MODULE-12
(QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT & HOUSE OF QUALITY)
Quality function Deployment (QFD)
Quality function Deployment
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a planning and team
problem-solving tool for focusing a design team’s attention on
satisfying customer needs throughout the product
development process.
QFD is largely a graphical method that helps a design team
in systematically identifying all of the elements that go into
the product development process and creating relationship
matrices between key parameters at each step of the process.
QFD was developed in Japan in the early 1970s, with its first
large-scale application in the Kobe Shipyard of Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries.
It was rapidly adopted by the Japanese automobile industry.
By the mid-1980s many U.S. auto, defense, and electronic
companies were using QFD.
Through the use of the QFD method, Toyota was able to
reduce the cost of bringing a new car model to the market by
more than 60%, and the time was reduced by about 33%.
Complete QFD process diagram
The QFD process is made up of four phases that proceed in
sequence and are connected as a chain with the output from
each phase becoming the input to the next phase.
The phases of QFD are called as houses.
The product planning phase of QFD feeds results into the
design of individual parts, giving inputs into the process
planning design stage, which become inputs into the
production planning phase of QFD.
For example, the important engineering characteristics
determined by the Product planning house become the input
for the part design house.
The QFD process is created to transform or map input
requirements to each house into the characteristics output
from the house.
Since QFD is a linked, sequential, and transformational
process, the first set of inputs strongly influences all
subsequent transformations.
Thus, the QFD process is known as a methodology for infusing
the voice of the customer into every aspect of the design
process.
House of Quality
The product planning phase of QFD, called as the House of
Quality (HOQ).
The implementation of the QFD method in U.S. companies is
often reduced to the use of only the House of Quality.
The House of Quality translates customer requirements into
quantifiable variables, called engineering characteristics.
This mapping of customer wants to engineering characteristics
enables the remainder of the design process.
When the HOQ is constructed in its most comprehensive
configuration, the process will identify a set of essential
features and product performance measures that will be the
target values to be achieved by the design team.
More information can be interpreted from the House of Quality.
HOQ can also be used to determine which engineering
characteristics should be treated as constraints for the design
process and which should become decision criteria for selecting
the best design concept.
QFD’s House of Quality is a natural precursor to establishing
the product design specification.
House of Quality Diagram
The House of Quality translates
the voice of the customer, input as
Customer Requirements (CRs)
in Room 1, into target values for
Engineering Characteristics (ECs)
in Room 8.
Engineers today can find many different versions of QFD’s
House of Quality.
The consulting firms, private consultants, academics,
professional societies, and even students have developed HOQ
software packages and templates.
These applications range from simple Excel spreadsheet
macros to sophisticated, multi-versioned families of software.
Naturally, each creator of HOQ software uses a slightly
different configuration of the HOQ diagram and slightly
different terminology.
It is important to understand the basics of the HOQ so that
you can easily recognize how different versions of HOQ software
are oriented.
The HOQ takes information developed by the design team and
translates it into a format that is more useful for new product
generation.
In the present case, an eight-room version of the HOQ is
discussed.
The visual nature of the HOQ should be apparent.
All the rooms of the HOQ that are arranged horizontally
pertain to CRs.
Information compiled from identifying the needs of the
customer and end user is inserted in Room 1 in the form of CRs
and their importance ratings.
Clearly, the initial work to obtain customer preferences, or
“Whats” is driving the HOQ analysis.
The HOQ rooms aligned vertically are organized according to
ECs, the “Hows”.
As in all HOQ layouts, the relationship matrix (Room 4) is
central to the goal of relating the CRs to the ECs.
The CRs are processed through the HOQ in such a way that
their influence is embedded throughout the design process.
The Critical to Quality ECs are determined by the simple
calculations done in Room 5.
Additional data gathered through examination of competitor
products, benchmarking, and customer survey results are
recorded in Rooms 6 and 7, the assessments of competing
products.
The ECs that you have already identified as constraints can be
included in Room 2.
The end result of the HOQ is the set of target values for ECs
that flow through the HOQ and exit at the bottom of the house
in Room 8. This set of target values guides the selection and
evaluation of potential design concepts.
The HOQ summarizes a great deal of information in a single
diagram.
The determination of the “Whats” in Room 1 drives the HOQ
analysis.
The results of the HOQ, target values for “Hows” in Room 8,
drives the design team forward into the concept evaluation and
selection processes.
Thus, the HOQ will become one of the most important reference
documents created during the design process.
Like most design documents, the QFD should be updated as and
when more information is developed about the design.
Identify customer needs
Process flow of “WHAT”s to “HOW”s
Example of House of Quality for Pizza
(1) Identify customer wants
(2) Identify how the product will satisfy the
customer wants
(3) Identify relations on ‘HOW’s
(4) Develop importance ratings
(5) Evaluating competing products
(6) Final HOQ of Pizza
