Wheelchair’s Design Development for Disabled People in Yogyakarta, Using Quality Function Deployment Method

Abstract

A wheelchair is one of the most common tools for disabled people to mobilize. Using a proper and correct wheelchair will help the disabled to improve their life’s quality and also their social condition. Unfortunately, most of the wheelchairs are not correctly built or in a proper condition to be used, even worse, the disabled are usually not using the correct wheelchair type for their diseases. This research shows 7 parameters that were used to develop a new wheelchair’s design the customers want. The 7 parameters namely: wheelchair’s aesthetic, weight, safety, wheelchair’s mechanism, ergonomics, usability, and economic factors will then be used in the QFD process in order to find the customer’s need. This paper is implementing the QFD in order to create a better wheelchair for the disabled. The output of this research is a new kind of wheelchair that the users, in this case, is disabled, want according to the questionnaire they filled in. The final specifications of the wheelchair will be having 3 wheels, and the dimensions will be 39 cm X 39 cm on the seat and 64 cm X 15 cm on the wheel. The seat will be a sir filled the seat and will also have 5-6 cm thickness. The Final design of the wheelchair will be returned back to the users to undergone a validation process.