Using IDEF and QFD to develop an organizational decision support methodology for the strategic justification of computer-integrated technologies

The paper presents some issues relevant to the strategic justification of computer-integrated enterprise technologies for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. To address the issue of making a strategic justification or ‘business case’ for these technologies, an organizational decision-making methodology that incorporates the strategies of the firm is needed, among other requirements. A research and development approach that integrates Quality Function Deployment and idef0 functional modeling to determine the requirements and processes for the justification methodology is presented. This approach has implications for future research and development for similar organizational decision-support processes and business-process reengineering.