產品在同步設計的發展過程中，設計師必須考慮顧客的需求，以便在產品生命週期快速減短的市場趨勢上，迅速回應顧客的期望。對企業而言，產品設計問題或品質不良所造成的成本增加及售後服務問題，已成為影響企業利潤的另一個關鍵因素。然而企業內部的成本資料相當複雜，而且，各個產品因屬性不同，成本差異很大，故負責策略規劃的人員必須投入大量時間或金錢，使用決策分析工具，從資料庫中分析龐大的資訊，並就這些資訊進行交叉比對及重組，方可取得有意義的結果，以供產品上市或投資之最終決策參考。
由於在複雜變動快速的市場環境下，很難建立一個可以讓企業在整合設計與組裝過程，選擇最利其未來發展的產品開發策略及投資決策。基於此，本研究提出一個整合產品設計與組裝的流程，從市場與顧客需求的探討，藉由品質機能展開(quality function deployment, QFD)評估顧客需求與設計因素間的關係推論關鍵設計因素，應用層次聚類法(hierarchical clustering technique, HCT)、層級分析法(analytic hierarchy process, AHP)和灰關聯理論來分類、識別和評價顧客需求，並運用田口方法分析，確認最適的設計參數組合，以協助設計師設計符合顧客需求之最適產品，再導入產品組裝法則與生產組裝流程分析，以考量可製造性從而提昇產品品質，降低產品變異，並降低未來市場可能的品質損失，據以提高產品的顧客滿意度，最終確認的產品可行方案，再以灰色理論來評估生產製程與產品成本的關聯性，並建構灰色預測模型，供產品開發策略的決策參考。
為驗證整體系統的有效性，在產品設計階段，本研究以電子計時器的開發流程為例，從顧客需求進行產品設計的發展，再推導產品組裝法則整合於可製造性的評估上，並應用到吹風機及義式咖啡壺的個案上。最後藉分析一家企業產品開發與生產過程為個案，將產品設計與組裝流程以灰色理論聯結到企業的投資策略及獲利能力預測上，結果顯示，本研究所建議之決策系統可以達到企業於整合產品設計與開發決策的要求。

During a concurrent design process, the designer must focus on satisfying the changing customer requirements and reacting to the rapid decrease of the product life cycle in a dynamic market. Additionally, the cost that is induced by the quality delinquent and aftermarket service is a critical factor of the enterprise profitability. Enterprises do not publicly disclose their internal specific cost information, and each firm has its own product character and financial constitutions. Thus, the strategic planning or investments staffs first spend tremendous amounts of time to locate the necessary data in vast databases and then employ decision analyses tools to evaluate such enormous information quantities. Generally, this information requires cross-validation and reorganization using a number of analyses tools to obtain meaningful results. Fixed guidelines for investment decisions are difficult to provide. Thus, the most promising set of possible investments may be uncertain to enterprises when required to choose.
To solve this complex issue, this research proposes a product design process that integrates the grey relation approach with quality function deployment (QFD) and quality engineering. Notably, this process increases customer satisfaction and enhances product quality in response to global competition. The systematic market research results were obtained considering customer requirements (CRs). A hierarchical clustering technique (HCT), an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) grey theory were employed to identify, categorize and evaluate the CRs to rank their grey relational importance. The critical design characteristics have been identified using QFD were then evaluated to determine the noise and possible quality loss using the orthogonal Taguchi method. Besides, the assembly contact relationships and assembly processes analysis are also integrated into the design process for manufacturability evaluation.
Furthermore, this research probes the core product and competitiveness of an enterprise with limited data. By constructing a grey prediction model , this research validates the product capability core competitiveness and investment strategy assessment feasibilities. This research intends to develop a process that employs HCT and AHP to analyze enterprise internal capabilities and evaluate its market place with various competitor resources. Using this methodology, this work also aims to understand the enterprise advantages and disadvantages and then ascertain in which unique advantages it surpasses its competitors.
The research integrates design and assembly processes into a product development process, optimizing the product development quality and constructing an assessment and decision model for enterprise investment strategy. This robust product design process provides encouraging evidence for a novel method that can improve quality, reduce variation and increase customer satisfaction and enterprise profit. Additionally, a precision mechanical manufacturer was exemplified, the actual values demonstrated this methodology application feasibility in investment decision-making, hence demonstrating the value of this research.

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