The aim of QFD is to satisfy customers, not employees. The input to QFD comes from customers, not employees. Perhaps you are confusing Quality Function Deployment with Policy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri) or TQM (Total Quality Management)?

Policy Deployment uses the same tool set as QFD and does incorporate input from all areas in an organization in order to plan the accomplishment of the organizational strategy. Even then, and also in TQM, the essential part of strategy or improvement is often to satisfy those customers whom the organization exists to serve (thus the role for QFD in TQM).

[Students] Decomposing house of quality to separate tables is problematic...

[QFDI] We do not understand what problem you are referring to. "House of Quality" matrix is simply one of many matrices used in QFD. When the use of this matrix is appropriate, it can be easily assembled from several components, as we show how to in our two-day QFD Green Belt® Course.

[Students] Interpretation of the symbols used in QFD is difficult for those who are not familiar with QFD.

[QFDI] The current recommended international symbol set for QFD is the International symbol set from meteorology for cloud cover. This is very intuitive, and internationally accepted. But any use of symbols should be explained with an accompanying legend.

[QFDI]  What "improves" when you do QFD is what your tailored QFD process aims to improve. There are many companies that use QFD to improve product design, while many that use it to improve technology, process, usability, interoperability, software, service, etc. And currently in North America, the dominant approach for organizational improvement is not TQM (as was the case in the 1980's) but Six Sigma. QFD is a key part of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS).

[Students] Other functions, namely production process, procurement, R & D, service, marketing and so on, may not get the benefit of applying QFD in the company...

[QFDI] QFD aims to benefit customers directly, not employees. We apply QFD in order to benefit the customer, and to do so better than any competitor. Thus we assure the jobs of everyone in our organization. That is the ultimate benefit to employees, isn't it?

QFD puts customers on the top priority. Why? Because the customer is the only one who puts money in the "chain of systems". Everyone else (employees, sales, marketers, distributors, retailers, suppliers, vendors, etc.) is simply passing the token up and down in the chain. If the customer stops putting money in the chain (stops purchasing your product or service), nothing matters because pretty soon there will be no money and no reason for the company to keep those functions (employees) on the payroll.

By the way, if employee satisfaction is the goal of your project, there is a published case study titled "QFD for Quality of Work Life" by a Canadian company called TELUS, in the 1995 volume of the Symposium Proceedings. In this study, QFD was applied to improve employees' job satisfaction and quality of work life so that the company could continue attracting and retaining high quality employees who were needed for the increasingly competitive telecom market following the government deregulation.

[Students] We feel that the personnel associated with those functions tend to lose interest on QFD implementation and thereby the efforts to achieve continuous quality improvement will be affected.

[QFDI]  We have to point out two issues:

1.  Whether people "lose interest" or not is a result of the "implementation," not the method. Implementation of QFD should be carefully planned, and a tailored approach should be implemented.

[QFDI]  As QFD has been dealing with vague inputs for 40 years, a variety of methods have been developed to extract high-quality customer needs from such low-quality inputs. One of such methods, for example, is Voice of Customer Analysis. There exists extensive literature on Voice of Customer analysis, especially in the QFD Symposium Transactions. This entire field grew out of initial work in QFD in North America in the mid-1980s. In this area you will find a rich and comprehensive set of techniques for dealing with stated, unstated, and implied customer needs, and how to translate such needs from verbatim and observations.

We don't know what literatures you are relying on, but it is quite possible that they are outdated. Many English-language books on QFD that we see in the market appear to teach old schools of QFD. They are based on the truncated, oversimplified versions of QFD which were taught in some countries and industries over 20-30 years ago. You can tell when you see these terms such as "4-phase model" and "Hows and Whats" for the House of Quality. They also give you an impression that a House of Quality matrix is all you need to know to do a QFD.

QFD has gone through numerous advancements since its inception in 1960s and it continues to advance, merging with new concepts and sharpening tools. The state-of-art QFD today is called Modern QFD.

[QFDI] In North America, most QFD use is for product development. In Japan, QFD is most often used for process improvement. QFD does both. (Thus, Comprehensive QFD).

Each organization has its unique goals, so you must tailor QFD to your needs. You cannot refer to 'QFD' as if it were some monolithic method or a canned approach. QFD can be referred only as implemented by a specific organization or project.

Come to our annual Symposium, and you will find out each implementation uses different parts of QFD in different ways, and why. None follows the same deployment sequence, tools, or the number of matrices; many do not use the House of Quality matrix; some use no matrix at all.

Once you develop sufficient understanding of the methodology, you will understand why one QFD implementation that fits a project may not be a right QFD for another at all. The Symposium is an excellent place to see this in action.

[Students] There are many contradiction and doubts regarding the totality of QFD.

[QFDI] Are these contradictions inherent in the method, or are they a characteristic of how the method was explained to you? When you encounter similar contradictions in physics, for example, do you question the entire field of physics or your understanding of it because of the way it was taught to you?

[QFDI]  May we suggest:

1. Attend a future Symposium on QFD. The QFD Institute's annual Symposium on QFD is the oldest continuing conference dedicated to QFD applications and state-of-art QFD training. It started as a forum for people to exchange ideas and learn about QFD, better way to design and do business, and relevant quality and design methodologies. It continues to provide a supportive environment for industry professionals and academics alike to present and learn from each other. Much advancement made in recent years was born from this conference. The forum engages audience and speakers in candid questions & answers in a supportive environment, whether you are new to QFD or experienced. The QFD Institute's Symposium usually offers a Student Special and all Symposium attendees receive a complimentary QFD Student Pack.