Quality Function Deployment - Definition

QFD) is a customer-driven product

planning process. It is a system for translating and deploying
customer requirements into specific company requirements at each
stage from Concept Definition to Process Engineering and
Production and into the marketplace. QFD deploys the voice of the customer through a cross-
functional team’s project management of the integrated development process. The QFD process
establishes customer objectives and measures and records them on a series of matrices.

 Voice of the Customer

 House of Quality
 Customer-Driven Engineering
 Matrix Product Planning

Uses of Quality Function Deployment

 Collect customer’s requirements/desires as specified by the customers in their own

words
 Prioritize these desires
 Translate them into engineering/process requirements
 Establish targets to meet the requirements.

Quality Function Deployment – QFD Methodology

 Identify both internal and external customers.
 Create a list of customer requirements/desires (Whats) by
o Asking the customer, questions such as “What are the important features of The
Product”
o Capturing the customer’s own words or “Voice of the Customer” or VOC
o Categorizing the Whats into groups/buckets if needed.
 Prioritize the above collected Whats on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most important. This
ranking is based on the VOC (Voice of Customer) data. The CCRs (Whats) are listed vertically
in the first column and all related CTQs (are listed horizontally across the top . In the second
column, assign 1 to 5 based on the importance of the CCRs, where 5 is the most critical to
the customer.
 Score each CTQ (Hows) on how strongly it correlates to each CCR. Remember we are looking
at the absolution value of the correlation. It can have either positive correlation or negative
correlation. Use 5 for a strong correlation and 1 is a weak one. Leave it blank if there is no
correlation. Some CCRs will have few CTQs that relate and rest unrelated.
 Compile list of CTQs (Hows) necessary to achieve the CCRs (Whats.)
 Translate the CCRs from VOC (Whats) into CTQs (Hows)
o Arrows show direction for improvement (up for increasing, down for decreasing,
etc.)
 For each What, find out the correlation with each How. If the correlation is strong use 5. If
its week use 1. If its in between, use a number 2, 3, 4 based on how strong the correlation is.
 Next multiply the importance rating for the CCR by the correlation score for each CTQ.
 Add up the scores vertically for each CTQ and place that value in the bottom score row.
 Once you compute the score for all CTQs, the ones with the highest scores are the highest
priority Six Sigma project objectives to work on