Purpose – Companies face the challenge that they have to assess quality-relevant product properties of alternative concepts already in the early phases of product development projects. Therefore appropriate quality criteria including specifications have to be defined in order to support concept definition and selection processes. Methodology – Based on a literature study and a descriptive study in the industry current challenges for the quality definition in the early phases of product development were identified. Based on that, a methodology was developed prescriptively and applied in parallel in a case study in the automotive industry. Findings – We present a methodology for the deployment of quality criteria and show its application within a case study. Firstly, the set of quality criteria is configured. For these quality criteria specifications are defined on the basis of an analysis of competitive products and the existing product portfolio of the company. In the next step, the cost impact of the quality criteria is analyzed within a quality-cost-matrix. Based on that the design alternatives can be evaluated by the quality criteria. The outcome of the application of the methodology is a set of specified quality criteria. The criteria are classified regarding cost and quality impact and generic strategies are given. Value – The methodology has been successfully applied in a new product development project in the automotive industry. Hereby the industrial relevance and applicability could be demonstrated.     «

Purpose – Companies face the challenge that they have to assess quality-relevant product properties of alternative concepts already in the early phases of product development projects. Therefore appropriate quality criteria including specifications have to be defined in order to support concept definition and selection processes. Methodology – Based on a literature study and a descriptive study in the industry current challenges for the quality definition in the early phases of product developme...     »