Explanation of Manufacturing Competitiveness Strategies Using Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment and Interpretive Structure Modeling Techniques

Manufacturing strategies as the most common internal controllable capability of companies, play a key role in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The identification and development of these strategies requires a clear understanding of their role in gaining competitive advantage and their mutual effects on each other. In this regard, this paper has presented practical approach to evaluate manufacturing strategies using fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Interpretive Structure Modeling (ISM) techniques. The results of fuzzy QFD show that the studied company has suitable situation in competitive factors contains facilities for sale, the product variety and production technology, while the cost and delivery speed are not desirable. In the following, the ISM technique was used to prioritize the resource allocation in manufacturing strategies; the findings show that human resource empowerment has the highest implementation priority in the Foladin Zob Amol (FZA) company.