Identifying Core Technongies Based on a Two-Stage QFD Model

In recent years, technologies have become an important driver for the development of all walks of life. There is no doubt that most part of investment is allocated to a few core technologies. Therefore, it is significant for companies and countries to identify core technologies. Nowadays, it is well accepted that the innovation arises from adequate satisfaction of customer needs. Thus, this paper proposes a two-stage quality function development (QFD) model to identify the core technologies from a demand-driven perspective. After obtaining customer needs, the cluster analysis is used to collect technological themes. Then, the relationship matrix between technological themes and primary manual codes is constructed. Finally, secondary manual codes can be calculated by patent information in Derwent patent database. In order to verify the validity of our model, patent data in the field of rehabilitation robots is used as an effective case study.