ELINGKAR

W
MIM 2014-2017

Quality Function Deployment

In simple words QFD means: The voice of the customer translated into the
voice of the engineer.

Established

New

Technique useful
for:

arketM

To design a product well, a design teams needs to

know what it is they are designing, and what the
end-users will expect from it. Quality Function
Deployment is a systematic approach to design
based on a close awareness of customer desires,
coupled with the integration of corporate functional
groups. It consists in translating customer desires
(for example, the ease of writing for a pen) into
design characteristics (pen ink viscosity, pressure on
ball-point) for each stage of the product
development.

Derivative

First of a kind

Me too with

Next generation

a twist
Familiar

New

Product Concept

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

Ultimately the goal of QFD is to

translate often subjective quality
criteria
into objective
that can
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be quantified and measured and
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which
can then
used to design
and manufacture the product. It is a
complimentary method for
determining how and where
priorities are to be assigned in
product development. The intent is
to employ objective procedures in
increasing detail throughout the
development of the product.
Quality Function Deployment was
developed by Yoji Akao in Japan in
1966. By 1972 the power of the
approach had been well
demonstrated at the Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries Kobe Shipyard
(Sullivan, 1986) and in 1978 the
first book on the subject was
published in Japanese and then
later translated into English in 1994
(Mizuno and Akao, 1994).
In Akaos words, QFD "is a method for developing a design quality aimed at
satisfying the consumer and then translating the consumer's demand into
design targets and major quality assurance points to be used throughout the
production phase. ... [QFD] is a way to assure the design quality while the
product is still in the design stage." As a very important side benefit he points
out that, when appropriately applied, QFD has demonstrated the reduction of
development time by one-half to one-third. (Akao, 1990)

The 3 main goals in implementing QFD are:

1. Prioritize spoken and unspoken customer wants and needs.
2. Translate these needs into technical characteristics and specifications.
3. Build and deliver a quality product or service by focusing everybody
toward customer satisfaction.
Since its introduction, Quality Function Deployment has helped to
transform the way many companies:

Plan new products

Design product requirements

Determine process characteristics

Control the manufacturing process

Document already existing product specifications

QFD uses some principles from Concurrent Engineering in that crossfunctional teams are involved in all phases of product development. Each of
the four phases in a QFD process uses a matrix to translate customer
requirements from initial planning stages through production control (Becker
Associates Inc, 2000).
Each phase, or matrix, represents a more specific aspect of the product's
requirements. Relationships between elements are evaluated for each
phase. Only the most important aspects from each phase are deployed into
the next matrix.
Phase 1, Product Planning: Building the House of Quality. Led by
the marketing department, Phase 1, or product planning, is also
called The House of Quality. Many organizations only get through
this phase of a QFD process. Phase 1 documents customer
requirements, warranty data, competitive opportunities, product
measurements, competing product measures, and the technical
ability of the organization to meet each customer requirement.
Getting good data from the customer in Phase 1 is critical to the
success of the entire QFD process.

Phase 2, Product Design: This phase 2 is led by the

engineering department. Product design requires creativity and
innovative team ideas. Product concepts are created during this
phase and part specifications are documented. Parts that are
determined to be most important to meeting customer needs are
then deployed into process planning, or Phase 3.
Phase 3, Process Planning: Process planning comes next and
is led by manufacturing engineering. During process planning,
manufacturing processes are flowcharted and process
parameters (or target values) are documented.

Phase 4, Process Control: And finally, in production planning,

performance indicators are created to monitor the production
process, maintenance schedules, and skills training for
operators. Also, in this phase decisions are made as to which
process poses the most risk and controls are put in place to
prevent failures.

The House of Quality

The first phase in the implementation of the Quality Function Deployment process
involves putting together a "House of Quality" such as the one shown below, which is for
the development of a climbing harness.

Steps to the House of Quality

Step 1: Customer Requirements - "Voice of the Customer"
The first step in a QFD project is to determine what market segments will be
analyzed during the process and to identify who the customers are. The team
then gathers information from customers on the requirements they have for the
product or service. In order to organize and evaluate this data, the team uses
simple quality tools like Affinity Diagrams or Tree Diagrams.

Step 2: Regulatory Requirements

Not all product or service requirements are known to the customer, so the team must
document requirements that are dictated by management or regulatory standards that
the product must adhere to.
Step 3: Customer Importance Ratings
On a scale from 1 - 5, customers then rate the importance of each requirement.
This number will be used later in the relationship matrix.

Step 4: Customer Rating of the Competition

Understanding how customers rate the competition can be a tremendous competitive
advantage. In this step of the QFD process, it is also a good idea to ask customers how
your product or service rates in relation to the competition. There is remodeling that can
take place in this part of the House of Quality. Additional rooms that identify sales
opportunities, goals for continuous improvement, customer complaints, etc., can be
added.

Step 5: Technical Descriptors - "Voice of the Engineer"

The technical descriptors are attributes about the product or service that can be measured
and benchmarked against the competition. Technical descriptors may exist that your
organization is already using to determine product specification, however new
measurements can be created to ensure that your product is meeting customer need

Step 6: Direction of Improvement

As the team defines the technical descriptors, a determination must be made as to
the direction of movement for each descriptor.

Step 7: Relationship Matrix

The relationship matrix is where the team determines the relationship between customer
needs and the company's ability to meet those needs. The team asks the question,
"What is the strength of the relationship between the technical descriptors and the
customers needs?" Relationships can both be weak, moderate, or strong and carry a
numeric value of 1, 3 or 9.

Step 8: Organizational Difficulty

Rate the design attributes in terms of organizational difficulty. It is very possible that
some attributes are in direct conflict. Increasing the number of sizes may be in conflict
with the companies stock holding policies, for example.

Step 9: Technical Analysis of Competitor Products

To better understand the competition, engineering then conducts a comparison of
competitor technical descriptors. This process involves reverse engineering competitor
products to determine specific values for competitor technical descriptors.

Step 10: Target Values for Technical Descriptors

At this stage in the process, the QFD team begins to establish target values for each
technical descriptor. Target values represent "how much" for the technical descriptors,
and can then act as a base-line to compare against.

Step 11: Correlation Matrix

This room in the matrix is where the term House of Quality comes from because it makes the
matrix look like a house with a roof. The correlation matrix is probably the least used room in
the House of Quality; however, this room is a big help to the design engineers in the next
phase of a comprehensive QFD project. Team members must examine how each of the
technical descriptors impact each other. The team should document strong negative
relationships between technical descriptors and work to eliminate physical contradictions.

Step 12: Absolute Importance

Finally, the team calculates the absolute importance for each technical descriptor. This
numerical calculation is the product of the cell value and the customer importance rating.
Numbers are then added up in their respective columns to determine the importance for
each technical descriptor. Now you know which technical aspects of your product matters the
most to your customer.

The Next stage

The above process is then repeated in a slightly simplified way for the next three project
phases. A simplified matrix involving steps 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 & 11 above is developed.
The main difference with the subsequent phases however, is that in Phase 2 the process
becomes a translation of the voice of the engineer in to the voice of the part design
specifications. Then, in phase 3, the part design specifications get translated into the voice of
manufacturing planning.
And finally, in phase 4, the voice of manufacturing is translated into the voice of
production planning.

QFD is a systematic means of ensuring that customer requirements are accurately

translated into relevant technical descriptors throughout each stage of product
development. Therefore, meeting or exceeding customer demands means more than just
maintaining or improving product performance. It means designing and manufacturing
products that delight customers and fulfill their unarticulated desires. Companies growing
st
into the 21 century will be enterprises that foster the needed innovation to create new
markets.