A Quality Function Deployment
methodology for product development
Ryan Craig
Graduate Student
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Ohio University
Presented by Dr. David Koonce, PHD
Overview
–
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an
Industrial and Systems Engineering tool used in
product development
–
Developed by Dr. Yoji Akao in 1966
–
Comprised of a number of processes, notably the
House of Quality, and Kano’s model (Hauser and
Clausing, 1988)
Background: QFD Tools

House of Quality
–
A series of matrices that define the relationship
between product features and customer driven
quality/satisfaction
–
Takes direct customer input data to help design the
product, as well as input from cross function product
development teams
–
–
–
–
Marketing
Engineering
Sales
Management
(Hauser and Clausing, 1988)
Background: House of Quality
Basic House of Quality matrix
(Revelle Moran and Cox, 1995)
Background: House of Quality
Customer
Input
Quality score
output (choose
largest for
optimal product
design)
Completed House of Quality
(Improvement Encyclopedia, 2007)
Background: House of Quality

Customer inputs are typically marketing surveys (web based
and paper)
–

Customers typically ask for all possible features with no concept of
trade offs and production costs. Leads to end product similar to “Swiss
Army Knife.” These types of products have difficulty in the market.
Potential area for improvement
Quality output score determines which product will be produced
along with the related features
(Hauser and Clausing, 1988)
Background: House of Quality

How does the HOQ work into the overall
product development and manufacturing
process?
Background: House of Quality
House of Quality throughout the manufacturing/development process
(Qimpro Standards Association)
Background: Kano’s Model


Model of customer satisfaction for product
features and attributes. Essential to developing
products for respective benefit segments
Three types of features




Attractive Quality: Cutting Edge (Exponential Increase)
One Dimensional Quality: Standard Features (Linear)
Must-Be Quality: Required Features (Exponential
approaching sufficient quality)
Leads to three types of customer segments
Kano, 2003
Background: Kano’s Model
Problem Statement

How can the customer input of the house of
quality be improved as to produce a sellable,
marketable product that avoids the “Swiss Army
Knife” result of running HOQ/QFD?

How can the overall product development
process be streamlined for the consumer
electronics industry and the various types of
customers?
Methodology


By using industry standard web surveys, the
voice of the customer can be easily capture
and analyzed
In order to avoid the “Swiss Army Knife”
problem, an orthogonal design is used to
structure the questions and responses
Capturing the Voice of the Customer

Using SPSS, an orthogonal design of the
desired features is created
–
–
For this example of designing a consumer
electronics internet radio audio product, 8
features were compared
8 features, 2 levels (Yes/No)
Orthogonal Design/Survey Design

The orthogonal design creates 8 ‘cards’
which are composed of different
combinations of features
–

Each card is a different combination based on the
orthogonal design of the original number of
attributes
Survey respondents are asked to rate
likeliness to purchase each product
presented by one of the 8 cards
Survey Design

Example:
–
If you could purchase a home audio product that allows you to listen to Pandora
(www.pandora.com) Internet radio without a computer that does the following:
-Sets up out of the box automatically when you plug it in
-Connects to wired (Ethernet) Internet
-Can be moved around the home or office freely
-Includes over 11,000 Internet radio stations for free including news, sports, and
talk radio from around the world (in addition to Pandora Internet radio)
How likely would you be to purchase this product?
(Scale of 1-7)
Survey Results


After obtaining the desired number of
respondents and survey results, optimal
feature sets can be determined
Likeliness to purchase (sum of the number of
respondents that respond higher than
‘undecided’) is added to each survey card
Clustering Algorithm


Using a 2-stage clustering method of Wards
and K-Means++, multiple feature sets based
on the voice of the customer are created for
input into the house of quality\
Optimally 3 feature sets in order to match
Kano’s model
House of Quality

With the customer input section of the house
of quality completed with the voice of the
customer, input from the cross functional
teams can be collected
–
Marketing, Management, Sales, Engineering
Optimizing the HOQ


Using Moskowitz and Kim’s QFD optimizer
software, the product design can be
analyzed and improved using the VOC and
input from the cross functional teams
Maximizes quality score
Result

Using the obtained quality scores, the cross
functional team can make an informed
decision on which product to proceed
developing
Questions?