QUALITY MANAGEMENT
SPRING, 1998

Quality Function Deployment

Larry W. Jacobs

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CUSTOMER MEASUREMENT -
QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

"The only things that are preventing Quality Function Deployment (QFD) from becoming recognized as the most important product development tool of the century are the unpronounceable name… and the fact that QFD cannot be learned in an afternoon." Rao, et alia, 996

Who uses QFD and what for?

• Mitsubishi Kobe Shipyard (1972)
  -Yoji Akao

• Toyota (1970’s to today): many

• AT&T (1980’s): new ATM system

• Ford Motor (1980’s): Taurus/Sable

• GM (1992): Cadillac Seville

• NASA (1980’s - 1990’s)
  -Advanced Launch System Main Engine
  -Advanced Launch System Cryogenic Tank
  -Tactical Aircraft Development Processes

• Hewlett Packard (1990’s): multimeter

• Ford Motor (1990’s): Contour/Mystique

• Ford Motor (1990’s): Windstar

• others - XEROX, IBM, Motorola, P&G, Mazda, Intel

 

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CONSIDERATIONS OF DEFINITION

• QFD is not just for products - also for PROCESS and SERVICES

• QFD is NOT only a planning tool for ‘introducing’ new products, processes, and services, BUT ALSO for ‘enhancing’ existing products, processes, and services as well.

• QFD is NOT to be used ONLY by the Quality Department but used in cross-functional teams at ALL LEVELS of an organization
  
• The END USER is not the only customer. The ORGANIZATION itself should also be treated as a customer.

QFD - KEY CONCEPTS
Four Matrices of Quality

1. Planning Matrix - House of Quality sets product design specifications, or ‘counterpart characteristics’ in terms of relative importance and target values

2. Product Development Matrix - design specs are stepped down to subsystem and component level

MANUFACTURING REQUIREMENTS MATRIX - i.e. establish CRITICAL required operations to produce product and component requirements.

OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS MATRIX - the final document defines operational requirements, procedures, practices, the quality control plan.

Overview of the House of Quality

• Customer attributes (the what’s of customer desires) - are enumerated at a high level of specificity

• Customer attributes are weighted for importance

• Customer attributes are translated into counterpart characteristics, i.e. the customer ‘what’s’ are translated into the producer’s technical ‘how’s’
• The counterpart characteristics are prioritized by an ‘ingenious, but straightforward’ weighting procedure
  -high priority counterpart characteristics become the ‘what’s’ of the next QFD matrix.

KANO QUESTIONAIRE
Noriaki Kano

• MUST- BE’S. Characteristics customer expects - if not there - dissatisfied customer!

• SATISFIERS. Characteristics for which the customer looks - the better the product/ service performs or contains these, the happier the customer.
  
• EXCITERS/DELIGHTERS.

BUILDING THE HOUSE OF QUALITY

• IDENTIFY CUSTOMER ATTRIBUTES
  -comment cards, surveys, focus groups, direct customer contacts, field intelligence, complaints

• IDENTIFY COUNTERPART CHARACTERISTICS

• IDENTIFY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COUNTERPART CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMER ATTRIBUTES

• EVALUATE COMPETITOR VIS-A-VIS SATISFYING CUSTOMER ATTRIBUTES

• EVALUATE COUNTERPART CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPETITORS VERSUS YOUR PRODUCTS

• DEVELOP TARGETS AND PRIORITIES

• DEPLOY TO NEXT HOUSE

SOME CAVEATS....

• MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

• CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM
  -PARTICIPANTS FROM ALL DISCIPLINES INVOLVED, INCLUDING THOSE WITH DIRECT CUSTOMER CONTACT
  -FUNCTIONAL MAPPING

• QFD TRAINING FOR TEAMS

• TEAM MUST HAVE CLEAR RESPONSIBILITIES AND GOALS

• DECISION-MAKING POWER MUST RESIDE WITHIN QFD TEAM

• QUALITATIVE EMPHASIS
  -DEPTH VS BREADTH

• THE KANO QUANDRY

• PROBLEM OF AGGREGATION OF RESPONDENTS

• PROBLEM OF QUANTIFICATION BIAS