*3.2.1. Identification of product characteristics*

Identification of customer requirements, product characteristics, their correlations and variant comparison were denoted with symbols presented in **Figure 6**, where a QFD scheme uses a square roof instead of a triangular roof matrix, as it is easier to use in a spreadsheet.

Configuration items should be determined according to the given criterion included in, e.g., [38]:


Identification of product characteristics from the customer point of view could be made in three stages.

The first stage regarding the category of requirements is related to product functions, which, in the case of toothed gear configuration, include, among others, torque transmission, weight of material handling and velocity of material handling.

The second stage regarding the category of requirements includes product environment conditions, e.g., environment temperature, dustiness, humidity, etc.

In the presented approach, decision rules were used to identify product alternatives. The premises in the proposed rules contain variation intervals of product features, where the con-

Configuration of a Customized Product http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79523 59

*\** ).

clusions include the proposed products (*mzl*

A general form of the rules is the following:

*)* **≤** *pmk1 ≤ (pmk1t*

) ≤ *pmk2 ≤ (pmk2t*

) ≤ *pmkz ≤ (pmkzt*

*wo1 + x1 )*

> *wo2 + x2 )*

*woz + xz )*

**if (***pmk1t*

**and (***pmk2t*

**and** ….

**and** (*pmkzt*

**then** *mk = mzl*

*wo1 − x<sup>1</sup>*

**Figure 5.** Product configuration data.

*wo2 − x<sup>2</sup>*

*woz − x<sup>z</sup>*

*\**

The third stage regarding category of requirements includes product trade characteristics, e.g., price, delivery time, warranty, etc.
