Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533

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Expert Systems with Applications

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An innovative approach for RFID product functions development

Chin-Sen Lin a, Long-Sheng Chen b,⇑, Chun-Chin Hsu c
a
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, China University of Science and Technology, No. 245, Sec. 3, Academia Road, Nangang District, Taipei City 115, Taiwan, ROC
b
Department of Information Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, No. 168, Jifong E. Road, Wufong District, Taichung City 41349, Taiwan, ROC
c
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, No. 168, Jifong E. Road, Wufong District, Taichung City 41349, Taiwan, ROC

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Today, new services creation is very crucial for RFID (radio frequency identification) products manufac-
RFID turers. A newly successful RFID application can enhance their change in organization and to manage
New service creation growth in an increasingly competitive environment. But, there is a high failure rate in new products
TRIZ development processes. Thus, RFID manufacturers need an effective tool to assist them to create novel
Kano analysis
RFID product functions. This study proposes a newly systematic approach called QT-Kano model which
integrates three management tools, quality function deployment (QFD), the theory of inventive problem
solving (TRIZ), and a refined Kano’s model, to create new product functions of RFID products. In QT-Kano
model, QFD has firstly been used to transform customer demands into engineering quality characteristics.
Secondly, based on the contradiction relationship between those engineering quality characteristics, the
novel designed functions are created by TRIZ. Finally, to reduce the high failure rate in new products
development processes, a refined Kano’s model are applied to offer a better understanding from cus-
tomer’s viewpoint and to assist service designers focusing on the most important attributes that need
to be improved. A real case of RFID product function development is demonstrated to show the effective-
ness of the proposed model.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction environments. Heinrich (2005) indicated that RFID is likely to be

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has become a critical issue
in the fields of manufacturing and logistics (Ngaia, Moonb,
Rigginsc, & Yi, 2008). This rapid development of RFID has lead lots
of companies to take a hard look at what RFID can do for commer-
cial purposes. Moreover, RFID is regards as a promising technology
for the management of supply chain processes since it improves
the efficiency of forecasting customer demands, production plan-
ning, managing inventory, and retail operations (Ustundag &
Tanyas, 2009). CNN identified RFID as one of the ‘‘Ten Technologies
to Watch’’ in 2004, and ZDNet named RFID as one of the 10 most
strategic technologies in 2005 (Wu, Nystrom, Lin, & Yu, 2006). Con-
sequently, RFID has become a new area of technological develop-
ment, and is receiving increasing amounts of attention. Recently,
RFID have gained importance in the mobile and wireless commu-
nication technologies, and have influenced various industries. But
its range of application is going to be extended far beyond these
areas. There is tremendous potential for applying it even more
widely, and increasing numbers of companies have already started
up pilot schemes or successfully used it to real-world
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 4 23323000x7752; fax: +886 4 23304902.
E-mail addresses: cslin@cc.chit.edu.tw, lschen0227@gmail.com, lschen@cyut.
edu.tw (C.-S. Lin),lschen@cyut.edu.tw (L.-S. Chen), cchsu@cyut.edu.tw (C.-C. Hsu).
among the most exciting and fastest-growing technologies in
terms of the scope of application in the next generation of business
intelligence (Heinrich, 2005). However, RFID vendors are com-
plaining that the business is not growing as fast as expected (Wu
et al., 2006). Therefore, how to create a new RFID application is
crucial for RFID manufacturers. If they can create a newly success-
ful RFID application, these manufacturers can enhance their
change in organization and to manage growth in an increasingly
competitive environment. Thus, RFID manufacturers need an effec-
tive tool to assist them to create novel RFID product functions.
Generally speaking, it is necessary for RFID manufacturers to
own a product innovation process aims at the creation of some-
thing new and marketable. Beyond risk management necessity,
companies’ capacity to survive, to develop and to prosper depends
on their organization and on the management process they adopt.
The capacity to follow the waves of new trends and behaviors of
customers is also a major concern. Therefore, innovativeness is a
basic capability for most organizations to survive in the market
(Börjesson, Dahlsten, & Williander, 2006). According to related lit-
eratures, there are more than one creativity techniques been devel-
oped for company’s application, but most of them are lack of
systematic implemental procedures. Probably the most scientific
approach to the problem of idea generation is offered by theory
of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) (Altshuller, 1997), which uses
an extensive analysis of patents to provide a tool for delicate and

0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2011.06.007
15524 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533
complex mental operations (Lee, Yoon, & Park, 2009). Therefore,
TRIZ has been introduced in the proposed method for idea genera-
tion of new product functions.
Besides, its reported that there is a high failure rate in new
products development processes. At the beginning of the 90s,
Cooper (2001) stated that only one product development project
in four could become a winner. Moreover, almost 50% of the re-
sources that American firms devoted to innovation were spent on
commercial failures (Cooper, 2001). It could take as many as
3000 ideas to produce one successful product. This high failure rate
shows that attention has to be directed toward the selection of the
right measurement indicators to identify whether the project is
taking the right path to success or not. Cormican and O’Sullivan
indicated that the lack of customer focus as a main problem within
product innovation management (Cormican & O’Sullivan, 2004;
Yang & Hsiao, 2009). The work of Mulebeke and Zheng also re-
ported that the key factors spearheading market success include
the capacity to develop the right products for the right customers
using the right processes with shorter development lifecycles than
competitors (Mulebeke & Zheng, 2006). Kumar et al. found that the
secret to achieve a good marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is
to give customers more of what they want and less of what they do
not (Kumar, Venkatesan, & Reinartz, 2006). Accordingly, except
creating new ideas, how to evaluate customers’ thinking is also
an important factor to a successful new product development
(Matzler & Hinterhuber, 1998). To achieve this goal, the Kano mod-
el (Kano, Seraku, Takahashi, & Tsuji, 1984) is adopted to get a bet-
ter understanding of how customers evaluate a new created RFID
product functions in this study. Additionally, by using a refined
Kano model which is developed by Yang (2005), we can reduce
the risks of developing new RFID functions and acquire more pre-
cise quality decisions from focused customers.
To sum up, this study proposes a systematic approach called
QT-Kano model which involves three management tools, quality
function deployment (QFD), TRIZ, Kano’s model and refined Kano’s
model, to new RFID product function creation. Firstly, quality func-
tion deployment (QFD) has been used to transform customer de-
mands into designed quality characteristics. Secondly, based on
the contradiction relation between engineering characteristics,
the novel quality elements are created by using TRIZ. Finally, in or-
der to reduce the risk and a high failure rate in new products devel-
opment processes, the Kano model and refined Kano’s model are
applied to offer a better understanding of how customers evaluate
our new created quality elements and to assist companies with
focusing on the most important attributes that need to be improved.
Customer Attributes
(What)
Fig. 1. House of quality.
A real case of RFID product function development is provided to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed QT-Kano model.
2. Related works
2.1. Quality function deployment
Quality function deployment (QFD) developed by Yoji Akao and
Shigeru Mizuno is an important product development method,
dedicated to translating client requirements into activities to de-
velop products and services (Carnevalli & Miguel, 2008; Chan &
Wu, 2002). QFD was first used successfully by Japanese manufac-
turers of consumer electronics, home appliances, clothing, inte-
grated circuits, synthetic rubber, construction equipment and
agricultural engines, before American and European manufacturers
started to use it within product development projects (Matzler &
Hinterhuber, 1998). QFD now is a method that structures system
planning and development, and it enables the development team
to asses the proposed system in terms of how it meets the needs
and requirements of the customers (Utne, 2009). General speaking,
QFD is related to systems engineering in terms of facilitating com-
munication between the customers and the manufacturers when
identifying and ranking the design goals in the systems engineer-
ing process.
QFD is also known as House of Quality (HoQ). It can be consid-
ered as a graphic tool for defining the relationship between cus-
tomer desires and the firm/product capabilities. QFD looks like a
House with 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 de-
signed to reflect customers’ desires and tastes’’ (Hauser & Clausing,
1988). It is also reported to increase cross functional integration
within organizations using it, especially between marketing, engi-
neering and manufacturing (Carnevalli & Miguel, 2008).
The basic structure of HoQ is a table with ‘‘Whats’’ as the labels
on the left and ‘‘Hows’’ across the top (Fig. 1). 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 cor-
relations can be used to calculate priorities for the Hows.
Since Akao had started to utilize QFD in product design stage to
convert product design characteristics into precise quality control
Technical Correlations
Engineering Characteristics
(How)
Relations Matrix
Weight of the How
 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533 15525

points in the manufacturing quality control chart, the functions of

QFD have been more widely discussed, and even more, applied in
various industries (Chan & Wu, 2002). Indeed, QFD is not only a
technical tool, but also a managerial philosophy that can help en-
hance the organizational and managing effects. However, it is dif-
ficult to manually record the QFD matrix in a paper form and
especially in the qualitative and subjective decision-making pro-
cess. From this, various quantitative methods, such as analytic
hierarchy process, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy logic, are
combined with QFD and proposed to provide a more objective
and precise approach for its implementation. Lowe, Ridgway, and
Atkinson (2000) developed a QFD tool which allows a rapid evalu-
ation of the feasibility of using the thixoforming process to manu-
facturing products. Chan and Wu (2002) presented a literature
review and categorizing of QFD based on about 650 QFD publica-
tions established through searching various sources. It is a compre-
hensive analysis about QFD’s functional fields, applied industries
and methodological development. Beside this application of QFD,
Govers (2001) also emphasized that QFD is not just a tool but a
way of quality management, which models the dynamics of the de-
sign process. Almannai, Greenough, and Kay (2008) described a
decision tool which uses the QFD and failure mode and effects
analysis (FMEA) to support management in addressing technology,
organization, and people at the earliest stages of manufacturing
automation decision making. More recently, an innovative tool
TRIZ has been widely applied in new products and services crea-
tion. Yamashina, Ito, and Kawada (2002) proposed a systematical
method which integrates QFD and TRIZ to create the technical
innovation for new products. Therefore, in this study, QFD and TRIZ
are applied in our proposed methodology to resolve the problem of
new functions creation.
2.2. The theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ)
New service creation has become a key successful factor in to-
day’s business models. In today’s competitive environment where
the world economy has seen strong growth, the pursuit of per-
ceived services to meet customers’ expectations is now considered
essential in achieving success. This work attempts to introduce a
systematic creativity technique, TRIZ (an acronym for the Russian
word Teary Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch, means the ‘‘The-
ory of the Solution of Inventive Problems’’) to crate new product
functions. The founder of TRIZ, Genrich Altshuller, began work
on the theory in 1946 and attempted to formalize methods of cre-
ative thinking which led to new inventions. The result was the
development of a creative framework based on the study of
200,000 patents and observed trends in the evolution of technical
systems (Altshuller, 1997). With its unique thinking, TRIZ has, in
recent years, proved to be a well-structured and innovative way
of problem solving in technical and non-technical areas. In re-
sponse, TRIZ researchers have utilized a number of successful pro-
cess models to validate the method’s effectiveness in creating and
Fig. 2. The general TRIZ process (Domb, 1998).
improving new products and services. Although TRIZ was initially
proposed for engineers and scientists as a systematic creativity
and innovations methodology, it has recently been applied in a
wide range of fields from engineering to biomedicine, agriculture,
social relations, business and management, etc (Lin & Su, 2007).
Therefore, TRIZ is a proven algorithmic approach to solve system
problems and provides a systematic approach for ‘‘innovation’’
(Lau, 2004).
Furthermore, Domb (1998) indicated that TRIZ researchers
have encapsulated the principles of good inventive practice and
set them onto a general problem-solving structure. The general
model for TRIZ problem-solving is shown in Fig. 2. It is explained
that the general process by which the TRIZ method overcomes
the psychological inertia barrier, and this is through the general-
ization of the specific problem to an analogous TRIZ generic
problem. Then through the comparison of this generic TRIZ prob-
lem with the analogous generic TRIZ solution in the knowledge
database obtained from scientific effects and patents research,
one can generate the solutions for the specific problem. TRIZ
helps avoid an inefficient route for problem solving, and instead
provides a systematic and efficient way to solve the problem.
Hence, it is a reliable process that results to systematic inn-
ovation.
In fact, there are more than one techniques and methods in TRIZ
theory. But, the most popular of them is contradiction matrix. Gen-
eral speaking, as a review of the existing literature, it is pointed out
that the strength of TRIZ as a method for developing creative solu-
tions is its ability to remove contradictions rather than the use of
the conventional approach by means of compromises or tradeoffs.
At this point, within the TRIZ toolset, contradiction analysis is the
most frequently and widely used method for the elimination of
contradictions which arise from the problem (Cong & Tong,
2008). The contradiction analysis process requires a matrix formed
by 39 parameters or features of the technological systems (a partial
matrix is shown in Table 1), and 40 types of inventive principles
(listed in Table 2) that were originally invented by Altshuller. For

Table 1
A partial List of the TRIZ Contradiction Matrix (Domb, 1997).

Feature to change Undesired result (Conflict)

1 ... 21 ... 39
Weight of moving object ... Temperature ... Productivity
1 Weight of moving object ... 10, 35, 20, 28 ... 35, 3, 24, 37
2 Weight of stationary object ... 10, 20, 35, 26 ... 1, 28, 15, 35
3 Length of moving object 8, 15, 29, 34 ... 15, 2, 29 ... 14, 4, 28, 29
4 Length of stationary object ... 30, 29, 14 ... 30, 14, 7, 26
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
17 Power 2, 14, 17, 25
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
39 Productivity 35, 26, 24, 37 ... ...
15526 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533

practical application, there are five steps of using contradiction 2.3. The Kano model and refined Kano’s model
matrix, and which are included as follows.
The Kano model was first developed by Kano to categorize the
Step 1: Define problem attributes of products or services based on how well they were able
to satisfy customer needs and help identify the ‘‘voice of the cus-
Define the elements of the design that are required to be tomer.’’ (Kano et al., 1984) As we known, most of innovative ideas
improved. will fail during the process of product development, and in order to
reduce the risk of developing new product functions, the Kano
Step 2: Analyze problem model has been implemented in this work. The Kano model has
been usually employed to discover customer needs (Chen & Su,
Map these into the terms of the 39 parameters of the contradic- 2006; Kuo, 2004). It can offer a better understanding of how cus-
tion matrix. tomers evaluate a product, and assists companies to focus on the
most important attributes to improve (Gustafsson, Ekdahl, &
Step 3: Select parameters Edvardsson, 1999). The Kano model and its applications are impor-
tant because customer satisfaction is a primary concern, and the
Identify the solution directions that will help remove the model has usually been applied to the classification of product
problem. quality variables. The Kano model divides the product or service
Identify which elements in these solution directions are in con- features into four major categories, each of which affects the cus-
traction with the feature to be improved. tomers in a different way. Fig. 3 depicts these categories of Kano’s
model as applied to customer service element classification as fol-
Step 4: Find invention principles lows: the ‘‘Must be requirements’’, the ‘‘Indifferent’’, the ‘‘One-
dimensional requirements’’, and the ‘‘Attractive requirements’’.
Map these into the terms of the 39 parameters of contradiction Considering Kano’s model, important suggestions for and direc-
matrix to get pairs of improving–worsening features. Then, find tions to the management can be targeted specifically at exciting
the corresponding invention principles, according to the pair. customers. Particularly, these can be used as a tool in designing
the most effective customer service strategy in a highly competi-
Step 5: Develop and evaluate the feasible solutions tive marketplace. In recent years, the Kano model has been widely
and successfully applied in strategic thinking, business planning,
Develop alternatives according to the corresponding invention and product development to provide guidance with respect to
principles and evaluate the feasibility. innovation, competitiveness, and product compliance (Watson,
In this study, we use QFD to transform customer demands into 2003).
designed quality elements. Then, based on the contradiction rela- By integrating the degree of importance into the traditional Ka-
tionships between quality characteristics (the roof of HoQ), new no’s model, Yang (2005) proposed a refined Kano’s model. In his
quality elements are created by using TRIZ contradiction matrix. work, he divided the original quality element of Kano’s model into
2 levels by measuring their importance (Fig. 4). Based on the more
detailed categorization of the refined model, the company can ob-
Table 2 tain a more accurate understanding of the quality characteristics
Forty inventive principles of TRIZ (Altshuller, 1997; Domb, 1998).
from the customer’s perspective.
Principle Inventive Principle Inventive principle Additionally, Table 3 provides a summary of quality categories of
number principle number refined Kano’s model and traditional model. The category of quality
1 Segmentation 21 Skipping elements in the refined Kano model can be described as follows.
2 Taking out 22 ‘‘Blessing in disguise’’ or ‘‘Turn
Lemons into Lemonade’’
(1) Highly attractive quality elements: These are good weapons
3 Local quality 23 Feedback
4 Asymmetry 24 Intermediary for enterprisers to attract potential customers. These ele-
5 Merging 25 Self-service ments represent strategic attribute offerings.
6 Universality 26 Copying (2) Less attractive quality elements: Because these have little
7 Nested doll 27 Cheap short-living objects attraction to customers, these quality attributes can be dis-
8 Anti-weight 28 Mechanics substitution/another
sense
carded if cost considerations demand this.
9 Preliminary anti- 29 Pneumatics and hydraulics (3) High-value-added quality elements: These elements make a
action high contribution to customers’ satisfaction. They therefore
10 Preliminary 30 Flexible shells and thin films can lead to increased revenue. Firms should therefore make
action
efforts to provide such attributes to customers.
11 Beforehand 31 Porous materials
cushioning
12 Equipotentiality 32 Color changes Satisfied
13 The other way 33 Homogeneity
Attractive
round
14 Spheroidality – 34 Discarding and recovering One-dimensional
curvature
15 Dynamics 35 Parameter changes
16 Partial or 36 Phase transitions
excessive actions Insufficient Indifferent Sufficient
17 Another 37 Thermal expansion Must-be
dimension
18 Mechanical 38 Strong oxidants
vibration
19 Periodic action 39 Inert atmosphere
Dissatisfied
20 Continuity of 40 Composite material
useful action
Fig. 3. The Kano model.
 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533 15527

Satisfied
Highly Attractive

High Value-Added
Less Attractive

Insufficient Sufficient
Critical
Low Value-Added

NO
Necessary
Dissatisfied

Fig. 4. The refined Kano model (Yang, 2005).

YES
(4) Low value-added quality elements: These elements make
less contribution to customer satisfaction. But a company
cannot afford to ignore these elements. Consequently, the
firms also need to avoid providing too less level of these
attributes to dissatisfy customers.
(5) Critical quality elements: These are essential elements to
customers. A company must provide sufficient fulfillment
of these attributes to customers.
(6) Necessary quality elements: Firms can satisfy these ele-
ments at a required level to avoid dissatisfying customers.
(7) Potential quality elements: These elements will gradually
become the attractive attributes. Therefore, a company can
consider providing these elements to be strategic weapons
to attract customers in the future.
(8) Care-free quality elements: If necessary, a company needs
not to offer these elements under consideration of cost.

In the second column of Table 3, the degrees of importance are

assessed into two categories – ‘high’ importance if the degree of
importance is greater than the mean for all the quality characteris-
tics, and ‘low’ if below the mean. This allowed classification of the
categories according to the refined Kano model. Moreover, when
we evaluate the customer’s perspectives with the refined Kano’s
model, there are three kinds of questionnaires should be designed:
the importance of quality elements, the satisfaction of quality ele-
ments, and the categorization of quality elements according to Ka-
no’s model.

3. Proposed approach: QT-Kano model

In this section, we will introduce the proposed QT-Kano model Fig. 5. The implemental procedure of the proposed QT-Kano model.
for creating new RFID products functions. The detailed implemen-
tal procedure of our proposed QT-Kano model and the process of
steps are shown in Fig. 5. This procedure can be divided into five the primal data which includes voice of customers could be
steps and they are illustrated as follows. collected from questionnaires, claim information or the
specification of the customer’s needs and wants. The HoQ
Step 1. QFD Analysis displays the voice of the customers along the left part of
1.1. Survey customer requirements: a difficult and demanding the matrix. For instance, the customers of RFID relating
part of the systems engineering process is definition of the products require RFID could be applied in the transportation
problem and identification of the needs to the system, thus, tools, consumption in convenient stores, hospital taking
Table 3 care, etc., and the new RFID products developers have to col-
The category of quality elements in the Kano model and the refined Kano model. lect these information the customers need and to create new
functions to attract customer’s focus.
The Kano model The refined Kano model
1.2. Define quality elements by QFD: the HoQ matrix translates
High importance Low importance
the needs of the customers into the design targets of a pro-
Attractive Highly attractive Less attractive posed new product, thus, we define the functions of RFID
One-dimensional High value-added Low value-added products, that is, define the existing RFID products functions
Must be Critical Necessary
Indifferent Potential Care-free
(quality elements) in the top part of the matrix, and then the
customer’s needs are transformed into technical measures.
15528
1.3. Construct correlation matrix of quality elements: in addi-
tion, the correspondence relationships between individual
quality elements are shown in the roof part of HoQ. The roof
for HoQ is made by considering the correlations between the
quality elements and then the top matrix is generated.
1.4. Check the relationships of quality elements: use the roof of
HoQ to find the contradiction relationships between the
quality elements. Taking the RFID new products develop-
ment as an example, as shown in Fig. 6, items ‘Adjusted sen-
sorial distance’, ‘Size of the battery’, ‘Standby time’ are called
quality elements. ‘Adjusted sensorial distance’ is defined as
‘the power energy will be wasted when the RFID sensorial
distance is automatically adjusted’, and the ‘Standby time’
is defined as ‘the longer standby time is to decrease the
power energy been wasted’, therefore, we found that the
correlation between ‘Adjusted sensorial distance’ and
‘Standby time’ is strong negative.
Step 2. If there are any negative correlations?
We use the roof of HoQ to determine the contradiction rela-
tions between different quality characteristics. How should
the negative correlation relationships between the quality
elements be resolved? If the contradiction relationships
exist, we implement TRIZ technique to create the new RFID
product functions in the third step. If there is no any contra-
diction relationship existing in the correlation matrix, we
can skip step 3 and directly go to step 4 of the QT-Kano
model.
Step 3. New Functions Creation by TRIZ
3.1 Detect the relative TRIZ parameters which will get worse
and need to be improved: determine the corresponding TRIZ
engineering parameters which get worse and need to be
improved from the contradiction matrix basing on the qual-
ity elements which are identified from step 1.4.
3.2 According to TRIZ contradiction matrix, denote the intersec-
tion of the improving and worsening parameters we picked.
3.3 Indicate the numbers of the TRIZ 40 inventive principles.
3.4 Connect the suggested principles to the specific conflict
points and generate all possible new functions of quality ele-
ments: when we indicate the 40 TRIZ inventive principles,
basing on the content of specified problem, the appropriate
examples of 40 TRIZ inventive principles developed could
be examined and benchmarked.
3.5 Present the feasible new functions of quality elements: fol-
lowing the indicated principles and suggested ways, we
may generate all possible new functions of the products
through various discussing meetings.
Adjusted sensorial distance
Size
Standby time
Fig. 6. the correlation matrix of HoQ.
C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533
Step 4. Kano’s Model and Refined Kano’s Model Analysis
4.1. Design Kano’s questionnaires by quality elements which we
present: we design the functional and dysfunctional ques-
tionnaires according to the quality elements we found, and
besides, an importance level of the quality elements is also
measured in this questionnaire. In this questionnaire, cus-
tomers indicate if they feel satisfied or dissatisfied with a
given situation, and first, a situation supposes the quality
is present or sufficient, and a second situation assumes the
quality is absent or insufficient.
4.2. Collect data from questionnaire survey: the customers who
fill the questionnaires must choose one the answers to
express his feelings: ‘satisfied (Like)’, ‘it should be that way
(Must-be)’, ‘I am indifferent (Neutral)’, ‘I can live with it (Live
with)’, ‘dissatisfied (Dislike)’. Then, we collect the responses
from the customers.
4.3. Analyze the data by Kano’s model and refined Kano’s model:
by combining the two answers in the Kano evaluation table,
we can classify customer’s requirements into a better under-
standing of product requirements, furthermore, from the
categorical analysis of Table 3, we attempt to get a better
understanding of how customers evaluate these created
RFID product functions by using the refined Kano model.
4.4. Categorize the quality elements: we summarize the quality
elements into various categories of importance and satisfac-
tion, and this information is left for new products designer’
reference.
Step 5. Propose suggestions from analysis:
Finally, according the results of Kano’s and refined Kano’s anal-
ysis, we can make a decision to determine whether a new RFID
product function will be implemented or not, and once quality
elements are categorized, products and services can be de-
signed to meet the various requirements for each quality
elements.
4. Implementation of the proposed approach
4.1. An illustrative example
An illustrative example of implementing QT-Kano model will be
given to demonstrate how to implement the proposed method. The
studied company, M company (name is assumed), is an electric
appliance manufacturer, and the application of RFID is one of the
new businesses in this company. The proposed QT-Kano model is
applied by the products designers (the participants included ser-
vice personnel, sales personnel, and the engineers from the R&D
department and quality assurance department) of M company,
and they are intending to pursuit the novel function development
of RFID products.
In step 1, the QFD analysis is established. We search for cus-
Negative tomer requirements of RFID from existing RFID applications, such
relation as entrance guarding, identification in hospitals, luggage classifica-
tion in airports, and so on. Besides, the potential needs of RFID
application from customer surveys are also discussed by the brain
storming meeting of products designers. Collectively, from the
claim information, there are three main categories classified and
18 various relating applications are collected, and Table 4 shows
the final results of discussion.
Then, the 18 items of customer’s requirements are converting to
12 quality elements shown in Table 5 by applying the HoQ tool. For
instance, we can find some applications need short sensorial dis-
tance and others need long sensorial distance (its because some
of them have passive RFID tags, and others are active ones).
Therefore, to satisfy both sensorial distances, we define a quality
 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533 15529

Table 4
The relating applications of RFID.
Negative relation
Category Relating applications
Transportation 1. Installed in the car when pass through toll station on
freeway
2. Installed in the garage to open the door when car enters
3. Consumption in the public transportation tools
4. For renting bike, motorbike and car
Daily life 5. Consumption in convenient store
6. Applied in operations in hospital
7. Remote control in health care
8. Guide in museum
9. Applied in hotel management 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10. Applied in the building’s entrance control

Adjusted sensorial distance

Receiving Distance
Novel 11. Applied in boarding pass for airport services

Financial expense
Unable to copy

Visual window
Standby time

Easy to carry
application 12. The shortest path identification in the public garage

Integrity

Security
Privacy

Storage
13. Applied in the restaurant for ordering meals

Size
14. Applied in mountain-climbing
15. Applied in the election
16. Taking care old persons at home
17. Deliver the registered letter
18. Parking fee or penalty

Fig. 7. The contradiction relationship between defined quality characteristics in

QFD.

Table 5
The defined RFID quality elements from customer requirement survey.
‘integrity VS privacy’, ‘privacy VS receiving distance’, and ‘receiving
No. Quality element Description distance VS financial expense’. For instance, we find the ‘‘adjusted
1 Adjusted RFID products can change the sensorial distance sensorial distance’’ will be conflicting with ‘‘standby time’’. Its easy
sensorial (switch to low or high frequency) to be understood if we want to increase the sensorial distance, the
distance usage time of battery will decrease. Therefore, the standby time of
2 Size The size of RFID products is the smaller the better
3 Standby time The standby time of RFID products can be as long as
RFID products will be shortened. All the contradiction relationship
possible between defined quality elements can be found in Fig. 7.
4 Integrity RFID products can integrate all daily requirements In step 3, new functions will be generated by TRIZ, and the con-
into one tag tradiction between the quality elements will be eliminated. For in-
5 Privacy RFID products can keep users’ private information
stance, we eliminate the contradiction relationship between
safe
6 Unable to copy RFID tags cannot be copied ‘‘adjusted sensorial distance’’ and ‘‘standby time’’ to create new
7 Security RFID products have high ability to secure personal product functions. Following the steps 3.1 to 3.5 of Fig. 5, and refers
information to Table 2, the feature to change is ‘‘21. Power’’ and the undesired
8 Easy to carry RFID products can be easy to carry result (conflict) is ‘‘17. Temperature’’. According to Table 1, we can
9 Receiving RFID products can receive information in a long
distance distance
find four suggested invention principles. They are ‘‘No. 2
10 Financial We can use RFID products to replace cash for Extraction’’, ‘‘No. 14 Spheroidality - Curvature’’, ‘‘No. 17 Another
expense payment
11 Storage The memory size of RFID products is the larger the
better
12 Visual window RFID products can have visual windows to display Table 6
information A part of TRIZ 40 Invention principles.

No. Attributes Descriptions

2 Extraction A. Separate an interfering part or property from an
object or system, or single out the only necessary
part or property
element called ‘‘adjusted sensorial distance’’ which means RFID
14 Spheroidality – A. Instead of using rectilinear parts, surfaces, or
products users can adjust the sensorial distance by themselves.
Curvature forms, use curvilinear ones; change flat surfaces to
As shown in Table 5, the 12 defined quality elements are: ‘adjusted spherical ones; parts shaped as a cube
sensorial distance’, ‘size’, ‘standby time’, ‘integrity’, ‘privacy’, ‘un- (parallelepiped) to ball-shaped structures
able to copy’, ‘security’, ‘easy to carry’, ‘receiving distance’, ‘finan- B. Use rollers, balls, spirals, domes
C. Change from linear to rotary motion, use
cial expense’, ‘storage’, and ‘visual window’, and their definitions
centrifugal forces
can also be found in this table. Accordingly, the correlation matrix
17 Another A. Move an object or system in two- or three-
of the 12 quality elements is constructed as Fig. 6, and the mutual
dimension dimensional space
relationships between each quality element are examined in step B. Use a multi-story arrangement of objects instead
2. of a single-story arrangement
In step 2, we need to find if there is any contradiction relation- C. Tilt or re-orient the object or system, lay it on its
ship between defined quality elements in the roof of HoQ. From the side
D. Use ‘another side’ of a given area
constructed correlation matrix (Fig. 6), we find there are eight pairs
of quality elements are considered to be strong negative relation- 25 Self-service/self- A. Make an object or system serve itself by
organization performing auxiliary helpful functions
ship, which are: ‘adjusted sensorial distance VS standby time’, ‘ad-
B. Use waste (or lost) resources, energy, or
justed sensorial distance VS receiving distance’, ‘size VS standby substances
time’, ‘size VS visual window’, ‘standby time VS visual window’,
15530 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533

dimension’’ and ‘‘No. 25 Self-service’’. Then, some alternatives can
be developed by using these principles which is shown in Table 6.
In this example, we use ‘‘No. 17 Another dimension’’ and ‘‘No. 25
Self-service’’. The possible solution is ‘‘the battery will be self
charged by solar power energy’’. Consequently, by implementing
TRIZ tool, 8 new RFID functions have been created and which are
summarized in Table 7 (in addition, 5 more new RFID functions
from customer requirement survey in the next step are also in-
cluded in this table).
In step 4, we attempt to get a better understanding of how cus-
tomers evaluate this created RFID product function, for instance, ‘‘If
the battery does not have the electricity, it can be charged by solar
power energy’’ by using Kano analysis. According to this definition,
two questions listed as below are constructed.
Q1: How would you feel if the battery does not have the elec-
tricity, it CAN be charged by solar power energy?
(A) Like (B) Must-be (C) Neutral (D) Live with (E) Dislike
Q2: How would you feel if the battery does not have the elec-
tricity, it CANNOT be charged by solar power energy?
(A) Like (B) Must-be (C) Neutral (D) Live with (E) Dislike
Besides, the level of importance from customers viewpoint has
to be measured, thus, we have to add another question as Q3, and
the Likert-type 5 scale is used.
Q3: How would you feel the importance of this function men-
tioned above?
Low 1h 2h 3h 4h 5h
Next, these questions are designed in the questionnaire and used to
survey customers’ opinions. In step 5, on analysis of the results, it
will be more detailed illustrated in Section 4.2.
4.2. Analysis of the results
This section will provide all implemental results of our pro-
posed model. In our survey, 131 questionnaires are mailed and
124 are returned. Among these samples, 68% of the collected sam-
ples are male and the age of 73% examples is below 30 years old.
Education background is above undergraduate/college (84%). Most
samples’ income per month is above NT 20,000 (51%). In 85% sam-
ples, the degree of accepting new technology equipments is high/
very high. Besides, the purposes of using RFID products are ‘‘trans-
portation’’ (37%) and ‘‘identification’’ (36%).
Table 8 provides the analysis results of Kano’s model and re-
fined Kano’s model. In Kano’s model, seven quality elements have
been considered as attractive, two are one-dimensional and four
are indifferent quality elements. The advantage of the refined Ka-
no’s model over the traditional Kano’s model is shown by the fol-
lowing description. In seven attractive elements, we find there
are four highly attractive quality attributes, which are ‘‘charge-
2’’, ‘‘financial expense-2’’, ‘‘integrity’’ and ‘‘price’’, in refined Kano’s
model. It means these four RFID functions are good weapons for
enterprisers to attract potential customers. These four highly
attractive functions in detailed descriptions are (1) ‘‘charge-2’’:
RFID products can be charged by vibrations; (2) ‘‘financial ex-
pense-2’’: When using RFID products to purchase stuffs, RFID tags
will require users to input password to double confirm the ex-
pense; (3) ‘‘integrity’’: RFID products can integrate all daily
requirements into one tag; (4) ‘‘price’’: The hardware of RFID prod-
ucts cost nothing and users only pay the service charges such as set
up cost and handling charge. Besides, the other three less attractive
quality elements which are ‘‘battery’’, ‘‘charge-1’’, and ‘‘storage’’ in
High refined Kano’s model. These three less attractive functions are
illustrated as (1) ‘‘battery’’: the battery can be charged automati-
cally by solar power energy; (2) ‘‘charge-1’’: RFID products can
be charged by using existing personal electronic products such as

Table 7
The created RFID product functions.

No. Source Function Description

1 TRIZ Adjusted sensorial Battery If the battery does not have the electricity, it can be charged automatically by solar power
distance VS standby time energy
2 TRIZ Adjusted sensorial Adjusted RFID products have a button to switch the sensorial distance (switch to low or high
distance VS receiving sensorial frequency). Or they can automatically change the sensorial distance by sensing different
distance distance locations
3 TRIZ standby time VS visual Charge-1 RFID products can be charged by using existing personal electronic products such as digital
window camera, laptop PC, cellular phone and PDA
4 TRIZ size VS standby time Charge-2 RFID products can be charged by vibrations
5 TRIZ integrity VS privacy Security RFID products can use meaningless code to represent and encrypt personal information
6 TRIZ privacy VS receiving Financial When using RFID products to purchase stuffs, RFID tags will automatically check the related
distance expense-1 information such as the expense amount, time, and location if match historically personal
records or not
7 TRIZ financial expense VS Financial When using RFID products to purchase stuffs, RFID tags will require users to input password to
receiving distance expense-2 double confirm the expense
8 TRIZ size VS visual window Information FRID products can display their information by using the screen of other available electronic
display products such as cellular phones, i pods, and so on
9 Customer Standby time The standby time of RFID products have been extended to 10 years
requirement
survey
10 Customer Integrity RFID products can integrate all daily requirements into one tag
requirement
survey
11 Customer Storage The memory size is large enough to store videos and photos
requirement
survey
12 Customer Unable to copy RFID tags have the ability to avoid duplication and copy. In addition, the RFID tags will be self
requirement destroyed if they are lost
survey
13 Customer Price The hardware of RFID products cost nothing. Users only pay the service charges such as set up
requirement cost and handling charge
survey
 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533 15531

Table 8
The results of Kano model and refined Kano’s model.

Care-free
Potential

Potential
Refined

High-O
High-O

High-O

High-O
High-O
High-O

High-A
High-A
Low-O
Less-A
Quality Importance Satisfaction Categories of Categories of

Kano
elements quality quality
attributes attributes in
in Kano’s refined

>20 k
Kano
model Kano’s

O
O

O
O
O
A

A
A
I

I
I
model
Battery 3.69 4.54 Attractive Less

Care-free

Care-free

Care-free
Care-free
Refined

High-A
High-A

High-A

High-A
High-A
High-O

High-A
High-A
attractive

Less-A
Kano
Adjusted sensorial 3.51 4.18 Indifferent Care-free
distance

‘‘High-A’’, ‘‘Less-A’’, ‘‘High-O’’, ‘‘Low-O’’, ‘‘Care-free’’, ‘‘Potential’’ denote ‘‘highly attractive’’, ‘‘less attractive’’, ‘‘high value-added’’, ‘‘low value-added’’, ‘‘potential’’, and ‘‘care-free’’, individually.
Income
Charge-1 3.76 4.50 Attractive Less

<20 k
Kano
attractive

O
A
A

A
A
A

A
A
I
Charge-2 4.06 4.42 Attractive Highly

I
I
attractive

Care-free

Care-free

Care-free
Potential

Potential
Security 4.6 4.61 One- High value

Care-free

Care-free
Care-free
Refined

High-O

High-A

High-A
High-A
dimensional added

Less-A
Kano
Financial 3.82 4.33 Indifferent Care-free
expense-1

Others
Financial 4.24 4.52 Attractive Highly

Kano
expense-2 attractive

O
A

A
A
I

I
I

I
I

I
I
Information 3.72 4.19 Indifferent Care-free
display

Care-free

Care-free
Standby time 3.65 4.27 Indifferent Care-free

Refined

High-A

High-A
High-O

High-O
High-A

High-A
Low-O
Less-A

Less-A
Less-A

Less-A
Integrity 4.22 4.73 Attractive Highly

Information technology acceptance

Kano
attractive
Storage 3.82 4.53 Attractive Less
attractive

Kano
High
Unable to copy 4.48 4.69 On- High value

O
O

O
A

A
A

A
I

I
dimensional added
Price 4.05 4.64 Attractive Highly

Care-free

Care-free
attractive
Refined

High-O
High-A

High-A

High-A
High-O

High-O

High-O
High-O
Less-A

Low-O
Less-A
Kano
Very high
Kano

digital camera, laptop PC, cellular phone and PDA; (3) ‘‘storage’’:

O
O

O
O

O
O
A

A
A
I

I
The memory size is large enough to store videos and photos. There-
fore, we can develop these three new product functions in a rela-
Care-free

Care-free

Care-free
Refined

High-O

High-O

High-O
High-A

High-O

High-O
High-A

High-A
High-A
Less-A

tive low importance to the company. As a result, the product

Kano

designers will adopt very different strategies towards the seven

Above 30

quality elements according to their importance.

Kano

In addition to the attractive category of quality attributes, there

O

O
O

O
A
A

A
A
I

are two attributes classified as one-dimensional, and identified as

high value added in refined Kano’s model. They are ‘‘security’’
Care-free

Care-free
Potential

Potential
Refined

and ‘‘unable to copy’’, and which are explained as (1) ‘‘security’’:

High-A

High-A
High-O

High-O
High-A

High-A
High-A
Less-A
Less-A
Kano

RFID products can use meaningless code to represent and encrypt

Below 30

personal information and (2) ‘‘unable to copy’’: RFID tags are with A, I, O represent ‘‘attractive’’, ‘‘indifferent’’, and ‘‘one-dimensional’’, respectively.
Kano

the functions of avoiding duplication and copy, in addition, the

Age

O
A
A

RFID tags will be destroyed by themselves if they are lost. Besides,

A

A
A
I

I
I

the responders of the survey considered these two attributes are

Care-free

Care-free

Care-free
Care-free

better when their importance is high. Therefore, these two func-

Refined

High-O
High-O

High-O
High-A
High-A

High-A
Less-A

Less-A
Less-A

tions can make a high contribution to customers’ satisfaction and

Kano

the product designers should make efforts to provide such func-

Female

tions to customers.
Kano

Finally, there are four quality elements classed as indifferent,

O
O

O
A

A
A

A
A

A
I

I
I

and identified as care-free in refined Kano’s model, that means, if

necessary, the product designers did not need to offer these attri-
Care-free

Care-free

Care-free
Care-free
Refined

High-A
High-O

High-O
High-A

High-A
High-A

High-A
Less-A

Less-A

butes in view of cost considerations. They are (1) ‘‘adjusted senso-

Kano

rial distance’’: RFID products have a button to switch the sensorial

Gender

distance (switch to low or high frequency) or the sensorial distance

Kano
Male

can be automatically changed by sensing different locations; (2)

O

O
A
A

A
A

A
A

A
I

I
I

‘‘financial expense-1’’: When using RFID products to purchase

stuffs, the function of RFID tags will be automatically activated to
Financial expense-1
Financial expense-2
Information display

check the relevant information such as the amount of expense,

Stratification analysis.

Adjusted sensorial
Variables quality

time, location, and which are matched the historical personal re-
Unable to copy
Standby time

cords or not; (3) ‘‘information display’’: The installed information

distance

of RFID products can be displayed by using the screen of other

Charge-1
Charge-2

Integrity
element

Security

Storage
Battery

available electronic products such as cellular phones, i pods, and

Price
Table 9

so on; (4) ‘‘standby time’’: The standby time of RFID products have
been extended to 10 years.
15532 C.-S. Lin et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 38 (2011) 15523–15533
Table 9 provides the results of stratification analysis by using
various variables such as gender, age, information technology
acceptance and income. We select several findings to discuss. Con-
sidering the variable of gender, female customers consider the
function that ‘‘When using RFID products to purchase stuffs, RFID
tags will require users to input password to double confirm the ex-
pense’’ as one-dimensional (high value added), but male customers
view this function as ‘‘attractive (highly attractive)’’. It might be
considered that the female customers have more opportunities in
shopping and they are more discreet in spending money than male
customers, and they preferred more secured mechanism like that.
Consequently, their thinking is different from which of male
customers.
Taking age into consideration, those whose age is below
30 years old think the functions ‘‘charge-1’’, ‘‘charge-2’’, and
‘‘price’’ are attractive elements, but those whose age is above
30 years old consider these three elements are indifferent or one-
dimensional elements. The same finding also can be surveyed in
considering the income variable. It indicates that the age is highly
correlated to income, it refers to young people have less income
than aged people. Therefore, the will pay much attentions on price
or charge. Besides, the same logic can be used to explain why
young people who have more free time to charge batteries and
consider the standby time of battery is indifferent, and aged people
think it is one-dimensional. And the young people who have less
income regard the ‘‘adjusted sensorial distance’’ as indifferent,
but the aged people who have more income think it is attractive.
That’s because the young consumers prefer to spend physical
strength instead of money. Contrarily, the old consumers prefer
to spend money to obtain the convenience of accessing RFID based
security guard systems.
If we consider the degree of information technology acceptance,
those who are with highly (very high or high) acceptance of the
high-tech equipments regard the elements ‘‘battery’’, ‘‘charge-2’’,
‘‘financial expense-1’’, ‘‘financial expense-2’’, ‘‘storage’’ as attrac-
tive or one-dimensional, but, those who are with low degree of
accepting new high-tech equipments think they are indifferent.
That’s because those who have high degree of accepting new
high-tech equipments have paid much attentions on studying
some novel functions and understand what they are. Therefore,
they can know how these novel functions work and consider they
are attractive. But, those who are with low degree of acceptance do
not exactly know what the novel functions are, thus, they consider
them as indifferent.
5. Conclusion
In this study, in order to create new RFID product quality ele-
ments, we proposed the QT-Kano model. This model can not only
help enterprisers to create new idea, but also to realize customers’
potential interests regarding the presented new RFID functions be-
fore the products are developed. Experimental results indicate the
QT-Kano model has the superiority in creating attractive quality.
Seven attractive RFID functions have been found in this study. Be-
sides, the QT-Kano model uses the refined Kano model other than
the traditional Kano’s model. The results of refined Kano’s model
can provide more precisely information to enterprisers when they
make a decision to determine whether a new idea will be
implemented.
Moreover, from the results, we also find that QT-Kano model
can create novel functions, but it might be not acceptable by cus-
tomers currently. Customers cannot imagine what they have not
experienced and what they do not know. That’s the reason why
those who have high degree of accepting new high-tech equip-
ments are better than those who have low high-tech acceptance
to recognize the created RFID functions. In addition, some new in-
vented functions might be viewed as ‘‘indifferent’’ today, but they
will become ‘‘attractive’’ tomorrow. This limitation can be solved
by displaying some prototypes of new products or using computer
animation to show customers about how the new created func-
tions actually work before developing these new products func-
tions. This problem may be a potential direction for future work.
Acknowledgement
This work is supported, in part, by the National Science Council
of Taiwan, ROC under grant NSC 98-2410-H-324-007-MY2.
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