Advanced Topics in Quality
Quality Function Deployment
QFD
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A QFD is used to capture the voice of the
customer and translate it into technical
information that an organization can use
in order to create or improve a product.
 Developed in Japan in the 1970s
 Dr. Akao
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QFD
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It is often called a
House of Quality
because:
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Customer
information is
shown horizontally Customer
Information
Technical
information is
Technical
shown vertically
Information
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QFD: A planning and communication tool
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Used for new product development
Used to conform to customer demands
Used any time you have customers and you need
to identify their expectations and turn that
information into workable technical
specifications.
Used to help set strategic targets
Used to help determine priority issues
Used for analysis
Used to estimate what the competition is doing
Used to integrate complex information
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QFD
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QFD encourages:
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Team building
Consensus
Creativity
Structure
Organization
Development of new ideas
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Building QFD
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Determine the Voice of the Customer
Have the customer rank the relative importance of his/her
wants
Have the customer evaluate your company against
competitors
Determine how the wants will be met
Determine the direction of improvement for the technical
requirements
Determine the operational goals for the technical requirements
Determine the relationship between each of the customer
wants and the technical requirements
Determine the correlation between the technical requirements.
Compare the technical performance with that of competitors
Determine the column weights
Add regulatory and/or internal requirements
Analyze the QFD matrix
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QFD
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Determine the Voice of the Customer: Four
types of customers
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Those customers we already have and can’t lose
Those customers we could lose easily
Those customers we could gain with minor product
changes
Those customers we can’t get.
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QFD
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Determine the Voice of the Customer:
Capturing Customer information
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Determine people to talk to
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Determine the target market
Determine whether or not to survey with or without
samples of the current product
Determine whether or not to use an outside organization
to conduct the surveys
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QFD
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Determine the Voice of the Customer:
Capturing Customer information
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Determine people to talk to
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Determine how to contact the customers
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Focus groups
Interviews (telephone, one-on-one, web/email)
Questionnaires
Observations
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QFD
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Step 1: Determine the Voice of the Customer
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What does the customer want?
Organize the Voice of the Customer
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Using one ‘voice’ per post-it note, write down all
information
Sort/organize the information (including verbatims) that
you have gathered
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Arrange the voices into groups
Place on diagram
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QFD
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Step 2: Have the customer rank the relative
importance of his/her wants
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Rank them all (Ten is highest rank. One is lowest.)
Step 3: Have the customer evaluate your
company against competitors
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Chose two competitors
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QFD
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Step 4: Determine how the wants will be met
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How will the company provide for the wants?
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Translate the Voice of the Customer
Turn verbatims into technical requirements
Customer Verbatim -> Technical Requirement
Cup stays cool -> Temperature at hand
Won’t spill or tip: -> Tip force at top
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QFD
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Step 5: Determine the direction of improvement
for the technical requirements
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A downward arrow means that improvement would
happen if we reduced the technical requirements
value
An upward arrow means that improvement would
happen if we increased the technical requirements
value
A circle means it should not be changed.
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QFD
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Step 6: Determine the operational goals for the
technical requirements
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QFD
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Step 7: Determine the relationship between each of the
customer wants and the technical requirements
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How does action (change) on a technical requirement affect
customer satisfaction with the recorded want?
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Strong positive correlation: Filled-in circle valued at 9
Positive correlation: open circle valued at 3
A weak correlation: triangle valued at 1
No correlation: empty box
Negative correlation: minus sign or x
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QFD
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Step 8: Determine the correlation between the
technical requirements.
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Strong positive correlation: Open circle
Negative correlation: minus sign or x
No correlation: empty box
Step 9: Compare the technical performance
with that of competitors
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QFD
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Step 10: Determine the column weights
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Multiply rankings by correlation values
Step 11: Add regulatory and/or internal
requirements
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QFD
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Step 12: Analyze the QFD matrix
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What did the customer want?
How is this supported by customer rankings and
competitive comparisons?
How well is the competition doing?
How does our company compare?
Where will our emphasis need to be?
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Some difficulties associated with QFD
(Dale 2003)
Determining who is the customer and
identifying their needs; in particular when the
market is new
A belief that QFD cannot begin until customer
needs have been totally defined
Customer information gathered by marketing
department alone
Matrices are developed which are too large
Failure to extend QFD
Skipping some of the steps and failing to pay
attention to detail
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QFD exercise - Chocolate Chip Cookies
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