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Frequently Asked Questions about QFD
How does QFD differ from other quality initiatives? What are the characteristics of QFD as a quality system? How long has the methodology been around? What industry and business are using QFD? Why is a conventional design process not sufficient? What are "expected quality" and "exciting quality?" What is the House of Quality? Why it isn't a QFD? How does QFD offer strategic advantage? How has QFD advanced over the years?
How does QFD differ from other quality initiatives? Traditional quality systems aim at minimizing negative quality such as eliminating defects or reducing operational errors. Assuming that everything goes well, the best you can attain with these systems is zero defects. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? But, what if your competitors are also zero defects? Also, a product can be defect-free and still may not sell. This is where design makes a difference. Conventional design processes, however, focus more on engineering capabilities and less on customer needs. When they do try to incorporate customer perspectives, these tend to be engineer or provider-perceived.
QFD is quite different in that it seeks out both "spoken" and "unspoken" customer requirements and maximizes "positive" quality (such as ease of use, fun, luxury) that creates value. Traditional quality systems aim at minimizing negative quality (such as defects, poor service).
What are the characteristics of QFD as a quality system?
7 Management and Planning Tools.
Dr. Shigeru Mizuno and Dr. Yoji Akao in Japan.
How long has the methodology been around?
What industry and business are using QFD? QFD has been applied in virtually every industry and business, from aerospace, manufacturing, software, communication, IT, chemical and pharmaceutical, transportation, defense, government, R&D, food to service industry. Organizations that have in the past presented at the Symposium on QFD include 3M, AT&T, Accenture, Boeing, Continental Rehabilitation Hospital, DaimlerChrysler, EDS, Ford, GM, Hayes Brake, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, Jet Propulsion Laboratry, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kodak, Lockheed-Martin, Pratt & Whitney, Motorola, NASA, Nokia, Raytheon, Texas Instrument, Toshiba, United Technologies, U.S. Dept. of Defense, United Technologies, Visteon, Xerox and many other Fortune 500 companies.
Why is a conventional design process not sufficient?
What are "expected quality" and "exciting quality?" "Expected" quality or requirements are essentially basic functions or features that customers normally expect of a product or service. Expected requirements are usually invisible unless they become visible when they are unfulfilled.
"Exciting" quality or requirements are sort of "out of ordinary" functions or features of a product or service that cause "wow" reactions in customers. Exciting requirements are also usually invisible unless they become visible when they are fulfilled and result in customer satisfaction; they do not leave customers dissatisfied when left unfulfilled.
The original research on expected vs. exciting quality was conducted and reported in a paper called "Must Be Quality" by Dr. Kano and his students in Japan. Although the paper is often misinterpreted as a simple relationship model of expected quality vs. excited quality, what is really important, however, is that the target of customer satisfaction can be moving and invisible—which requires more complex analysis. This is precisely where QFD is strongest. QFD makes invisible requirements and strategic advantages visible.
What is the House of Quality? Why it isn't a QFD? The House of Quality is an assembly of several deployment hierarchies and tables, including the Demanded Quality Hierarchy, Quality Characteristics Hierarchy, the relationships matrix, the Quality Planning Table, and Design Planning Table. It is a table that connects dots between the Voice of the Customer and the Voice of the Engineer.
The House of Quality is commonly associated with QFD, and in the minds of many
who learned QFD from the sources that are outdated, oversimplified, or
inaccurate, seems to be the only
thing that need be done when implementing QFD. This is a most common myth even today and rarely the case. How does QFD offer strategic advantage? The expected and exciting requirements provide the best opportunity for competitive advantage - if you can find a way to make them visible and then deliver on them. However, in this fast changing world, hitting the right target of customer satisfaction is made more difficult by fragmenting customer segments, new technology, and competitive pressures. QFD makes invisible requirements and strategic advantages visible, allows you to prioritize and deliver on them in a focused product development process.
Companies have reported many benefits of doing QFD. Early literature describes how Toyota Auto Body reduced start-up losses by 61%. Mazda educed late design changes by half, etc. U.S. and European companies have reported such results as well. You can see the industry testimonials to the benefits of QFD in the Symposium Transactions page.
How has QFD advanced over the years? Like any good system, QFD has evolved over the years. Modern QFD now incorporates many advancements that were not in traditional QFD.
For example, traditional QFD, originating from the build-to-spec practice in the 1960s, centered around what is called '4-House' approach. Companies that do their own design work have found this approach does not integrate well into their new product development process and is too time-consuming. Modern QFD is custom-tailored to identify the minimum QFD effort required with the optimum tools and sequence, making QFD more efficient and sustainable in today’s lean business environment. Large, complex tools such as the House of Quality (HOQ) are now often replaced with smaller, faster ones that provide a level of analysis that is faster and easier. Modern QFD also upgraded math in the QFD matrices to meet the mathematical rigor demanded by Six Sigma precision.
Additionally, Modern QFD includes psychological and lifestyle needs, not just functional needs. Today, consumers are making the purchase decision more and more on emotional needs and image issues. Lifestyle QFD connects consumers’ needs for psychological and lifestyle-enhancing solutions with your product development and branding.
Modern QFD also has components for Schedule Deployment and Project Deployment based on Critical Chain Project Management to improve allocation of constrained resources and finish more projects on time.
Overall, Modern QFD today provides a much better framework for integration of various innovative methods into your product development process. Read more... How is Modern QFD different from Traditional 4-phase model QFD? Is your QFD math up to Six Sigma level? Why it is important for Six Sigma Black Belts and Master Black Belts to learn Modern QFD? Avoid common QFD application errors in DFSS Learn Modern QFD... Attend Symposium on QFD Attend the next QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course Send questions about QFD...
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