1. Quality Function Deployment
Chatchada Akarasriworn
Tammy Davis
Kelsey Poland
Jing Shao

2. Introduction
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a planning tool used to fulfill customer expectations. It is a disciplined approach to product design, engineering, and production and provides in-depth evaluation of a product.
QFD focuses on customer expectations or requirements, often referred to as the voice of the customer.
It is employed to translate customer expectations, in terms of engineering or technical characteristics, that can deployed through:
Product planning
Part development
Process planning
Production planning
Service industries
QFD is a team-based management tool in which customer expectations are used to drive the product development process.
QFD enables the design phase to concentrate on the customer requirements, thereby spending less time on redesign and modifications. The saved time has been estimated at one-third to one-half of the time taken for redesign and modification using traditional means. The saving means reduced development cost and also additional income because the product enters the market sooner.

3. The QFD Team
When an organization decides to implement QFD, the project manager and team members need to be able to commit a significant amount of time to it, especially in the early stages.
There are two types of teams:
Designing a new product
Improving an existing product
Time and inter-team communication are two very important things that each team must use to their fullest potential.
One of the most important tools in the QFD process is communication.
Teams are composed of members from marketing, design, quality, finance and production.
The existing product team usually has fewer members, because the QFD process will only need to be modified.
Using time effectively is the essential resource in getting the project done on schedule. Inter-team communication effectively used will alleviate unforeseen problems and make the project run smoothly.

4. The QFD Team cont.
Team meetings are very important in the QFD process.
The team leader needs to ensure that the meetings are run in the most efficient manner and that the members are kept informed.
Duration of the meeting will rely on where the team’s members are coming from and what needs to be accomplished.
Meeting format should have a way of measuring how well the QFD process is working
Should be flexible, depending on certain situations
Workshops may have to last for days if people are coming from far away or for only hours if everyone is local.
Shorter meetings can sometimes accomplish more
They allow information to be collected between times that will ensure that the right information is being entered into the QFD matrix. They also help keep the team focused on a quality improvement goal.

5. Benefits of QFD Improves Customer Satisfaction
Creates focus on customer requirements
Uses competitive information effectively
Prioritizes resources
Identifies items that can be acted upon
Structures resident experience/information
Reduces Implementation Time
Decreases midstream design changes
Limits post introduction problems
Avoids future application opportunities
Surfaces missing assumptions

6. Benefits of QFD Promotes Teamwork Provides Documentation
Based on consensus
Creates communication at interfaces
Identifies actions at interfaces
Creates global view out of details
Provides Documentation
Documents rationale for design
Is easy to assimilate
Adds structure to the information
Adapts to changes (a living document)
Provides framework for sensitivity analysis

7. The Customer Voice Quantitative=Measurable Qualitative=Subjective
The goal of QFD is not only to meet as many customer expectations and needs as possible, but also to exceed customer expectations.
Each team must make its product either more appealing than the existing product or more appealing than the product of a competitor. This implies that the team has to introduce an expectation or need in its product that the customer is not expecting but would appreciate.

8. Organization of Information
Now that the customer expectations and needs have been identified and researched, the QFD team needs to process the information.
Methods include:
Affinity diagrams
Interrelationship diagrams
Tree diagrams
Cause-and-effect diagrams
The Affinity diagram is ideally suited for most QFD applications. This tool gathers a large amount of data and organizes the data into groupings based on there natural interrelationships.

9. Organization of Information cont.
An Affinity Diagram should be used when:
Thoughts are too widely dispersed or numerous to organize.
New solutions are needed to circumvent the more traditional ways of problems solving.
Support for a solution is essential for successful implementation.
Constructing an affinity diagram requires four simple steps:
Phrase the objective.
Record all responses
Group the responses
Organize groups in an affinity diagram
This method should not be used when the problem is simple or if a quick solution is needed.
1. short, concise statement, generalized and vague
2. Brainstorming session, responses recorded on cards
Summary for later use
3. Cards sorted by relation in groups, then word that describes group becomes heading for responses.
4. Lines placed around each group or responses and related clusters are placed near each other with a connecting line

10. House of Quality Left wall – Voice of customer, what customer expects
Right wall – Prioritized customer requirement
Ceiling - Technical descriptors
Interior walls – Relationship between requirements and descriptors
Roof - Interrelationship between descriptors
Foundation – Prioritized technical descriptors

11. Building House of Quality

12. Building House of Quality
Step 1 List customer requirements (WHATs)
Customers’ needs or expectations
Primary
Secondary

13. Building House of Quality
Step 2 List technical descriptors (HOWs)
Counterpart characteristics
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

14. Building House of Quality
Step 3 Develop a relationship matrix between WHATs and Hows
Structuring an L-Shaped Diagram
Easy
Not require experience

15. Building House of Quality
Step 3 Contd.
Relationship matrix
Degree of influence between each technical descriptor and each customer requirement
● Strong relationship=9
○ Medium relationship=3
∆ Weak relationship=1
Blank No relationship

16. Building a House of Quality
Step 4
Building a House of Quality
Develop an Interrelationship Matrix
Between HOWs
Used to:
identify any interrelationship between each of the technical descriptors (support or conflict?) +9
Strong positive
Positive
-3 X Negative
Technical descriptors (HOWs)
Strong Negative
Powder metallurgy
Aluminum
Sand casting
Material Selection
Manufacturing Process
Forging
Titanium
Die Casting
Welding
Steel

17. Building a House of Quality
Step 5
Building a House of Quality
Competitive Assessments
Customer assessment
Corresponding to each customer requirement
Rating from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)
Used to
a) determine if the customer’s requirements have been met.
b) identify areas to concentrate on in the next design
c) Where an organization stands relative to its major competitors
Technical assessment
Corresponding to each technical descriptor
Used to uncover gaps in engineering judgment.

18. Building a House of Quality
Step 6
Building a House of Quality
Develop Prioritized Customer Requirements
Importance to the customer: rating from 1 (least important) to
10 (very important)
Target value: rating from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)
Scale-up factor: ratio of the target value to the product rating given in the customer competitive assessment
Sales point: 1.0 (lowest) (highest)
Absolute weight = 1 X 3X 4
A percent and rank for each customer requirement can be determined.

19. Building a House of Quality
Step 7
Develop Prioritized Technical Descriptors
Degree of difficulty: rating from 1 (least difficult) to 10 ( very difficult).
Target value: rating from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), same way as determining target value of customer requirement.
Absolute weight : aj= ∑Rijci
Relative weight: bj= ∑Rijdi

20. Importance to the customer Absolute weight5 3 2 2
Customer competitive assessment
Importance to the customer
Absolute weight

21. QFD Process QFD Matrix (House of Quality)
Basis for all future matrices
Must refine technical descriptors further
More than one matrix often needed

22. Accomplishing QFD Process
HOWs of previous chart become WHATs of new chart
Technical descriptors = HOWs; WHATs = customer requirements
Continue until each objective is refined to actionable level
HOW MUCH carried to next chart to aid communication
Prioritized technical descriptors
Ensures target values aren’t lost

23. Refinement of QFD Chart

24. Complete QFD Process Can be shown using Flow Diagram
1st Chart—Product Planning
2nd Chart—Part Development
3rd Chart—Process Planning
4th Chart—Production Planning

25. Other House of Quality Planning Charts
Depends on type of product and scope of project
Demanded quality chart
Quality control process chart
Reliability deployment chart
Technology deployment chart

26. Examples Universities Business and Defense Organizations
Design course content & curriculum
Support services
Business and Defense Organizations
Budgeting
Designing training modules

27. Conclusion QFD Effective management tool
Customer expectations are used to drive design process or to drive improvement in service industries

28. Advantages & Benefits
Orderly way of obtaining information & presenting it
Shorter product development cycle
Considerably reduced start-up costs
Fewer engineering changes
Reduced chance of oversights during design process
Environment of teamwork
Consensus decisions
Everything is preserved in writing

29. Everyone Benefits
Entire organization constantly aware of customer requirements
Marketing—specific sales points have been identified and can be stressed
Results in satisfied customers!

30.        Questions What are some advantages of QFD?
What methods could be used to determine the voice of the customer?
What are the keys to success when building a House of Quality?
Who is responsible for building the House of Quality?    

31. Questions
If you are Pizza Hut and you are building a House of Quality, what customer requirements should you consider?
What are some of the primary technical descriptors that should be considered?