Design Specifications and QFD

Establishing the Need Sources: –The market: what do customers want? –New technology: Creates a market Risky and expensive Can be financially rewarding –Higher level system Support for industries such as planes, automobiles

Collecting Information Customer: Inside or outside of company –External Obsolescence of product Discover of new technology New market requirements Competitor superiority –Internal Excess capacity Drop in profitability New technology New production methods

Collecting Information Company: what are its objectives? –Wants to grow and increase market share –Wants flexibility in unstable market –Wants high profits –Life cycle of product –Enterprise potential and limitations

Collecting Information Laws and Regulations: –Environmental control –Safety regulations –Factory regulations –Standards, company and government Market –Demands –Potential for product –Competition

Questions What is the need or problem really about? What implicit wishes and expectations are involved? What paths are open for development?

Quality Function Deployment Developed in the mid-70’s –Method for developing specifications from voice of customer –Gives interdisciplinary teams a map for working together Toyota needed to improve rust record –Body durability broken into 53 items –Ran experiments on details of production, temperature control, coating composition

Before and After QFD Pre-Production and Start-up Costs at Toyota Body Shop Jan Pre-QFD Apr Post-QFD (39% of Pre-QFD Costs) Source: “The House of Quality,” J. Hauser and D. Clausing, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1988, pp

QFD vs. no QFD months months 1-3 months Job #1+3 months Design Changes 90% of changes complete With QFD No QFD

Why Use QFD? A recent survey of 150 US companies: 69% use QFD 71% began using it since % felt that it improve customer satisfaction 76% felt it facilitated rational decision making

QFD Why use QFD? –Helps uncover new information –Can be applied to entire design problem or portions of it –Focuses team on what need to be designed, not how to design it –Helps overcome favoritism

Steps of QFD Identify the customer Determine customer requirements State whether desires are demands or wishes, rank the wishes Competition benchmarking Translate customer desires into measureable engineering requirements Set targets for design: dates

QFD: Step by Step 1. Who are the customers? 2. Determine customer requirements –Collection of information Specify information needed Determine type of data collection Determine content of questions Design questions Order questions Take data Reduce data

QFD: Step by Step 2. Determine customer requirements Delighted Customer Satisfaction Fully Implemented Product Function Absent Disgusted Excitement Basic Performance

QFD: Step by Step 3. Determine relative importance of requirements 4. Identify and evaluate competition: How satisfied is the customer now? 5. Generate product specifications: how will customers’ requirements be met?

QFD: Step by Step 6. Translate into measureable engineering req’ts –If there is not measureable requirement, then it is not well understood –Two solutions Break into finer parts Repeat step three

7. Identify relationships between customer and engineering requirements. 8. Set targets for design: how much is good enough? QFD: Step by Step

House of Quality Whats vs. Hows Hows Hows vs. How Muches Now vs. What Hows vs. Hows Whats How Muches Who vs. Whats Who Now