Quality Function Deployment

Douglas M. Stewart, Ph.D. University of New Mexico

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

A Means of integrating the design process

Voice of the Customer Priorities of Marketing Product design knowledge of the Engineer (Production Planning and Design)

House of Quality
Interrelationships
Technical requirements Voice of the customer Relationship matrix Technical requirement priorities

Customer requirement priorities

Competitive evaluation
3

Quality Function Deployment

technical requirements
component characteristics process operations quality plan
4

Building a House of Quality

Gather customer attributes (in the words of the customer) Group attributes logically Assess relative importance of the attributes

Building a House of Quality (2)

Assess competitive performance on the attributes Describe product in terms of engineering characteristics Detail influence of engineering characteristics on customer attributes Detail interaction between engineering characteristics

Using the House of Quality

Prioritize on attributes that we do poorly on, or where we might increase our lead Determine what engineering characteristics strongly influence the desired attribute Check for adverse interactions and weigh tradeoffs Set target levels (not ranges) Link to lower level houses Parts characteristics Key process operations Production requirements

Problems With QFD

Matrix is too large

Prioritize on important attributes Analyzes independent subsystems independently

Customer priorities not clear

Consider segmenting market

Problems With QFD (2)

Customers stated preferences and actions differ

Use revealed preference techniques if you suspect a problem

QFD is messy
Not QFD, but rather the interaction between diverse groups is cause Stick with it, the results are worthwhile