Quality Function Deployment

(QFD)

Dr. Shaymaa Elsawaby

Quality Function Deployment for
Competitive Advantage
 Definition of Quality
Function Deployment :
There is no single, right definition for QFD; this one captures its essential meaning:

A system for translating customer

requirements into appropriate company
requirements at each stage from research
and product development to engineering
and manufacturing to marketing/sales and
distribution
 Definition of Quality
Function Deployment :
Prerequisites to QFD are ‘Market Research’ and ‘VOC gathering’.
• As QFD is the process of building capability to meet or exceed
customer demands, understanding the market, knowing the various
customer segments. what each customer segment wants, how
important these benefits are, and how well different providers of
products address these benefits are some of the key precursors to a
successful QFD.

•These are prerequisites because it is impossible to consistently

provide products / services which will attract customers unless you
have a very good understanding of what they want.
 Why was QFD developed?
•QFD was developed in Japan in the late 1960s by
Professors Yoji Akao and Shigeru Mizuno.

•The Professors aimed at developing a quality

assurance method that would design customer
satisfaction into a product before it was
manufactured.

•Prior quality control methods like Ishikawa were

primarily aimed at fixing a problem during or after
manufacturing.
 Why was QFD developed?
Key Rationale:

1 Customers are our number one concern.

Satisfied customers keep us in business.
Therefore, we must have an excellent
understanding of their needs.

2 Proactive product development is better

than reactive product development. QFD
can help a company move toward a more
proactive approach.
 Why was QFD developed?
Key Rationale:

3 Quality is a responsibility of everyone in the

organization. QFD is a team methodology which
encourages a broader employee involvement and
focus.

4 The QFD methodology helps an organization

determine the most effective applications for
many engineering and analytical tools such as:
Design of Experiments, Failure Analysis and
Statistical Process Control.
QFD Target
 Information on QFD….
• Developed in Japan in the mid 1970s
• Introduced in USA in the late 1980s
• Toyota was able to reduce 60% of cost to bring a new car
model to market
• Toyota decreased 1/3 of its development time
• Used in cross functional teams
• Companies feel it increased customer satisfaction
 Quality function deployment (QFD).

• Is a useful and structured tool that

helps to translate both spoken and
unspoken customer requirements
into key business deliverables.
 Deliverable
• is a term used in project management to describe a
tangible or intangible object produced as a result of
the project that is intended to be delivered to a
customer (either internal or external).

• A deliverable could be a report, a document, a

server upgrade or any other building block of an
overall project
 Focusing on ‘Positive Quality’

• Many quality tools focus on “negative quality” – the

things that disappoint the customer.

• One of the key distinctions about QFD is it focuses on

“positive quality” – things that delight a customer.

• It looks at the items that please the customer and

expands upon them.

• QFD is useful for cross-functional teams which have to

agree on what is important.
 Focusing on ‘Positive Quality’
• QFD is useful in a number of different scenarios. Some examples
are when:
1. A business knows the customers’ requirements but does not
have adequate internal measurements relative to the
requirements.

2. The internal processes and practices of a business cannot meet

the customers’ requirements.

3. A large investment is required for a new product or service.

4. There is a lack of agreement within a business organization on

how to proceed in delivering customer requirements.

5. There are competing alternatives for market segments

 QFD Around for Nearly 40 Years
• QFD is not something new, but a tool that has been
in existence for quite some time.

• Japanese professors Yoji Akao and Shigeru Mizuno

developed it in the late 1960s.

• Their goal was to develop a tool that would design

customer satisfaction into a product prior to being
manufactured.

• Most other quality control methods of the time

focused on fixing manufacturing problems after the
fact.
 QFD Around for Nearly 40 Years
• QFD was first introduced to America and Europe in 1983.

• American automotive manufacturers, Ford Motor

Company and General Motors Corporation soon adopted
it.

• Later, other American companies such as General Electric,

IBM and AT&T started using this tool and reaping the
benefits associated with it.

• QFD has been successfully used in all types of industries

and business functions with great success. For instance, it
has been used in sales organizations to improve their top
line growth.
 Competitive Advantages

• Fewer and Earlier Changes

• Shorter Development Time
• Fewer Start-up Problems
• Lower Start-up Cost
• Warranty Reduction
• Knowledge Transfer
• Customer Satisfaction

The bottom line of QFD is higher quality, lower cost,

shorter timing and a substantial marketing advantage.
• In today’s business environment, companies cannot just
assume they know what customers want – they must know
for sure.

• And once they know what customers want, businesses must

then provide products and services to meet and exceed
customers’ desires.

Business leaders have struggled for years to meet this

challenge.

Having the ability to truly listen to the voice of the customer

(VOC) and respond to it appropriately is one good definition
of a successful business, a business with a competitive
advantage.
 Need to focus
Moving in the wrong direction at a fast speed is
still moving in the wrong direction.
 QFD
• How does a company apply the methodology of
QFD? The most important step in doing a QFD is
to properly select the team.

• The size of the team is not as important as the

quality of the team members.

• The team should be cross-functional and should

consist of all of the necessary stakeholders crucial
to the team’s success. In addition, it is important
to have the customer participate in the team.
 QFD
• In doing so, the company will ensure that the
customer’s needs and wants are clearly
understood and addressed.

• The QFD process tends to be dynamic in nature.

• Hence it is wise to consider changing the team

members as the company cascades through the
four different houses of the QFD process
 First House of Quality:
the customer house
• In the customer house, the primary goal is to translate
the voice of the customer(VOC) into unambiguous and
clear language.

• A business must understand what measurements the

customer is using to determine if it has met their
requirements.

• Next, the company must identify it’s internal metrics

which determine if it has met the customer
requirements.
 First House of Quality:
the customer house
• Key elements that are critical to completing the first house are:
• Customers’ needs.
• Measurable characteristics of the customers’ needs.
• The relationship between items 1 and 2 measured in high, medium or low.
• An understanding of how the company compares to competitors (from the
customers’ perspective).
• Competitive benchmarking.
• Preliminary measurement targets that will meet the customers’ requirements.

• Once the company has identified the key elements above, it can
perform a correlation between the measurable characteristics of
the customers’ needs and their relative strengths.

• Finally, the company should analyze this first house to determine

what improvements can be made
 Second House
Company’s House
• This house is typically constructed during the
Measure and Analyze phases.

• The goal of completing the second house is to

determine specific action items that the company
can take to meet the requirements of the
customer.
 Third House :
Process House
• Is typically constructed during the Analyze phase.

• The goal of completing the third house is to

determine which processes (that have data) can be
used to meet the customers’ needs.

• It is possible that the process does not exist, so it

may need to be developed.
 Fourth House :
Process Control House
• is typically constructed during the control phase.

• The purpose of constructing this house is to

identify the control variables that are being used to
meet the customers’ needs.
Where does QFD fit?

Six Sigma / TQM

Strategic Issues - Technical Tools - Cultural Change

Quality Improvement Tools

QFD • Taguchi Methods • SPC
• FMEA’s
- Planning Tool
• Fault Tree Analysis
- Customer Driven • Cause-Effect Diagram
• Check Sheets
• Pareto - Monitor
- Proactive
• Benchmarking
- Continuous Improvement
- Cross Functional Teams • Pugh Concept Selection
• Etc - Hold the “Gains”
QFD Overview Customer Requirements

Converted to

Company Measures

Converted to

Part Characteristics (Design)

Converted to

Manufacturing Process

Converted to

Production Requirements
(Day to Day Operations)
 When should QFD be used?

1 Customers are complaining or aren’t satisfied with your

product or service.
2 Market share has been consistently declining.
3 Extended development time due to excessive redesign,
problem solving, or fire fighting.
4 Lack of a true customer focus in your product
development process.
5 Poor communications between departments or functions.
(Over-the -wall product development).

6 Lack of efficient and/or effective teamwork.

Components of House
of Quality Hows vs
Hows
Customer
Evaluation

Who
Hows

This Product
Now

Who vs.
Whats
Whats

Now vs
Whats vs

What
Hows

Units
This Product
Hows vs How
How Muches Muches

Targets
 Hows vs
Hows

Step 1: Who are the customers? Customer

Evaluation

Who
Hows Now

This Product
Who vs.
Whats
Whats

Now vs
Whats vs

What
Hows

Units
Hows vs
How Muches
This Product
How
Muches
Targets

• To “Listen to the voice of the customer” first

need to identify the customer
• In most cases there are more than one
customer
– consumer
– regulatory agencies Customers drive the development of the
product, not the designer
– manufacturing
– marketing/Sales
 Step 2: Determine the customers’
requirements
Hows vs

• Need to determine what is to be Hows

Customer
Evaluation

designed

Who
Hows Now

This Product
• Consumer

Who vs.
Whats
Whats

Now vs
Whats vs

What
Hows
– product works as it should Units
Hows vs
– How Muches
This Product

lasts a long time How

Muches
Targets

– is easy to maintain
– looks attractive
– incorporated latest technology
– has many features
List all the demanded
qualities at the same
level of abstraction
 Step 2: Determine the
customers’ requirements
• Manufacturing
– easy to produce
– uses available resources
– uses standard components and methods
– minimum waste
• Marketing/Sales
– Meets customer requirements
– Easy to package, store, and transport
– is suitable for display
 Kano model
• The Kano model is a theory of product
development and customer satisfaction developed
in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano, which
classifies customer preferences into five categories
 1- Must-be Quality
• These attributes are taken for granted when fulfilled
but result in dissatisfaction when not fulfilled.

• An example of this would be a package of milk that

leaks. Customers are dissatisfied when the package
leaks, but when it does not leak the result is not
increased customer satisfaction.

• Since customers expect these attributes and view

them as basic, it is unlikely that they are going to tell
the company about them when asked about quality
attributes
 2- One-dimensional Quality
• These attributes result in satisfaction when fulfilled
and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled.

• These are attributes that are spoken and the ones in

which companies compete.

• An example of this would be a milk package that is

said to have ten percent more milk for the same
price will result in customer satisfaction, but if it only
contains six percent then the customer will feel
misled and it will lead to dissatisfaction
 3- Attractive Quality
• These attributes provide satisfaction when achieved
fully, but do not cause dissatisfaction when not
fulfilled.

• These are attributes that are not normally expected.

• For example, a thermometer on a package of milk

showing the temperature of the milk. Since these
types of attributes of quality unexpectedly delight
customers, they are often unspoken
 4- Indifferent Quality
• These attributes refer to aspects that are neither
good nor bad, and they do not result in either
customer satisfaction or customer dissatisfaction.

• For example, thickness of the wax coating on a milk

carton.

• This might be key to the design and manufacturing

of the carton, but consumers are not even aware of
the distinction.
 5-Reverse Quality
• These attributes refer to a high degree of
achievement resulting in dissatisfaction and to the
fact that not all customers are alike.

• For example, some customers prefer high-tech

products, while others prefer the basic model of a
product and will be dissatisfied if a product has too
many extra features
 Kano Model
Customer Satisfaction
+
Basic Quality: These requirements are not Delighted
usually mentioned by customers. These are

ce
an
mentioned only when they are absent from

rm
rfo
the product. Fully

Pe
Excitement implemented
Absent
Performance Quality: provides an increase in Basic
Satisfiers
satisfaction as performance improves

Disgusted
-

Excitement Quality or “wow requirements”: are often unspoken,

possibly because we are seldom asked to express our dreams.
Creation of some excitement features in a design differentiates
the product from competition.
 Types of customer requirements
• Functional requirements describe the product’s desired behavior
– Human factors
– Physical requirements
– Reliability
– Life-cycle concerns
– Resource concerns
– Manufacturing requirements
 How to determine the What's?

• Customer survey (have to formulate the questions very

carefully)
• If redesign, observe customers using existing products
• Combine both or one of the approaches with designer
knowledge/experience to determine “the customers’
voice”
 Affinity Diagram

• Provides structure for verbal data by creating

natural clusters or groups

• Ensures that the list of demanded qualities are

complete and expressed at the same level of
detail
 Affinity Diagram
• is a business tool used to organize ideas and data.
It is one of the Seven Management and Planning
Tools.

• People have been grouping data into groups based

on natural relationships for thousands of years;
however, the term affinity diagram was devised by
Jiro Kawakita in the 1960s and is sometimes
referred to as the KJ Method
 Constructing Affinity Diagram
• Set a brainstorming session to list all possible requirements
• Record each element of the list on small cards
• Place all cards on a table randomly
Silent mode
• Spend time reading all demanded qualities
• Start at the same time, once everyone is ready - everyone quickly and
without thought find two demanded qualities that have something in
common
• If you find a demanded quality is not where you think it belongs, move it.
If it is moved again, make a duplicate and talk about it later.
• The process continues until all demanded qualities are in a group.
 Constructing Affinity Diagram
Discussion Mode
• Begin discussion after group composition for the demanded qualities
becomes stable
• First review the demanded qualities that seemed to have more than one
home
• Select a descriptive name for the groups. Group names must also be
demanded qualities, but at a higher level of abstraction
• Look at each group and judge if all elements are at the same level of
abstraction
• Check each group by asking “If this is the name of the group, what
elements should be included but are missing?”
• Next test for missing groups.
• Check with the types of customer requirements list
 Step 3: Determine Relative Importance of
the Requirements: Who vs. What
• Need to evaluate the importance of each of
the customer’s requirements.
– Generate weighing factor for each requirement by
rank ordering or other methods
Hows vs
Hows
Customer
Evaluation

Who
Hows Now

This Product
Who vs.
Whats

Now vs
Whats Whats vs

What
Hows

Units
This Product
Hows vs
How Muches How
Muches
Targets
 Rank Ordering
• Order the identified customer requirements
• Assign “1” to the requirement with the lowest priority and
then increase as the requirements have higher priority.
• Sum all the numbers
• The normalized weight
Rank/Sum
• The percent weight is: Rank*100/Sum
 Step 4: Identify and Evaluate the Competition:
How satisfied is the customer now?

• The goal is to determine how the customer perceives the

competition’s ability to meet each of the requirements
– it creates an awareness of what already exists
– it reveals opportunities to improve on what already exists

Hows vs
Hows
The design: Customer

1. does not meet the requirement at all Evaluation

Who
Hows Now

This Product
2. meets the requirement slightly
3. meets the requirement somewhat

Who vs.
Whats

Now vs
Whats Whats vs

What
4. meets the requirement mostly Hows

5. fulfills the requirement completely Units

Hows vs
This Product
How Muches How
Muches
Targets
 Step 5: Generate Engineering Specifications:
How will the customers’ requirements be met?
• The goal is to develop a set of engineering specifications from
the customers’ requirements.

Restatement of the design problem and customer requirements in terms of

parameters that can be measured.

Hows vs
Hows
Customer
Evaluation

Who
Hows Now

This Product
Each customer requirement should have at
least one engineering parameter.

Who vs.
Whats

Now vs
Whats Whats vs

What
Hows

Units
This Product
Hows vs
How Muches How
Muches
Targets
 Step 6: Relate Customers’ requirements to
Engineering Specifications: Hows measure
Whats?
• This is the center portion of the house. Each cell represents
how an engineering parameter relates to a customers’
requirements.

Hows vs
Hows

9 = Strong Relationship Customer

Evaluation

Who
Hows Now

This Product
3 = Medium Relationship
1 = Weak Relationship

Who vs.
Blank = No Relationship at all

Whats

Now vs
Whats Whats vs

What
Hows

Units
This Product
Hows vs
How Muches How
Muches
Targets
 Step 7: Identify Relationships Between Engineering
Requirements: How are the Hows Dependent on
each other?
• Engineering specifications maybe dependent
on each other.

9 = Strong Relationship
3 = Medium Relationship Hows vs
Hows
1 = Weak Relationship Customer
Evaluation

Who
-1 = Weak Negative Relationship Hows Now

This Product
-3 = Medium Negative Relationship

Who vs.
-9 = Strong Negative Relationship

Whats

Now vs
Whats Whats vs

What
Hows
Blank = No Relationship at all
Units
This Product
Hows vs
How Muches How
Muches
Targets
 Step 8: Set Engineering Targets: How
much is good enough?
• Determine target value for each
engineering requirement.
– Evaluate competition products to
engineering requirements
– Look at set customer targets Hows vs
Hows
– Use the above two information to set Customer
Evaluation

Who
targets Hows Now

This Product
Who vs.
Whats

Now vs
Whats Whats vs

What
Hows

Units
This Product
Hows vs
How Muches How
Muches
Targets
 Relationships Among Customer
Engineering Characteristics Evaluation
Customer
Identifying
Engineering performance measure conflicts
Characteristics Evaluation

Record Performance
Relative Importancemeasures for each customer
demanded
Record customer quality ratings for your
performance
Customer Attributes
Similar product and competitors’ products
Importance for each demanded quality needs
Relationship
The first step is tobetween
list alltothe
Technical demanded
bedemanded customer
determinedqualities qualities
benchmarking and
at the same
Engineering Performance
level of abstraction

Units
Units
ObjectiveTechnical Difficulty associated with achieving
Engineering
Measures Targets/improvements and importance of Influence
Setting Technical
technical Targets
characteristics Customer
Determining Targets Qualities
Important Technical Difficulty Targets
Characteristics Importance
 House of Quality Example
Your team has been charged with designing
a new camera for Great Cameras, Inc.
The first action is
to construct a
House of Quality
 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy

House of Quality Example Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

What the Technical

Attributes and

customer wants Evaluation

Customer
importance
rating
(5 = highest)
Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4

Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color correction 1
 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy

House of Quality Example Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation
Low electricity requirements

Aluminum components

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants
Ergonomic design
Auto exposure

Paint pallet
Auto focus
 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy

House of Quality Example Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

High relationship Technical

Attributes and
Medium relationship Evaluation

Low relationship

Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4
Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color corrections 1

Relationship matrix
 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy

House of Quality Example Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation

Relationships between the

things we can do
Low electricity requirements

Aluminum components

Ergonomic design
Auto exposure

Paint pallet
Auto focus
 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy

House of Quality Example Customer Wants

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation

Lightweight 3
Easy to use 4
Reliable 5
Easy to hold steady 2
Color corrections 1

Our importance ratings 22 9 27 27 32 25

Weighted rating
 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

House of Quality Example

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation

How well do competing products

Company A

Company B
meet customer wants

Lightweight 3 G P
Easy to use 4 G P
Reliable 5 F G
Easy to hold steady 2 G P
Color corrections 1 P P

Our importance ratings 22 5

 Interrelationships

How to Satisfy
Customer Wants

House of Quality Example

Competitors
Analysis of
What the
Relationship
Customer
Matrix
Wants

Technical
Attributes and
Evaluation

Failure 1 per 10,000

Target values
(Technical

Panel ranking
attributes)

2 circuits
2’ to ∞
0.5 A
Company A 0.7 75% 60% yes 1 ok G
Technical Company B 0.6 50% yes 2 ok F
evaluation
Us 0.5 75% yes 2 ok G
 House of Quality Example

Low electricity requirements

Aluminum components

Ergonomic design
Auto exposure

Company A

Company B
Paint pallet
Auto focus
Completed
House of Lightweight
Easy to use
3
4
G
G
P
P

Quality Reliable
Easy to hold steady
5
2
F
G
G
P
Color correction 1 P P
Our importance ratings 22 9 27 27 32 25

Failure 1 per 10,000

Target values

Panel ranking
(Technical
attributes)

2 circuits
2’ to ∞
0.5 A
75%
Company A 0.7 60% yes 1 ok G
Technical
Company B 0.6 50% yes 2 ok F
evaluation
Us 0.5 75% yes 2 ok G
 House of Quality Sequence
Deploying resources through the organization in
response to customer requirements

Quality
plan
Production
process

Production
Specific
House 4

process
components

components
House 3

Specific
Design
characteristics
characteristics

House 2
Design
requirements
Customer

House 1

Figure 5.4
 Hows vs
Components of House Hows
Customer

of Quality
Evaluation

Who

This Product
Hows
Now

Now vs
Who vs.
Whats
Whats vs

What
Whats
Hows

Weighted Importance
Importance %
Addition to the House of Units
Quality presented in text Hows vs
This Product
How Muches How
book
Muches
Targets

Rank
Technical Difficulty
Selected
 Key to roof / correlation
matrix symbols
+ Positive / Supporting
+
-
-
Rock-Climbing Harness
-
- Negative / Tradeoff
+ +
-

DIRECTION OF IMPROVEMENT
Performance Size of Technical
TECHNICAL PLANNING MATRIX
measures range details
REQUIREMENTS

CUSTOMER
REQUIREMENTS

Easy to put on 2 3 3 4 4 1.2 1.1 2.6 7

Comfortable when hanging 5 4 4 2 5 1.2 1.4 8.4 22

Fits over different clothes 1 1 1 5 2 1.2 1.0 1.2 3

Accessible gear loops 3 3 4 1 3 1.0 1.0 3.0 8

Does not restrict movement 5 2 2 3 5 1.6 1.4 11.2 29

Lightweight 3 3 2 5 3 1.0 1.0 3.0 8

Safe 5 4 3 3 4 1.0 1.2 6.0 16

Attractive 2 2 2 5 3 1.2 1.1 2.6 7

TECHNICAL PRIORITIES 54 81.2 63 23.4 70.2 191.6 98.6 30 612 Total (100%) 38

PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL 9 13 10 4 12 31 16 5

Our product Y 174g 250 5 4 4mm 1 4 Key to interrelationship matrix symbols

Competitor A's product Y 193g 321 3 5 8mm 4 5 Strong interrelationship

Competitor B's product Y 157g 198 6 4 3mm 1 3 Medium interreltionship

DESIGN TARGETS Y 160g 250 8 6 4mm 2 4 Weak interrelationship

 Correlation:
Very Strong Relationship
Strong Relationship
Suntex Process Weak Relationship

Chemical Film Removal

Packaging: Appearance

Soil Residue Removal

Engineering Characteristics

Product Preservation
Packaging Material:
Quality of Suppliers

Pathogen Removal

Wax Removal
Customer Importance to
Selling Points
Requirements Customer

Brand 2

Taste 5

Appearance 5

Price 3

Germ-free 4

Pesticide-free 3

Convenience 3

Importance Weighting 4 4 2 5 5 3 4

Target Values 5 4 5 5 5 3 4

Deployment
Windshield Wiper
Restaurant design for
Conference center
 1- What‘s
• VOC of the customer
are listed
2-Importance factors
3- HOW or CEILING
4- Body or Main room
4- Body or Main room
5- Roof
6- Competitor Comparison