Volume 4, Issue 12, December – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Application of Quality Function Deployment in

Developing an Air-Conditioning Unit
Siddhay Maharao Nabeel Sayed Sandeep Dasgupta
B.E. MECH B.E. MECH Asst. Professor, MECH Dept
DBIT, Mumbai DBIT, Mumbai DBIT, Mumbai

Abstract:- In today’s competitive market, companies is an eminent tool. It was first developed in Japan in the late
continually need to keep themselves updated with the 1960s as a kind of Cause-and-effect analysis, and then it
changing demand of the customer. The customer now was brought to the United States of America in the early
has a wide variety of products at competitive prices to 1980s. It obtained its immense popularity as a result of
choose from. In order to survive in this stringent numerous successes in automotive field. The flow-down
competition, it is very important to monitor the process of quality function deployment requires building of
requirements of the consumer. This is where Quality House of Quality. Quality Function Deployment is
Function Deployment plays an earnest and composed of four steps:
unfathomable role. Quality Function Deployment
(QFD) is a veracious process, which helps to determine  Completing the House of Quality.
product development characteristics, which includes  Product design (understanding the tolerance of each
technical requirements based on customer preferences. sub-part of a product in order to satisfy the customer
With the use of integrated matrix called House of needs)
Quality, the process considers the various influences  Process design (understanding the required production
acting during the design to promote concurrent process)
engineering, leading to aggrandize product acceptance.  Process control (determination of quality standards)
It is a planning tool used to fulfill customer expectations
including important quality assurance points, which Many companies consider that Quality Function
would be used until the production stage. This paper Deployment is focused only on the first stage. However, all
gives a systematic method to generate House of Quality stages are equally important for beneficial product
with an example of an air conditioner. development. Quality Function Deployment is most
essential when used in product development activities such
Application of this tool not only saves time and as Planning, Evaluation and Deployment.
efforts to manufacture a new air conditioner, but also
reduces risks related to the launch of a new product in Planning: The basic requirement of product planning
the market because of increasing competitiveness with is to have a precise definition of the customer domain. The
other existing brands. main objective is not only to create performance
parameters, but to enable the building of stratagem for
Keywords:- House of Quality, Voice of Customer, Weighted approaching and understanding customer needs. The
Approach, Technical Characteristics, Correlation Matrix, critical parameters thus considered, then form the content
Importance Ratings. for measurements of design.

I. INTRODUCTION Evaluation: For the provided product solution to get

accepted, it must be carried through basic functionality
A customer’s alacrity is for a reliable, capable and such as industry touchstones. The evaluation process
appeasing product, which performs without any difficulties. includes a detail of the expected technical needs for the
The Product Development and design transforms the upcoming product.
customer expectations into particular engineering and
quality characteristics. These characteristics can be Organizations are required to carefully consider the
efficiently fulfilled by the Total Quality Management effect of this process, as if long duration is required for
(TQM) tools namely Quality Function Deployment, collecting and implementing Voice of Customer then it
Concurrent Engineering, etc. might happen that these needs had already altered.

Quality Function Deployment also known as Matrix Deployment: During this process, the company must
Product Planning, Decision Matrices and Customer Driver determine which components are included in delivering
Engineering, is a focused tool for carefully understanding various targets and up to what percent they are involved in
the voice of customers and then effectively condone the required targets.
changes required according to the needs. Every
organization has customers (internal/ external/ many times
both). When working on either satisfying the needs and/or
just delighting the customers, Quality Function Deployment

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Volume 4, Issue 12, December – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
II. IMPORTANCE OF HOUSE OF QUALITY Advantages of House of Quality:
 Decreases the amount of time required for the planning
The House of Quality is the initial matrix in the four stage.
phase Quality Function Deployment process. It’s named as  Values all kind of customer needs.
the House of Quality because of the correlation matrix  Decreases the changes in design.
being roof-shaped is placed on the head of the main body of  Improves the product quality.
the matrix structure. The correlation matrix is used to  Reduces costs relating to manufacturing and design.
understand in what ways the defined product parameters  Prioritizes customer satisfaction.
optimize or sub-optimize each other. House of Quality is
the most prospective and simple tool used to transform III. STEPS INVOLVED IN BUILDING OF HOUSE OF
customer needs into technical attributes. House of quality is QUALITY
also known as Quality Matrix. It renders us with details like
customer requirements, technical points, relationship For the design of Split Air Conditioner with 1 TR
between the descriptors and target values for each of those. Capacity, following steps needs to be considered.
The skeleton of House of quality is as follows.
A. Capturing customer wants/needs (what are consumer
desires?)
The first step in the process for building a House of
Quality is to obtain the customer requirements from market.
Based on the narratives of the customers, a survey
(questionnaire) was prepared with the gathered information.
The questionnaire required the target audience to rate the
parameter on a scale of 1 to 5 (very unlikely to very likely).
An example is shown below in Figure 2. The priorities
(responses) in terms of weights were obtained from 1 to 5
(where, 1 states customer’s without any need and 5 states
customer with high needs) from the aforementioned survey
using weighted approach. The target audience was selected
randomly and involved 27 responses. Additional needs
were also recorded via feedback and Voice of Customers
not included in initial survey were added with a weight of
3. This turns out to be the left side wall or the Y – axis of
the House of Quality structure.

For example, for after sales service, the scales tipped

on the upper side depicting that a large portion of the target
audience were very likely to consider after sales service as
an important factor when purchasing a new air conditioner.
22 samples out of 27 (Figure 3) gave after sales service a
Fig 1:- Skeleton of House of Quality rating of 5. This data was then put in the formula for
weighted approach shown below to obtain the respective
The ceiling of the house provides various technical weight of the Voice of Customer. All the weights were
attributes. They are provided with various engineering calculated in a similar manner and they are listed below in
constraints in design, necessities and various parameters. Table 1
The roof of the house shows the inter-relationship between
various technical parameters. On the left side, the list of
customer needs is provided and on right side, prioritized
customer requirements are mentioned showing the
importance of needs. The interior of the house shows the
inter-relation between the voice of customers and technical
parameters. The cornerstone of the house reflects the
prioritized technical views.

The focus in House of Quality is the correlation listed

customer needs, called the ‘Whats’, and the engineering
parameters, called the ‘Hows’. It is kind of map which
provides required for communication and planning. All
departments need to work all together to prepare House of Fig 2:- Survey Sample Questionnaire for After Sales Service
Quality. So, the Quality Function Deployment team
involves the marketing, design and manufacturing
departments all working as one whole team.

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Volume 4, Issue 12, December – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Weighted approach = (A + B + C + D + E)/No of
Responses
= (1(1) + 2(0) + 3(1) + 4(3) + 5(22))/27
= 4.66 = 5

Where,
A=Number of customers who gave after sales service a
rating of 1,
B =Number of customers who gave after sales service a
rating of 2,
C = Number of customers who gave after sales service a
rating of 3,
D = Number of customers who gave after sales service a
rating of 4,
E = Number of customers who gave after sales service a
Fig 3:- Recorded Customer Responses rating of 5.

Where, X- axis = Importance rating,

Y-axis = Number of customers surveyed.

Sr No “What” customer needs? / Voice of customers (VOC) Weight

1 Cooling time 4
2 Warranty/ reliability 5
3 Star rating 4
4 After sales service 5
5 Aesthetics 3
6 Brand 4
7 Price range/cost (25000 to 40000rs) 4
8 Noiseless operation 3
9 Durability 5
10 Leakage tendency and condensate dripping 3
Table 1:- Recording Voice of Customers

To build a House of Quality, ruminating into these market. It is an indirect return for maintaining desired
main features is essential, quality levels over a period. Brand value signifies the
trust-worthiness of a Brand in the market.
 Cooling time implies how soon the air conditioner can  Price range implies the budget of the target consumer.
achieve the set temperature.  The major contributor for development of noise is the
 Warranty is usually a manifestation of the satisfaction compressor. Noiseless operation may play an important
and it gives the customer a sense of assurance. role in commercial surrounding.
 Star rating is a depiction of how efficiently an appliance  Durability implies that the components perform their
can function. A 5-star rating in the scale implies lower intended function without failure, damage over a period
energy consumption. It is calculated on the basis of of time.
Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) which is simply the  Leakage/ dripping includes refrigerant leakage from the
ratio of cooling effect produced (in watts) to the refrigerant lines as well as condensate dripping.
electrical energy.
 After Sales Service is not a factor considered in the B. Developing Technical Portion of the Matrix
design phase. It is a gesture to ensure customer After creating the Voice of Customer’s section of the
satisfaction. matrix, the next section is evaluated by asking “How will
 Aesthetics includes the looks, shape, size, weight and the product respond to Consumer wants/needs?” This
color options available for the air conditioner. includes set of parameters which when optimized, will lead
 Brand value is a long-term process, which is a by- to complete customer satisfaction. These parameters are to
product of prolonged consumer satisfaction in the be decided by the surveyors and planning team with the

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Volume 4, Issue 12, December – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
help of the technical team. The techniques used here may For example, the melting and boiling point of a
include quality circle, brainstorming etc. The selected refrigerant limit the temperature of air achievable inside the
technical characteristics are depicted in Table 2. As shown room and thus refrigerant type is directly related with air
in the Table 1, the Voice of Customers (VOC) are denoted temperature. All such positive relationships are identified
using numbers. with the symbol “+”. Similarly, an increase in air
circulation results in reduction in air temperature due to
The Voice of Customers are given their respective increased convection. All such negative relationships are
numberings from table 1. i.e. cooling time is numbered one, identified with the symbol “”. Technical Characteristics
warranty/ reliability is numbered two and so on. The Table with no relationship (mutually exclusive) between them are
2 depicts the relationship between the technical parameters left blank in the roof of House of Quality. This is shown in
and the Voice of Customers. For example, Air circulation is Figure 4.
a technical attribute which has a strong correlation with
Voice of Customers like cooling time ( 1 ) and noiseless
operation( 8 ). All such relationships are listed in Table 2.
On the other hand, Autonomous Operation doesn’t manifest
a strong correlation but is an important attribute
nevertheless (refer Table 3).

Voice of Customer
Technical Characteristics
(Customer Wants)
Air Circulation 1,8

Air Temperature 1

Moisture control 1,10

Compressor type 1,2,9

Type of refrigerant 1,8

Noise and vibration 1,8

Fig 4:- Correlation Matrix
Amount of energy
1,3
consumption D. Developing Relationship Matrix
Extra features 7 In this particular step, the relationship between the
Voice of Customers and technical attributes is identified.
Autonomous operation - Each Voice of Customer is referenced with every technical
characteristic to discover how the specific technical
Table 2:- Voice of Customers Transformed into Technical characteristic is identified with the particular Voice of
Attributes Customer. A Worth of nine is allocated for very solid
connection between Voice of Customer and technical
C. Identifying Inter-relationship between the Technical characteristic and worth of three and one is allotted for
Attributes solid and weak relationship respectively. For instance, the
The next step in building a House of Quality is to Voice of Customer, "Cooling time" has "Exceptionally
identify the inter-relationship between the technical Solid" association with technical characteristics like “Air
attributes. This step forms the triangular roof of the House circulation”, “Air temperature” and so forth. So in
and is also called as Correlation Matrix. When designing a relationship grid, the estimation of “9’ is appointed. For
new split air conditioner, an increase in Technical technical characteristic “compressor type” and Voice of
Characteristic A may bring about a change in Technical Customer “star rating” an estimation of “3” is allocated,
Characteristic B. The goal of this step is to identify such which depicts “Strong Relationship”. For technical
correlations and meter them accurately. For simplicity, we characteristic, “extra features” and Voice of Customer
incorporate the following symbols in our house of quality, “warranty/reliability” estimation of "1" is allocated, which
is for "Weak Relationship". Similarly, for each technical
 “+” = Positive (Strong) Correlation characteristic, relationship is found with each Voice of
 “ ” = No Correlation Customer and their respective grading is depicted in table 3
 “” = Negative Correlation shown below.

0 implies No relationship
1 implies Weak relationship
3 implies Moderate relationship
9 implies Strong relationship

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ISSN No:-2456-2165

Table 3:- Relationship Matrix

E. Developing Importance Ratings/ Raw Score For example, the customer desires aesthetics which
To ascertain the importance rating, importance rating, has an importance rating of 3 out of 5. Aesthetics has a
Weights for different Voice of Customers are multiplied by strong relationship with air circulation with 9 points. So, for
the respective grading with the technical characteristic its importance rating we simply multiply 3 by 9. Similarly
created in step 4. Then the summation of these calculated values of every column of technical characteristics is
values is done for the whole segment to acquire the raw multiplied with weights of Voice of Customers and
score for that column. summation of the scores for each column is noted in the
form of raw score/importance rating [ i.e. for air circulation
(9*4 + 5*1 + 4*3 + 3*9 + 3*9 + 3*3 = 116)].

Table 4:- Developing Importance Ratings

F. Evaluate Competing Products and Determine Technical Attributes

Similar surveys can be circulated wherein customer grades competing brands for similar Voice of Customers as Good (G),
Fair (F) or Poor (P) instead of Importance Ratings.

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Volume 4, Issue 12, December – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Now Voice of Customers with maximum weights can be targeted and specifications for the new product can be determined.
For e.g. Warranty has a weight of 5. Both competing brands are graded as good in warranty. Thus, the new product also has to
maintain similar or better levels of reliability

Table 5:- Finalized House of Quality

IV. BENEFITS OF QUALITY FUNCTION V. CONCLUSION

DEPLOYMENT
Customer’s requirements and their correlations with
 Customer Driven the design parameters are the tedious tasks of Quality
Focus on Customer Requirements Function Deployment (QFD) methodology. However, this
Prioritizes Resources tool gives manufacturers an option to effectively
Identifies Items that can be acted on comprehend, what the expectations of the potential
customers are, so that they can consolidate them in the
 Reduces Implementation Time planning and design phase. Products manufactured with
Decreases midstream design change this technique will be esteemed by the clients. It enables the
Limits post introduction problems companies to build quality into the required product and
Identifies future application opportunities also to control the development process. Quality Function
Deployment has been successful in manufacturing and
 Promotes Teamwork developing new products and a large number of companies
Open communication in many industries are using Quality Function Deployment.
Identifies action on interfaces .

 Provides Documentation
Easy to understand
Provides framework for sensitive analysis.

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Volume 4, Issue 12, December – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
REFERENCES

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[3]. Vonderembse, M.A. and Raghunathan, T.S. (1997)
Quality function deployment‟s impact on product
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[4]. NoraMuda and Noor Sulawati Mat Roji “A Quality
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