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Quality Function Deployment

 Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a structured approach to defining customer needs or

requirements and translating them into specific plans to produce products to meet those needs.

 The Quality Functional Deployment is built on the fundamentals of Matrix Diagram to identify the
strengths of What’s & How’s

 The “voice of the customer” is the term to describe these stated and unstated customer needs or
requirements.

 This understanding of the customer needs is then summarized in a product planning matrix or “house of
quality”
QFD: Step 1 – Voice of Customer

 In Step 1, Voice of the Customer information that has been collected, sorted, and developed is entered
on the left side of the House of Quality matrix as the WHATs.
QFD: Step 2 – How’s to VOC

 In Step 2, a list of technical features is added across the top of the matrix.

 These are the HOWs or design elements necessary to satisfy the WHATs.

 Through the QFD process, the technical features are vetted against one another and against the WHATs
to determinehow wellthey satisfy the customer’s need
QFD: Step 3 – How’s Interaction
 One of the primary goals of QFD is to identify tradeoff areas that require a technological breakthrough
in order to satisfy both customer requirements.

 Numerical values can be used ranging from -9(strong negative interaction)to 9 (strong positive
interaction).

 Different QFD models may use different symbols, and may not use numerical values.
QFD: Step 4 – Main Interaction

 In Step 4, identify and evaluate the main relationships between the WHATs and HOWs. Using a
numerical and color-coded key, identify the strength of the interaction between characteristics.

 Those How’s that interact most strongly with the most high-priority What’s become the highest priority
solutions to meet customer requirements.
QFD: Step 5 – Competitive Analysis

 In Step 5, first identify the priority of each customer requirement. We have used a 1-5 scale. You may
need to interview / survey customers to collect this priority information.

 After establishing customer priorities, add competitive information from benchmarking analysis. This
will help determine whether your design actions will yield a competitive advantage.
QFD: Step 6 – Deployment Priority

 In Step 6, calculate the deployment priorities for each Technical Feature by adding the product of each
interaction value (from Step 4) multiplied by the Customer Priority value.

 Rank the scores to get an idea of which Technical Features are most important to satisfy the array of
Customer Requirements
QFD: Notes
 When tradeoffs between features are present, the decision should be weighted in favor of the higher
ranking feature.

 Post 6 Steps, the current How's will become What's of next house i.e., once the Design parameters are
found then process parameters are discovered as well with similar process.

Expert's Comment
 All that you wanted to know about QFD is that it is the most important tool of DMADV project and can
be used stand-alone.

 I have used QFD in all my new initiatives, be it my E-commerce business that I had set up, current
Lean6sigmapro & Skoolz.in business, the methodology has given me results. All the time.
What Is Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and
Why Do We Use It?
5 min. read

Quality function deployment is a LEAN technique that is a little out of scope for Six
Sigma Green Belt practitioners and more useful for Black Belt practitioners. Yet, it
is a powerful tool to design processes or products according to customer
requirements. Quality function deployment is abbreviated as QFD. It fits into the
Define phase of the DMAIC structure as briefly stated in the online free Six Sigma
training. It is one of many LEAN techniques in the LEAN toolbox that are discussed
in Six Sigma Green Belt training. Let’s talk about quality function deployment!

Attend our 100% Online & Self-Paced Free Six Sigma Training.

https://blog.masterofproject.com/qfd/

Quality Function Deployment Definition

Once information about customer expectations has been obtained, techniques such as
quality function deployment can be used to link the voice of customer directly to
internal processes. QFD is not only a quality tool but also an important planning
tool. It allows the consideration of the “voice of the customer” along the service
development path to market entry.
There is no single definition for quality function deployment, but a general basic
concept of this method is as follows:
“Quality Function Deployment is a system with the purpose of translating and planning
the VoC into the quality characteristics of products, processes and services for reaching
customer satisfaction”

History of QFD
The tool was first used to design an oil tanker at the Kobe shipyards of Japan in 1972
by Yoji Akao and Shigeru Mizuno to design customer satisfaction into a service
offering before it is produced. Prior to this, quality control methods were primarily
aimed at fixing a problem during or after production. In the mid-1980s, Don Clausing
of MIT introduced this design tool to the United States. A classic product design
application is in the automotive industry. In fact, Clausing tells of an engineer who
initially wanted to place the emergency hand brake of a sports car between the seat
and the door. However, the voice of customer testing found that women drivers
wearing skirts had difficulty with the new placement of the hand brake. The Quality
Function Deployment highlighted potential dissatisfaction with the location of this
feature, and the idea was scrapped.
Benefits of QFD
 Quality Function Deployment is a powerful prioritization tool that combines
several different types of matrices into one to form a house-like structure.
 Quality Function Deployment is a customer-driven process for planning
products and services.
 It starts with the voice of the customer, which becomes the basis for setting
requirements.
 Quality Function Deployment provides documentation for the decision-
making process.
 QFD helps you to:
o Translate customer requirements into specific offering specifications
o Prioritize possible offering specifications and make trade-off decisions
based on weighted customer requirements and ranked competitive
assessment

The QFD technique is based on the analysis of the clients’ requirements, which
normally are expressed in qualitative terms, such as: “easy to use”, “safe”,
“comfortable” or “luxurious”. In order to develop a service, it is necessary
to “translate” these fuzzy requirements into quantitative service design
requirements; QFD makes this translation possible. Quality Function Deployment is
also a system for design of a product or service based on customer demands, a system
that moves methodically from customer requirements to specifications for the product
or service. QFD involves the entire company in the design and control activity.
Finally, QFD provides documentation for the decision-making process

QFD House of Quality Matrices

QFD matrices also called “the house of quality”, are graphical displays of the result
of the planning process. QFD matrices vary a great deal and may show such things as
competitive targets and process priorities. The matrices are created by
interdepartmental teams, thus overcoming some of the barriers which exist in
functionally organized systems
In this figure, we can see the QFD diagram. In its most complete state, this
information constructs the five “rooms” in the QFD house.
  The What or Wants: Customer requirements, needs, and priorities that form
the far left-wing of the house
 The Competitive Assessment: Compares customer priorities with appropriate
marketplace offerings, across key competitive deployments, which forms the
right-wing annex of the house
 The How: The offering’s technical design features, functionality, and
characteristics to meet the customer requirements. This forms the attic of the
house
 The Design Relationships: Describes the interrelationship between the design
features, which form the roof of the house
 The Foundation: Uses benchmarked target values as objective measurements
to evaluate each characteristic, forming the basement of the house

Quality Function Deployment Process

Let us briefly have a look at the QFD approach; which is used for the purpose of
designing an error free process or product. In this approach, design engineers
typically start progressive drill-down approach with planning the development and go
through four phases to reach a deeper understanding of the required process control
and quality. The details are as follows:

1. Product Planning QFD. It helps identify service offerings characteristics, that

best meet customer requirements, helps analyze competitive opportunities,
and establishes critical target values too.
2. Component Deployment QFD. It helps identify the critical parts and assembly
components using the prioritized offering characteristics in QFD 1 and
establishes critical target values.
3. Process Planning QFD. It helps determine critical process operational
requirements and elements using the prioritized components in QFD 2 and
establishes critical process parameters
4. Quality Control QFD. It helps prioritize the process control methods and
parameters and establishes production and inspection methods that best
support the prioritized process elements of QFD 3
The diagram shown here will also help you understand the QFD methodology here.
Each matrix in the four-step approach is related to the previous matrix. Once the
matrices are completed, Six Sigma Black Belt practitioners can use the information to
design their process or product according to critical target values and customer
requirements. Six Sigma is all about producing products or services that deliver on
customer demands. Quality function deployment is just another way to design
processes that produce products or services that satisfy the customer.

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