House of Quality 

is a diagram, resembling a house,[1] used for defining the relationship

between customer desires and the firm/product capabilities.[2] It is a part of the Quality Function
Deployment (QFD) and it utilizes a planning matrix to relate what the customer wants to how a
firm (that produces the products) is going to meet those wants. It looks like a House with a
"correlation matrix" as its roof, customer wants versus product features as the main part,
competitor evaluation as the porch etc. It is based on "the belief that products should be designed
to reflect customers' desires and tastes".[3] It also is reported to increase cross functional
integration within organizations using it, especially between marketing, engineering and
manufacturing.

The basic structure is a table with "Whats" as the labels on the left and "Hows" across the top.
The roof is a diagonal matrix of "Hows vs. Hows" and the body of the house is a matrix of
"Whats vs. Hows". Both of these matrices are filled with indicators of whether the interaction of
the specific item is a strong positive, a strong negative, or somewhere in between. Additional
annexes on the right side and bottom hold the "Whys" (market research, etc.) and the "How
Muches". Rankings based on the Whys and the correlations can be used to calculate priorities for
the Hows.

House of Quality analysis can also be cascaded, with "Hows" from one level becoming the
"Whats" of a lower level; as this progresses the decisions get closer to the
engineering/manufacturing details.

House of Quality Chicken was a theory proposed by Harsimran Gill. Gill suggested that certain
chicken has a specific quality standard and that it is this chicken that is considered 'quality
chicken'. Gill has an Masters and PhD in TQM and Chicken.

A Flash tutorial exists showing the build process of the traditional QFD "House of Quality"
(HOQ).[4] There are also free House of Quality templates available that walk users through the
process of creating a House of Quality.[5]
Every successful company has always used data and information to help in its planning
processes. In
planning a new product, engineers have always examined the manufacturing and performance
history of the
current product. They look at field test data, comparing their product to that of their competitor’s
product.
They examine any customer satisfaction information that might happen to be available.
Unfortunately,
much of this information is often incomplete. It is frequently examined as individual data,
without
comparison to other data that may support or contradict it.
By contrast, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) uses a matrix format to capture a number of
issues that
are vital to the planning process. The House of Quality Matrix is the most recognized and widely
used
form of this method. It translates customer requirements, based on marketing research and
benchmarking
data, into an appropriate number of engineering targets to be met by a new product design.
Basically, it is
the nerve center and the engine that drives the entire QFD process. According to Hauser and
Clausing, it is
“a kind of conceptual map that provides the means for interfunctional planning and
communication.”
There are many different forms of the House of Quality, but its ability to be adapted to the
requirements of a
particular problem make it a very strong and reliable system to use. Its general format is made up
of six
major components. These include customer requirements, technical requirements, a planning
matrix, an
interrelationship matrix, a technical correlation matrix, and a technical priorities/benchmarks and
targets
section.
2
The Voice of the Customers
The initial steps in forming the House of Quality include determining, clarifying, and specifying
the
customers’ needs. These steps lay the foundation for a clearly defined venture and will ensure a
project or
process is well thought out prior to any further development.
Clarifying Customer Needs
Customers buy benefits and producers offer features. This seems like a relatively simple notion,
however,
unless customers and producers are perfectly in tune with one another, it may be very difficult to
anticipate
these features, or each underlying benefit from each producer. It is of utter importance to
translate the
wishes of each and every customer into some tangible values that can be turned into engineering
specifications. Some of theses features include but are not limited to:
· Parts · Costs · Functions
· Quality Character& Reliability · Processes · Tasks
· Figure 1: Examples of Customer Needs
Specifying the Customer Needs
After determining what items are most important to the customer, organizations must translate
them into
particulate specifications. Nothing can be produced, serviced or maintained without detailed
specifications
or some set of given standards. Each aspect of the desired item must be clearly defined:
Measurements
must be defined, heights specified , torques stated, and weights targeted.
These values can be derived from several locations. Organizations can use known data from
market
research, or conduct new studies to gather necessary information. In any event, the needs, which
were
clarified and then explicitly stated, should be satisfied to the best of that organization’s ability.
Technical Requirements
The next step of the QFD process is identifying what the customer wants and what must be
achieved to
satisfy these wants. In addition, regulatory standards and requirements dictated by management
must be
identified. Once all requirements are identified it is important to answer what must be done to the
product
design to fulfill the necessary requirements. Figure 2 explains how to use a requirement chart to
help the
design process.
3
Requirements What
A list of requirements from customers,
management and regulatory standards
An expanded list of what needs to be done
to the product to fulfill the requirements
· Figure 2. Requirement Chart
Planning Matrix
The next step in the QFD process is forming a planning matrix. The main purpose of the
planning matrix is
to compare how well the team met the customer requirements compared to its competitors. The
planning
matrix shows the weighted importance of each requirement that the team and its competitors are
attempting
to fulfill. Customer ratings, typically ranging from 1 to 5, are given to each company under each
requirement. The customer ratings are combined with the weighted performance of each demand
to
produce an overall performance measure for the companies. The planning matrix is a part of the
“House of
Quality” matrix.
Interrelationship Matrix
The main function of the interrelationship matrix is to establish a connection between the
customer’s
product requirements and the performance measures designed to improve the product. The first
step in
constructing this matrix involves obtaining the opinions of the consumers as far as what they
need and
require from a specific product. These views are drawn from the planning matrix and placed on
the left side
of the interrelationship matrix.
With this customer overview, the company can begin to formulate a strategy to improve their
product. In
doing this, the strengths and weaknesses of the company are weighted against the customer
priorities to
determine what aspects need to be changed to surpass the competition, what aspects need to
change to equal
the competition, and what aspects will be left unchanged. The optimal combination is desired.
Knowing what improvements need to be made allows the list of performance measures to be
generated and
displayed across the top of the interrelationship matrix. By definition, a performance measure is
a technical
measure evaluating the product’s performance of a demanded quality (Terninco). In other words,
the
company must take the voice of the customer and translate it into engineering terms. The matrix
will have
at least one performance measure for each demanded quality.
4
After setting up the basic matrix, it is necessary to assign relationships between the customer
requirements
and the performance measures. These relationships are portrayed by symbols indicating a strong
relationship, a medium relationship, or a weak relationship. The symbols in turn are assigned
respective
indexes such as 9-3-1, 4-2-1, or 5-3-1. When no relationship is evident between a pair a zero
value is
always assigned. The interrelationship matrix should follow the Pareto Principle keeping in mind
that
designing to the critical 20% will satisfy 80% of the customer desires (Terninco). Therefore,
there should
not be a significant number of strong relationships between pairs.
Technical Correlation Matrix
Performance measures in existing designs often conflict with each other. The technical
correlation matrix,
which is more often referred to as the Roof, is used to aid in developing relationships between
customer
requirements and product requirements and identifies where these units must work together
otherwise they
will be in a design conflict. The following symbols are used to represent what type of impact
each
requirement has on the other.
. - Strong positive
. - Positive
x - Negative
xx - Strong negative
These symbols are then entered into the cells where a correlation has been identified. The
objective is to
highlight any requirements that might be in conflict with each other.
Any cell identified with a high correlation is a strong signal to the team, and especially to the
engineers, that
significant communication and coordination are a must if any changes are going to be made. If
there is a
negative or strongly negative impact between requirements, the design must be compromised
unless the
negative impact can be designed out. Some conflicts can’t be resolved because they are an issue
of physics.
Others can be design-related, which leaves it up to the team to decide how to resolve them.
Negative
impacts can also represent constraints, which may be bi-directional. As a result, improving one
of them
may actually cause a negative impact to the other. Sometimes an identified change impairs so
many others
that it is just simply better to leave it alone. According to Step-By-Step QFD by John Terninko,
asking the
following question when working with this part of the House of Quality helps to clarify the
relationships
among requirements: “If technical requirement X is improved, will it help or hinder technical
requirement
Z?”
5
Many technical requirements are related to each other so working to improve one may help a
related
requirement and a positive or beneficial effect can result. On the other hand, working to improve
one
requirement may negatively affect a related requirement as mentioned above. One of the
principal benefits
of the Roof is that it flags these negative relationships so they can be resolved. If these issues
aren’t settled
satisfactorily, some aspects of the final product will dissatisfy the customer.
Technical Properties & Targets
The technical properties matrix uses specific items to record the priorities assigned to technical
requirements. It also provides a technical performance achieved by competitive products and the
degree of
difficulty in developing each requirement. The final output of the matrix is a set of target values
for each
technical requirement to be met by the new design. In some cases, organizations are not able to
create the
most optimum design because of constraints related to cost, technology, or other related items.
Setting Design Targets & Benchmarks
The customer requirements are distributed across the relationships to the quality characteristics.
This gives
an organization prioritized quality characteristics. High priority quality characteristics usually
indicate that
working on this technical issue will deliver great value to the customer. A high quality
characteristic weight
indicates strong relationships with high priority demanded quality items.
An organization’s current products can be benchmarked technically with competitors' products
on the high
priority quality characteristics. In many cases, organizations should not be surprised to learn that
competitors are better at a given task or characteristic. QFD assists organizations to identify
technical areas
and to develop areas where they can achieve the most cost effective customer satisfaction.
Organizations
can then examine the Customer Context for usage concerns that must be accounted for, and set
design
target specifications for our quality characteristics. At a minimum, current performance
standards should be
maintained.
Conclusion
The House of Quality functions as a living document and a source of ready reference for related
products
and future upgrades. While it is a great communication tool at each step in the process, the
matrices are the
means and not the end. Its purpose is to serve as a vehicle for dialogue to strengthen vertical and
horizontal
communications.
6
Through customer needs and competitive analysis, the House of Quality helps to identify the
critical
technical components that require change. Issues are addressed that may never have surfaced
before.
These critical issues are then driven through the other matrices to identify the critical parts,
manufacturing
operations, and quality control measures needed to produce a product that fulfills both customer
needs and
producer needs within a shorter development cycle time.
The net effect of all of this is that the items that drive the company’s actions are driven by the
customer’s
requirements. There is an increased focus on the customer and an increased awareness of their
wants.
Because of this focus, the process leads to improved customer understanding and the ultimate
outcome – a
satisfied customer

The Goalpost (Traditional) View of Quality

Traditionally, companies measure quality by the number of defects or the defect rate. In this
system, defects are identified through inspections of the materials and products. Upper and lower
quality limits are established. Everything that does not fall within the limits is considered a
defect.

This view is referred too as the goalpost view because it can be conformed to the use of
goalposts in football. If the extra point goes between the goal posts it is considered a success. It
does not matter whether or not it is in the center or close to the sides. However, if the ball goes
wide, left or right, it is unsuccessful. Exhibit 1 shows this view.
  

The Quality Loss Function (QLF)

The quality loss function is based on the work of electrical engineer, Genichi Taguchi. This view
disagrees with the traditional (goalpost) view. The quality loss function recognizes that products
falling between specific limits are not all equal. The four following statements summarize
Taguchi’s philosophy.

1. We cannot reduce cost without affecting quality.

2. We can improve quality without increasing cost.
3. We can reduce cost by improving quality.
4. We can reduce cost by reducing variation. When we do so,
    performance and quality will automatically improve.

In Taguchi’s view, quality is not defined by specific limits, but rather on whether or not it creates
a financial loss to society. An example given is a defective automobile exhaust system creating
air pollution.
There are many types of quality loss functions. However, in all types, the loss is determined by
evaluating variation from a specific target. Taguchi’s philosophy includes three general ways to
evaluate the relationship between quality and variability.

Nominal is better approach

In this approach, the closer to the target value, the better. It does not matter whether the deviation
is above or below the target value. Under this approach the deviation is quadratic. The following
exhibit portrays the nominal is better approach.

Smaller is better approach

The smaller is better approach is when a company desires smaller values. As the value gets
larger, the loss incurred grows. The following exhibit portrays the smaller is better approach.

Larger is better approach

Larger is better occurs when a company desires higher values of a characteristic. Two examples
given are employee participation and the customer acceptance rate. Under this approach, the
larger the characteristic, the smaller the quality loss function. The following exhibit portrays the
larger is better approach.

Uses of Quality Loss Function (QLF) Data

1. Reduces Costs

There are three ways that managers can use QLF to reduce costs.

1. Move the average of the actual distribution closer to the target value.
2. Reduce variability.
3. Do a combination of both.

2. Setting Specific Limits

The data from the quality loss function can be used to determine where limits should be set to
help minimize losses.

Sony Corporation Example

Sony uses the Taguchi model in managing the television sets it produces. The quality
characteristic is the color density of the televisions. The Sony engineers set specific limits for
color density at a plus or minus tolerance level. One of Sony’s plants uniformly distributed
televisions that fell between the specification limits. The other plant followed a normal
distribution with an average near the set target.

A comparison of customer responses shows that a higher level of satisfaction was reported on
televisions from the second plant. Also, the second plant’s warranty expenses were lower.

This case shows the problem with focusing on a defect rate rather than a variation from the
target. The first plant shipped at a zero defect rate, however, the specification limits allowed for
too much variation. In the second plant, the limits were smaller and the quality was more
consistent. The Taguchi model provides a good way to analyze the costs associated with
variability, even within the limits.

In conclusion, if companies want to remain competitive, they have to provide quality products.
To accomplish this, a company must focus on the reduction of variability of a product’s
characteristics around a specific target value. The traditional approach is not enough. To remain
a world competitor, a company must consider the Taguchi QLF approach.

What is QFD?

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic process for planners to focus on their customers. QFD is used
by cross-functional teams to identify and resolve issues involved in planning products, processes, services and
strategies which are better then what the competition has to offer.

Use QFD to establish and document planning requirements. 

Use QFD to ensure that your planning requirements are correctly implemented. 

Use QFD to capture and prioritize customer requirements based on relative importance to customers and
perceptions of competitive performance. Look at both direct and indirect competitors. Then develop a complete
planning specification. 

Use QFD with cross-functional planning teams to define how a solution should be configured to best satisfy its
customers. Define critical solution characteristics by benchmarked non-competing and competing solutions to
determine "Best Available" performance. 

Use QFD to define, in strategic terms, what direction a planning team should go. Use QFD to select particularly
attractive niches. Then use QFD to convert the benefits desired by the customers into measurable characteristics of a
products, process, service or strategy.
QFD (Quality Function Deployment)
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a method of product development where the product or process
is directed from the Voice of the Customer (VOC) through development of requirements, specifications
design feature development, process selection and process control.

The QFD process utilizes a series of matrices which are linked as the product/service development
process progresses. This cascade of customer wants into requirements and eventually process controls
is accomplished by evaluating each level by walking through rooms which have specific functions. These
rooms are carefully entered and exited by a team of Subject Matter Experts (SME) with relationships,
rankings and expected measures and metrics. The rooms are situated in such a way that the method has
been given the name theHouse of Quality.

House of Quality

QFD House of Quality

The first matrix of the QFD process typically takes the very non technical Voice of the Customer (VOC),
scientifically ranks the importance of these wants, needs and desires and links technical "How To's" to the
wants, needs, and desires. Each "How To" is translated or cascaded into Measures and Metrics for
measuring success.

Each room’s function is similar to the rooms of the typical home. The kitchen, the living room, the
bedroom, each have unique functions just like the "House of Quality" QFD level 1. QFD level 1 also
provides the opportunity to do benchmarking of current products against the measures and metrics. QFD
level 1 also considers how each "technical how" might effect each other. This correlation section is often
called the roof section because it is on top of the matrix and is angled like a roof.
When completed, requirements are written, benchmarking features are established to study further, and
competing specifications are ranked to balance the delivery of a design based on the impact on the
customer.

QFD development process:

To develop a QFD it is necessary to have technical knowledge and an understanding of the techniques
that assist in the development of each room, Some of the steps used in developing a QFD are listed
below:

 Capture the Voice of the Customer with market research

 Find spoken wants and discover unspoken wants through KANO analysis and GEMBA
 Importance ranking using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)
 How to deliver facilitation
 How Much to Deliver
 Relationship matrix to link wants and desires
 Benchmarking
 Organizational difficulty
 Correlation matrix of specifications
 Written requirements

These are only a few of the rooms that are developed in QFD level 1. Continuing through product
development requires passing on the outputs into product details, process details and eventually the
process controls needed to assure quality.

QFD in Product Development

When integrated into product development, QFD keeps the things that are important in front of the team
all the way through the Product Development (PD) experience. This integration includes relationships
to Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Special Characteristics. Quality-One International has
facilitated and taught QFD for many companies on various products. Products and services such as Golf
Cars, Automobiles, Heavy Machinery , Motorcycles and Banking services have gained competitive
advantage by using QFD with Q-1’s facilitation and leadership. Discover the Value of QFD and how the
Q-1 team can assist your organization in proper deployment of QFD.

QFD Phase Progression

Click on one of the images below to view a larger version

QFD Phase Progression (Phases III and IV)

QFD Phase Progression (Phases I and II)

QFD is a methodology for product (manufactured goods or service) planning and

development in which key customer wants and needs are deployed throughout the
organization. It provides a structure for ensuring that customer wants, needs and
desires are carefully heard and understood by the organization providing the product.
QFD is a process that provides structure to the product development cycle and helps
to prioritize resources, decrease implementation time, identify future application
opportunities, promote teamwork and enhance communication. The participant will
learn techniques and methods to apply to an organizations product development
process.
ality Function Deployment (QFD) has been known in the western world for the last twenty years, and,
over that time, it has developed a checkered reputation. Companies that have spent the effort to really
understand and apply it have achieved excellent results with it. Many other companies have merely
dabbled with it or perhaps concluded that it is a series of complex matrices that take a lot of time with little
to show for it.

One of the common issues with this latter group of companies is that they have not understood what QFD
really is nor what it can do for them. If one explores the common issues companies face with new product
development, one can better understand how QFD can fit into the development process to address these
issues.

Issue 1: Current and future customer needs are not adequately understood. Innovation-based
companies may focus on pushing a technology into the marketplace without truly understanding customer
needs. Companies with existing products, assume they understand their customer needs. Or needs may
rapidly evolve, but the company doesn't recognize this situation. Marketing may understand the needs,
but this knowledge is not passed on to the development team.

QFD Solution: Voice of the customer (VOC) - the effort to investigate and analyze customer needs is a
prerequisite for a QFD effort. With QFD, VOC data is reduced into a set of critical customer needs using
techniques such as affinity diagrams, function analysis, etc., defined and documented in customer needs
data dictionary, and prioritized. This VOC effort is also the opportunity to recognized unfulfilled needs that
can provide, at a minimum, competitive advantage, and, potentially, a break-through product or true value
innovation. A basic principle of QFD and any other system is "garbage in, garbage out". If adequate effort
is not spent in understanding customer needs, the result of QFD, as well as the entire development effort,
will be a less than optimum product.

Issue 2: The competitive situation is not understood nor adequately considered. Marketing may
understand the competition, but this knowledge is not transferred to the team. No formal data collection or
analysis is performed. This can lead to non-competitive or me-too products or products that rapidly lose
their competitive advantage.

QFD Solution: Once customer needs are defined, the second major step with QFD is to perform
competitive analysis. This includes not only analyzing current competitive strengths and weaknesses, but
also considering future directions of competitors. It also involves mapping competitor's positions against
market and demographic characteristics and against key product characteristics to recognize threats and
opportunities. This analysis is a key part of planning the new product.

Issue 3: Inadequate attention is paid to developing a product strategy and value

proposition. There may be an implicit strategy understood by management, Marketing, or some team
members, but not all team members understand this strategy, leading to suboptimal decisions. In the
absence of competitive analysis and strategy, the team may want to exceed competitive product's
performance parameters in all areas, leading to a more costly product or a risky development project. The
product may be aimed at the wrong market niche or miss the opportunity that exists.

QFD Solution: A third step in the QFD process is to develop the product strategy and value proposition.
The objective is to get the "most bang for the buck" out of the development effort. This strategy needs to
be explicitly defined, understood and agreed to by all participants. The strategy should reflect where the
team will focus its development effort to achieve the customer value proposition (e.g. improvement goals,
etc.). Use of related tools such as conjoint analysis can also help to validate the value of certain
capabilities to the customer.

Issue 4: Product requirements and specifications are not carefully balanced against needs and
implications. Marketing wants it all when they create a marketing requirements document. Specification
target values can be arbitrarily established to exceed the competition without regard to cost or the value
proposition. Inadequate consideration may be given to trade-offs among product parameters leading to
additional cost and development effort. A requirement may be established because the developer thinks it
would be a good idea.

QFD Solution: Requirements (technical characteristics) are only established in response to customer

needs (stated or unstated but recognized). Technical benchmarking is performed to help understand the
competitive position and establish appropriate specifications (target values). Trade-offs and cost drivers
are analyzed in the interaction matrix. Risk and difficulty is considered in establishing specifications
(target values). In short, there is a rigorous consideration of a variety of factors in objectively developing
requirements and specifications.

Issue 5: Insufficient attention is given to developing collaboration and teamwork. Team members

are assigned and thrown together in an Investigation or Feasibility stage, but frequently little explicit effort
is given to develop collaboration and teamwork.

QFD Solution: QFD is a planning and decision-making methodology that is performed by the product
team. It forces early communication, planning and decision-making among team members. It requires
open sharing of information, overcoming the hidden knowledge that can otherwise plague a team. It
bridges the gap between Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing and Quality. Team member's knowledge
is "leveled" through this process. The initial product planning with QFD leads to rapidly developing
collaboration, teamwork, and commitment to the product strategy and plan.

Issue 6: In the rush to develop a new product, inadequate attention is given to developing and
evaluating concept alternatives. Traditional architectures, technologies, and concepts are assumed as
the basis for the new product because time is short.

QFD Solution: QFD is oriented toward defining requirements (technical characteristics in a global

manner - independent of a particular technical solution so that multiple concept alternatives can be
considered and the best one selected. After the product planning matrix is completed, the QFD process
includes a concept development and evaluation step with an emphasis on developing alternatives. The
intent is to identify a more optimal, and perhaps even a break-through solution rather than continuing with
the traditional concept used for past products. QFD provides a concept selection matrix using the
requirements as a basis for decision criteria. QFD places an emphasis on innovation and providing
innovative and exciting capabilities to customers.

Issue 7: Critical characteristics, process requirements and quality controls are not effectively
linked. Frequently, designs are tossed over the wall to Manufacturing and Quality. They interpret
drawings and define manufacturing processes and quality requirements without necessarily
understanding the critical product and part parameters or critical processes. The result is that process and
quality controls may not focus on the most important issues.

QFD Solution: QFD is a flowdown process with the deployment matrix, process planning matrix and
process/quality control matrix. These subsequent QFD phases insure on-going communication, planning
and decision-making among team members and between the Engineering, Manufacturing and Quality
functions and with suppliers. Critical characteristics, process requirements and quality requirements are
explicitly identified, planned and communicated. This assures alignment and commitment throughout the
process and avoids some of the last minute quality problems that occur during launch.