back arches. The cats body has
an innate knowledge that stress and spinal curvature go hand in hand. Our bodies are no
different. Sitting upright with broad shoulders and an open chest allows you to breathe easier
and also increases hormone levels making you feel more empowered which further decreases
stress.

OBJECTIVES
Design objectives of office chair should support humans to achieve the operational objectives for
which they are responsible. There are three goals to consider in human-centered design which is
enhance human abilities, overcome human limitations and foster user acceptance. Ergonomic
office chair should be designed to facilitate task performance, minimize fatigue and injury by
fitting equipment to the body size, strength and range of motion of the user.

Office chair, which are generally available, have adjustable components that enable the user to
modify the workstation to accommodate different physical dimensions and the requirements of
the job. Ergonomically designed office chair can reduce pain and injury, increase productivity,
improve morale, and decrease complaints.

HOUSE OF QUALITY (HOQ)

House of Quality is a diagram, resembling a house, used for defining the relationship
between customer desires and the firm/product capabilities. It is a part of the Quality Function
Deployment (QFD) and it utilizes a planning matrix to relate what the customer wants to how a
firm (that produces the products) is going to meet those wants. It looks like a house with a
"correlation matrix" as its roof, customer wants versus product features as the main part,
competitor evaluation as the porch etc.

It is based on "the belief that products should be designed to reflect customers' desires and
tastes". It also is reported to increase cross functional integration within organizations using it,
especially between marketing, engineering and manufacturing. The basic structure is a table with
"Whats" as the labels on the left and "Hows" across the top. The roof is a diagonal matrix of
"Hows vs. Hows" and the body of the house is a matrix of "Whats vs. Hows". Both of these
matrices are filled with indicators of whether the interaction of the specific item is a strong
positive, a strong negative, or somewhere in between.

Additional annexes on the right side and bottom hold the "Whys" (market research, etc.) and the
"How Muches". Rankings based on the Whys and the correlations can be used to calculate
priorities for the Hows. House of Quality analysis can also be cascaded, with "Hows" from one
level becoming the "Whats" of a lower level; as this progresses the decisions get closer to the
engineering/manufacturing details.

DESIGN COMPETITOR A
Figure 1 shows the design of office chair from Competitor A. This design is not ergonomics to
the user as there is no ergonomics principles applied on this design. This design will lead the user
to musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). The conventional seating forces a slouch which leads to a
curved and unhealthy C shaped spine. Besides, this design produces the poor posture when the
users seat on it. Poor posture creates a signal imbalance resulting in a weakened lower back as
well as restricted breathing digestion and movement. Furthermore, the feet are not firmly planted
leading to poor lower limb alignment and stability. There is no footrest and arm rest for this
design.

Figure 1: Design of Office Chair produced by Competitor A

DESIGN COMPETITOR B
Meanwhile for design of office chair produced by Competitor B, there is no footrest for the
users. Hence, the users feet is hanging and not firmly planted which can cause fatigue when the
users spend many hours seating on it. This design is better than Competitor A because it provide
armrest. However, the height of this chair cannot be adjusted. Hence, the users cannot adjust the
height of the chair according to their anthropometry and the height of working table. This design
is produced for average person and not suitable for the users who are taller or shorter. Figure 2
shows the design of Competitor Bs office chair.

Figure 2: Competitor Bs office chair

NEW DESIGN
An ergonomically designed office chair is an essential item for all computer workstations.
Hence, our company designed and produced the office chair by considering the ergonomics
principles and the voice of customers as shown in Figure 3. This design prevents the users from
diseases and disorder such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and MSD. Our company has
listed some features as below:

1. Adjustable seat height - this seat must be adjustable to accommodate the variability of the
height of the users and length of leg. The users can place their feet squarely on the floor a
footrest may be appropriate.
2. Adjustable back rest - the backrest is large enough to cover the entire width of the back.
A lumbar support has at least 4 of adjustability to allow centering in the back.
3. Seat pan - the seat is slightly concave to fit the contour of the buttock for comfort and
even distribution of force over contact area.
4. Soft seat padding
5. The backrest tilts back easily.
6. Padded lumbar support- adjustable
7. Caster to roll easily
8. Arm rest- short, padded and adjustable
9. Footrest.
10. Preferably anti-static
11. Make all adjustment while seating

Figure 3: An ergonomics office chair design by our company