Competitive intelligence – Quality function deployment integrated approach to identify innovation opportunities
Adriana Tahereh Pereira Spinola, Marcelo Barreto Pereira Bezerra, José Angelo Rodrigues Gregolin
Abstract
Technological innovation has been the subject of discussion countrywide for playing a leading role in economy. An important factor in innovation is the identification of technological opportunities. However, companies differ on the capacity on noticing and exploring these opportunities. Moreover, it is important to consider the customers’ needs at this stage because it ensures a safer way to successful identification and introduction of new products/processes. In this context, the objective of this research is to present the development of a Competitive Intelligence (CI), an analytical model integrated to the QFD (Quality Function Deployment) technique to identify technological innovation opportunities focused on customers’ needs. In this analytical model, QFD was applied as one of the analytical tools of the CI. The primary purpose was to integrate the development of strategic vision originated from the CI with the identification of customers’ needs resulted from the QFD. The developed methodology was applied in a small company in the Limeira Industrial Pole - Brazil, known as Latin America’s biggest producer and exporter of plated jewelry. The results demonstrated the efficiency of the methodology proposed in identified potential technological innovations besides providing useful information to the decision-making process in technological development and management.