A Bi-objective Model of Research and Development in Battery Manufacturing Industry to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Reviewing the efficiency of Research and Development (R D) by giving an equal amount of importance to different R D actions can make the measuring process too simple, which may cause an inaccurate interpretation of the R D function and lead to an imprecise interpretation of R D models. R D comprises the creative work undertaken on a systematic basis to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture, and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications. This research provides a two-phase approach to designing an R D model in the auto battery manufacturing industry based on customer satisfaction. Due to the important role of R D in customer satisfaction, no study has been conducted in this field and industry. In the first phase, the effective models for R D management and the indices influencing customer satisfaction in R D models are identified. In the second phase, the significance coefficients related to the customer satisfaction indices are obtained by using the fuzzy SWARA (Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) as a multi-criteria decision-making method. Furthermore, each model’s importance and final priority are calculated by the fuzzy COPRAS (Complex Proportional Assessment) method. Finally, to apply the proposed framework in the battery manufacturing industry, a bi-objective R D model is presented. The coefficients obtained by the fuzzy COPRAS method are utilized as the input for the proposed model. Therefore, policy-makers and managers can perform their activities based on this method. The obtained results showed that the proposed framework is effective in the case under study.