Quality Function Deployment

By Zaipul Anwar Business & Advanced Technology Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Quality Function Deployment

Hin Shitsu Ki No Ten Kai
"A group of courageous people working in harmony pursuing the finest

detail to unlock the organization and roll out products that the multitudes in the marketplace will value." Glenn Mazur

Quality Function Deployment

Is a structured method that is intended to transmit and translate customer requirements, that is, the Voice of the Customer through each stage of the product development and production process, that is, through the product realization cycle. These requirements are the collection of customer needs, including all satisfiers, exciters/delighters, and dissatisfiers.

Creative Definitions of QFD

A systematic way of documenting and breaking down customer needs into manageable and actionable detail. A planning methodology that organizes relevant information to facilitate better decision making. A way of reducing the uncertainty involved in product and process design. A technique that promotes cross-functional teamwork. A methodology that gets the right people together, early, to work efficiently and effectively to meet customers needs.

Key Thought
Quality Function Deployment is a Valuable Decision Support Tool, But it is Not a Decision Maker

Throughout

What Does QFD Do?

CONCEPT CUSTOMER

Better Designs in Half the Time!

Plan

Design

Redesign

Manufacture

Traditional Timeline
Plan
Design Redesign Manufacture

Benefits

QFD Is a Productivity Enhancer QFD Is a Productivity Enhancer

PRODUCT DESIGN

100:1

PROCESS DESIGN

10:1

Why Does QFD Work? PRODUCTION

IMPROVE PRODUCT

LOW VISIBILITY TIME LOW REWARD

HIGH VISIBILITY HIGH REWARD

The Quality The Quality Lever Lever

1:1

When is QFD Appropriate?

Poor communications and expectations get lost in the complexity of product development. Lack of structure or logic to the allocation of product development resources. Lack of efficient and / or effective product / process development teamwork. Extended development time caused by excessive redesign, problem solving, or fire fighting.

Return on Investment from Using QFD

Companies using QFD to reflect "The Voice of the Customer" in defining quality have a competitive advantage because there is/are:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Fewer and Earlier Design Changes Fewer Start-up Problems Shorter Development Time Lower Start-up Costs Warranty Cost Reductions Knowledge Transfer to the Next Product Customer Satisfaction

Brief History of QFD

Origin - Mitsubishi Kobe Shipyard 1972

Developed By Toyota and Its Suppliers Expanded To Other Japanese Manufacturers Consumer Electronics, Home Appliances, Clothing, Integrated
Circuits, Apartment Layout Planning

Adopted By Ford and GM in 1980s Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, ITT

Foundation --Belief That Products Should Be Designed Foundation Belief That Products Should Be Designed
To Reflect Customer Desires and Tastes To Reflect Customer Desires and Tastes

Quality Function Deployments House of Quality

3

Correlation

Matrix

The House of Quality

Importance Rankings

Design Attributes
5 4

Customer Needs

Relationships between Customer Needs and Design Attributes

Customer Perceptions

Establishes the Flowdown Relates WHAT'S & HOW'S Ranks The Importance

Costs/Feasibility
8

Engineering Measures

The House of Quality

Key Elements Informational Elements

Two Types of Elements in Each House Two Types of Elements in Each House

Levels Of Granularity

QFD Flowdown

Manufacturing Manufacturing Environment Environment

Customer Wants Technical Requirements Part Characteristics Manufacturing Process Production Requirements

Software Software Environment Environment

Customer Wants Product Functionality System Characteristics Design Alternatives

Service Service Environment Environment

Customer Wants Service Requirements Service Processes Process Controls

Flowdown Flowdown Relates The Relates The Houses To Each Houses To Each Other Other

Building the House of Quality

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Identify Customer Attributes Identify Design Attributes / Requirements Relate the customer attributes to the design attributes. Conduct an Evaluation of Competing Products. Evaluate Design Attributes and Develop Targets. Determine which Design Attributes to Deploy in the Remainder of the Process.

1. Identify Customer Attributes

These are product or service requirements IN THE CUSTOMERS TERMS. Market Research; Surveys; Focus Groups. What does the customer expect from the product? Why does the customer buy the product? Salespeople and Technicians can be important sources of information both in terms of these two questions and in terms of product failure and repair. OFTEN THESE ARE EXPANDED INTO Secondary and Tertiary Needs / Requirements.

Whats
Key Elements -

What Does The Customer Want Customer Needs CTQs Need 1 Ys Need 2
Need 3 ts ts Needha 4a Wh W Need 5 Need 6 Need 7

Voice of the Customer

Customer Requirements

How Important Are The

Whats TO THE CUSTOMER Customer Ranking of their Needs Need 1 5
Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7 5 er e er 3 tom nc e m c s to tta n s or a 4 Cu p or Cu p 2 m IIm 4 1

Key Elements:

Voice of the Customer

2. Identify Design Attributes.

Design Attributes are Expressed in the Language of the
Designer / Engineer and Represent the TECHNICAL Characteristics (Attributes) that must be Deployed throughout the DESIGN, MANUFACTURING, and SERVICE PROCESSES. Controlled and Compared to Objective Targets.

These must be MEASURABLE since the Output will be The ROOF of the HOUSE OF QUALITY shows,

symbolically, the Interrelationships between Design Attributes.

Key Elements -

HOW 2

HOW 4

Hows

Hows Hows

WHAT'S

HOW'S

Need 1 Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7

5 5 3 4 2 4 1

Satisfy the Customer Needs

HOW 7

HOW 1

HOW 3

HOW 5

HOW 6

How Do You Satisfy the Customer Whats Product Requirements Translation For Action Xs

 Impact Of The Hows On Each Other

Correlation Correlation Matrix Matrix

Information Correlation Matrix

HOW 5

HOW 1

HOW 2

HOW 3

HOW 4

HOW 6

HOW 7

Strong Positive Positive Negative Strong Negative

Need 1 Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7 5 5 3 4 2 4 1

H L H M
12 in. 3 lbs

H L L
3 mils

L M M L
40 psi

M L M M
8 atm 1 mm

65 45 21 36 8 52 4

Conflict Resolution

57 41 48 13 50

21

3.Relating Customer & Design Attributes

Symbolically we determine whether there is NO relationship, a WEAK one, MODERATE one, or STRONG relationship between each Customer Attribute and each Design Attribute. The PURPOSE it to determine whether the final Design Attributes adequately cover Customer Attributes. LACK of a strong relationship between A customer attribute and any design attribute shows that the attribute is not adequately addressed or that the final product will have difficulty in meeting the expressed customer need. Similarly, if a design attribute DOES NOT affect any customer attribute, then it may be redundant or the designers may have missed some important customer attribute.

Relationship

Strength of the
Interrelation Between the Whats and the Hows

Key Elements:

Transfer Function Need 1 Need 2 Y = f(X)

Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7

H Strong 9 M Medium 3 L Weak 1

HOW 1

HOW 3

HOW 6

HOW 2

HOW 4

HOW 5

5 5 3 4 2 4 1

H L H M

L
h h M nsMiip L ns p

io o llatti a e R Le R

Untangling The Web

HOW 7

4. Add Market Evaluation & Key Selling Points

This step includes identifying importance ratings for each customer attribute AND evaluating existing products / services for each of the attributes. Customer importance ratings represent the areas of greatest interest and highest expectations AS EXPRESSED BY THE CUSTOMER. Competitive evaluation helps to highlight the absolute strengths and weaknesses in competing products. This step enables designers to seek opportunities for improvement and links QFD to a companys strategic vision and allows priorities to be set in the design process.

5. Evaluate Design Attributes of Competitive Products & Set Targets.

This is USUALLY accomplished through in-house testing and then translated into MEASURABLE TERMS. The evaluations are compared with the competitive evaluation of customer attributes to determine inconsistency between customer evaluations and technical evaluations. For example, if a competing product is found to best satisfy a customer attribute, but the evaluation of the related design attribute indicates otherwise, then EITHER the measures used are faulty, OR else the product has an image difference that is affecting customer perceptions. On the basis of customer importance ratings and existing product strengths and weaknesses, TARGETS and DIRECTIONS for each design attribute are set.

Information: How Much

Target Values for the

HOW 3 HOW 6 HOW 1 HOW 2 HOW 4 HOW 5

HOW 7

Hows Note the Units

Need 1 Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7 5 5 3 4 2 4 1

H L H M
12 in. 3 lbs

H L L
3 mils

L M M L
40 psi

M L M M
8 atm 1 mm

65 45 21 36 8 52 4

57 41 48 13 50

How Much How Much

21

Consistent Comparison

Target Direction

Information On The
HOW'S

Information :

More Is Better Less Is Better Specific 1 Need Amount 2 Need

Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7

HOW 1

HOW 3

HOW 6

HOW 2

HOW 4

HOW 5

HOW 7

n ion cttio ec ir e r D ttD i e ge rg Ta r Ta

5 5 3 4 2 4 1

H L H M

H L L

L M M L H L

65 45 21 36

M M
6 21

8 52 4

57 41 48 13 50

The Best Direction

6. Select Design Attributes to be Deployed in the Remainder of the Process

This means identifying the design attributes that: have a strong relationship to customer needs, have poor competitive performance, or are strong selling points. These attributes will need to be DEPLOYED or TRANSLATED

into the language of each function in the design and production process so that proper actions and controls are taken to ensure that the voice of the customer is maintained. Those attributes not identified as critical do not need such rigorous attention.

Key Elements: Technical Importance

HOW 1

HOW 4

HOW 6

HOW 2

HOW 3

HOW 5

Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7

5 3 4 2 4 1

45 2

5 9 9 3

15

36 12

(CI *Strength) TI = column

e nc e nc a 1 rtta oM p or p m IIm ll iica ca n n 57 41Tech 13 50 6 21 48h c e T

4 36

Ranking The HOW'S

HOW 7

Which Hows are Key Where Should The Focus Lie CI = Customer Importance Strength is measured on a CI 45 5 9, 3, 1, 0 Scale Need 1

Key Elements :

Completeness

Are All The Hows

HOW 3 HOW 5 HOW 1 HOW 2 HOW 4 HOW 6 6 HOW 7

Captured Is A What Really A How

Need 1 Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7 5 3 4 2 4 1

CI H L H M

iia a er tter 21 ii M M L r Cr s 36 ssC es n en e 8 L ette M plle 52 L om p Hm o C C 4 L M

45

65

CC = (CI *Strength) row

57 41 48 13 50

21

Have We Captured Have We Captured the HOW'S the HOW'S

Using the House of Quality

The voice of the customer MUST be carried THROUGHOUT the production process. Three other houses of quality are used to do this and, together with the first, these carry the customers voice from its initial expression, through design attributes, on to component attributes, to process operations, and eventually to a quality control and improvement plans. In Japan, all four are used. The tendency in the West is to use only the first one or two.

1
Customer Attributes

Design Attributes

Design Attributes

Component Attributes

Process Operations

Component Attributes

Process Operations

Quality Control Plan

The Hows at One Level The Hows at One Level Become the Whats at the Become the Whats at the Next Level Next Level

HOWS
WHATS

The Cascading Voice of the Customer

NOTES: Design Attributes are also called Functional Requirements Component Attributes are also called Part Characteristics Process Operations are also called Manufacturing Processes and the Quality Control Plan refers to Key Process Variables.

Th eF ou r

H Critical to Quality ou Characteristics (CTQs) se so fQ ua lit y

Key Manufacturing Processes

X
Key Process Variables

Common QFD Pitfalls

QFD On Everything Set the Right Granularity Dont Apply To Every Last Project Inadequate Priorities Lack of Teamwork Wrong Participants Lack of Team Skills Lack of Support or Commitment Too Much Chart Focus Hurry up and Get Done Failure to Integrate and Implement QFD

 Review Current Review Current Status Status At Least Quarterly At Least Quarterly Monthly on 1 Yr Monthly on 1 Yr Project Project Weekly on Small Weekly on Small Projects Projects
65 45 21 36 8 2 5 4

HOW 3

HOW 4

HOW 1

HOW 2

HOW 5

HOW 6

40 psi

3 mils

Need 1 Need 2 Need 3 Need 4 Need 5 Need 6 Need 7

5 5 3 4 2 4 1

H L H M
12 in. 3 lbs

H L L

L M M L L H
3

HOW 7
65 45 21 36 8 52 1 mm 4

M
8 atm

The Static QFD

57 41 48 13 50

21

Points to Remember
effort. Many entries look obviousafter theyre Many entries written down. look obviousafter theyre written down. If there are NO tough spots the first time: If there are NO tough spots the first time: It Probably Isnt Being Done Right!!!! It Probably Isnt Being Done Right!!!! Focus on the end-user customer. Focus on the end-user customer. Charts are not the objective. Charts are the Charts are not achieving the objective. the the objective. Charts are means for achieving the objective. means for Find reasons to succeed, not excuses for Find reasons to succeed, not excuses for failure. failure. Remember to follow-up afterward Remember to follow-up afterward

The process may look simple, but requires The process may look simple, but requires effort.