Quality
must be designed into the product, not inspected into it. Quality can be
defined as meeting customer needs and providing superior value. This focus on
satisfying the customer's needs places an emphasis on techniques such as Quality
Function Deployment to help understand those needs and plan a product to
provide superior value.
Quality
Function Deployment (QFD) is a structured approach to defining customer needs
or requirements and translating them into specific plans to produce products to
meet those needs. The "voice of the customer" is the term to describe
these stated and unstated customer needs or requirements. The voice of the
customer is captured in a variety of ways: direct discussion or interviews,
surveys, focus groups, customer specifications, observation, warranty data,
field reports, etc. This understanding of the customer needs is then summarized
in a product planning matrix or "house of quality". These matrices
are used to translate higher level "what's" or needs into lower level
"how's" - product requirements or technical characteristics to
satisfy these needs.
While
the Quality Function Deployment matrices are a good communication tool at each
step in the process, the matrices are the means and not the end. The real value
is in the process of communicating and decision-making with QFD. QFD is
oriented toward involving a team of people representing the various functional
departments that have involvement in product development: Marketing, Design
Engineering, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing/ Manufacturing Engineering, Test
Engineering, Finance, Product Support, etc.
The
active involvement of these departments can lead to balanced consideration of
the requirements or "what's" at each stage of this translation
process and provide a mechanism to communicate hidden knowledge - knowledge
that is known by one individual or department but may not otherwise be
communicated through the organization. The structure of this methodology helps
development personnel understand essential requirements, internal capabilities,
and constraints and design the product so that everything is in place to
achieve the desired outcome - a satisfied customer. Quality Function Deployment
helps development personnel maintain a correct focus on true requirements and
minimizes misinterpreting customer needs. As a result, QFD is an effective
communications and a quality planning tool.
History
of QFD
QFD was invented in
Japan by Yoji Akao in 1966, but was first implemented in the Mitsubishi’s Kobe
shipyard in 1972, possibly out of the teaching of Deming. Then later it was
adopted and developed by other Japanese companies, notably Toyota and its
suppliers.
In the USA the first
serious exponents of QFD were the 'big three' automotive manufacturers in the 1980's,
and a few leading companies in other sectors such as electronics. However, the
uptake of QFD in the Western world appears to have been fairly slow. There is
also some reluctance among users of QFD to publish and share information - much
more so than with other quality-related methodologies. This may be because the
data captured and the decisions made using QFD usually relate to future product
plans, and are therefore sensitive, proprietary, and valuable to competitors.
The
3 main goals in implementing QFD are:
·
Prioritize spoken and unspoken customer wants and needs.
·
Translate these needs into technical characteristics and
specifications.
·
Build and deliver a quality product or service by focusing
everybody toward customer satisfaction.
Since its introduction,
Quality Function Deployment has helped to transform the way many
Companies:
·
Plan new products
·
Design product requirements
·
Determine process characteristics
·
Control the manufacturing process
·
Document already existing product specifications
QFD uses some
principles from Concurrent Engineering in that cross-functional teams are involved
in all phases of product development. Each of the four phases in a QFD process
uses a matrix to translate customer requirements from initial planning stages through
production control
(Becker
Associates Inc, 2000).
Each phase, or
matrix, represents a more specific aspect of the product's requirements. Relationships
between elements are evaluated for each phase. Only the most important aspects from
each phase are deployed into the next matrix.
Phase 1, Product
Planning:
Building the
House of Quality, Led by the marketing department, Phase 1, or product
planning, is also called The House of Quality. Many organizations only get
through this phase of a QFD process. Phase 1 documents customer requirements,
warranty data, competitive opportunities, product measurements, competing
product measures, and the technical ability of the organization to meet each
customer requirement. Getting good data from the customer in Phase 1 is
critical to the success of the entire QFD process.
Phase 2, Product
Design:
This phase 2 is
led by the engineering department. Product design requires creativity and
innovative team ideas. Product concepts are created during this phase and part
specifications are documented. Parts that are determined to be most important
to meeting customer needs are then deployed into process planning, or Phase 3.
Phase 3, Process
Planning:
Process planning
comes next and is led by manufacturing engineering. During process planning,
manufacturing processes are flowcharted and process parameters (or target
values) are documented.
Phase 4, Process
Control:
And finally, in
production planning, performance indicators are created to monitor the
production process, maintenance schedules, and skills training for operators.
Also, in this phase decisions are made as to which process poses the most risk
and controls are put in place to prevent failures. The quality assurance
department in concert with manufacturing leads Phase 4.
The House of Quality
The first phase
in the implementation of the Quality Function Deployment process involves putting
together a "House of Quality" (Hauser and Clausing, 1988) such as the
one shown below, which is for the development of a climbing harness (fig. from
Lowe & Ridgway, 2001)
Steps to the
House of Quality (Becker
and Associates, 2000)
Step 1: Customer
Requirements - "Voice of the Customer"
The first step
in a QFD project is to determine what market segments will be analyzed during
the process and to identify who the customers are. The team then gathers information
from customers on the requirements they have for the product or service. In order
to organize and evaluate this data, the team uses simple quality tools like
Affinity Diagrams or Tree Diagrams.
Step 2:
Regulatory Requirements
Not all product
or service requirements are known to the customer, so the team must document
requirements that are dictated by management or regulatory standards that the product
must adhere to.
Step 3: Customer
Importance Ratings
On a scale from
1 - 5, customers then rate the importance of each requirement. This number will
be used later in the relationship matrix.
Step 4: Customer
Rating of the Competition
Understanding
how customers rate the competition can be a tremendous competitive advantage.
In this step of the QFD process, it is also a good idea to ask customers how your
product or service rates in relation to the competition. There is remodeling
that can take place in this part of the House of Quality. Additional rooms that
identify sales opportunities, goals for continuous improvement, customer
complaints, etc., can be added.
Step 5:
Technical Descriptors - "Voice of the Engineer"
The technical
descriptors are attributes about the product or service that can be measured and
benchmarked against the competition. Technical descriptors may exist that your organization
is already using to determine product specification, however new measurements
can be created to ensure that your product is meeting customer needs.
Step 6:
Direction of Improvement
As the team
defines the technical descriptors, a determination must be made as to the direction
of movement for each descriptor.
Step 7:
Relationship Matrix
The relationship
matrix is where the team determines the relationship between customer needs and
the company's ability to meet those needs. The team asks the question,
"What is the strength of the relationship between the technical
descriptors and the customers’ needs?" Relationships can either be weak,
moderate, or strong or carry a numeric value of 1, 3 or 9.
Step 8:
Organizational Difficulty
Rate the design
attributes in terms of organizational difficulty. It is very possible that some
attributes are in direct conflict. Increasing the number of sizes may be in
conflict with the company’s stock holding policies, for example.
Step 9:
Technical Analysis of Competitor Products
To better
understand the competition, engineering then conducts a comparison of competitor
technical descriptors. This process involves reverse engineering competitor products
to determine specific values for competitor technical descriptors.
Step 10: Target
Values for Technical Descriptors
At this stage in
the process, the QFD team begins to establish target values for each technical
descriptor. Target values represent "how much" for the technical
descriptors, and can then act as a base-line to compare against.
Step 11:
Correlation Matrix
This room in the
matrix is where the term House of Quality comes from because it makes the
matrix look like a house with a roof. The correlation matrix is probably the
least used room in the House of Quality; however, this room is a big help to
the design engineers in the next phase of a comprehensive QFD project. Team
members must examine how each of the technical descriptors impacts each other.
The team should document strong negative relationships between technical
descriptors and work to eliminate physical contradictions.
Step 12:
Absolute Importance
Finally, the
team calculates the absolute importance for each technical descriptor. This numerical
calculation is the product of the cell value and the customer importance
rating. Numbers are then added up in their respective columns to determine the
importance for each technical descriptor. Now you know which technical aspects
of your product matters the most to your customer!
The Next Stage
The above
process is then repeated in a slightly simplified way for the next three
project phases.
A simplified
matrix involving steps 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 & 11 above is developed. The
main difference with the subsequent phases however, is that in Phase 2 the
process becomes a translation of the voice of the engineer in to the voice of
the part design specifications. Then, in phase 3, the part design
specifications get translated into the voice of manufacturing planning. And
finally, in phase 4, the voice of manufacturing is translated into the voice of
production planning.
QFD is a
systematic means of ensuring that customer requirements are accurately
translated into relevant technical descriptors throughout each stage of product
development. Therefore, meeting or exceeding customer demands means more than
just maintaining or improving product performance. It means designing and
manufacturing products that delight customers and fulfill their unarticulated
desires. Companies growing into the 21st century will be enterprises that foster
the needed innovation to create new markets.
Example of
successful QFD implementation
A successful story of
QFD can be seen at the Chrysler Motors Corporation. The QFD at Chrysler Motor
Corporation was formally launched in September 1986, but its first application
was begun in June 1986.
Chrysler implemented
the QFD in four-stage process: (1) spreading awareness, (2) developing
successful case study and examples to motivate subsequent teams, (3)
company-wide training and education on QFD techniques and philosophy, and (4)
adopting QFD as business philosophy.
In the beginning, QFD
idea was not widely accepted in the company. For many QFD was perceived as
requiring additional time and effort. Such opinions led to organizational and
perceptual barriers regarding the successful implementation of QFD.
Due to various resource
constraints, Chrysler management was sometimes unable to authorize first-hand
customer research. In such cases teams were encouraged to document what they
knew concerning the customer requirement, based on their experiences. Often
team members simulated customers by actually evaluating competing vehicles, and
reviewing customer ratings.
The result of using QFD
in Chrysler, in the launch of LH platform for mid-size cars was successful. The
total product design cycle took approximately 36 months, versus the historical
cycles ranging from 62 to 54 months. Only 740 people were required in the QFD
program, while 1600 people were required in the historical environment. Also,
by focusing on the customer requirement instead of only cost, Chrysler made
innovative design changes that are gaining acceptance in marketplace. (Lockamy
& Khurana, 1995).
QFD is a good system to be implemented in organization or industry, which can be seen from the examples mentioned above. QFD does not design to replace the existing organization design process by any means, but rather support the organization’s design process. And it also helps bring the customer’s voice into the production process to reduce the unnecessary cost. Cutting production time is also very beneficial to the companies.
However, QFD has not been widely accepted in the USA compared to Japan (42% or more of Japanese companies have adopted QFD to improve their quality). In the future we hope QFD can be more adopted and researched in the American manufacturing and service organizations.
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