Quality Function Deployment QFD

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Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

• Tailoring QFD to Your Project Needs, Simplifying
  QFD
• Brian J Landsberger, UNLV

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Workshop Overview

• QFD is the guiding design process for rapid, low
  cost development of products that delight the
  customers. This versatile tool can be tailored to
  fit the needs of a very diverse collection of
  projects.
• A common barrier to using QFD is the perceived
  complexity and subsequently large time commitment
  required for implementation. However, project
  leadership and good facilitation can clarify the
  mechanics of QFD and significantly shorten the
  time required to complete the matrices of QFD.
• This workshop covers the steps of QFD,
  highlighting techniques and procedures that
  enhance both the project teams output using QFD
  and increase the relevance and value of the
  output to all the stakeholders in the whole
  product development effort.

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Topics Emphasized

• Customer needs What to look for and how to get
  the real needs
• Technical responses to the customer needs
  Picking usable measures that identify key design
  requirements.
• Targets for the technical responses Making the
  measurements simple and relevant to product
  quality loss.
• QFD and communication Making QFD output the
  unifying tool for communicating product design
  and development focus and metrics.

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Definition of QFD

• Integrating customer requirements into product
  design
• Quality Meeting the specifications
• Function Function that forms quality
• Deployment Step-by-step deployment of that
  function

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QFD is

• A structured method for translating the Voice of
  the Customer into design requirements
• A method to keep the organization focused on what
  is important to the customer
• A standard approach to present, document, track
  and create consensus on customer needs
• A technique to balance the voice of the
  executives.

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QFD should not be

• A method to justify your own agenda
• A method to build cool looking charts to impress
  the boss
• A way to get out of the office and hang around
  with your buddies
• An exercise in futility, confusion, and
  aggravation
• A way to produce reports that are shelved
• A method to fool ourselves into thinking we are
  doing world-class design

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Who Should Participate in QFD?

• Process partners from all effected functions
  within the enterprise
• Process partners from key suppliers
• Possibly customer representatives
• Skilled facilitator

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QFD as a Product

• Product Statement For the product designer who
  is dissatisfied with the informal, inertia driven
  design process, QFD is a structured approach to
  product design that provides a clear method for
  planning and development, unlike other approaches
  that rely on build-try-fix iterations, QFD is a
  fundamental approach that provides cohesion and
  communication across functional groups to quickly
  turn customer needs into winning products.

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Why use QFD? (Obstacles to rapid product
development)

• Poor understanding of customer needs
• Failure to strategically prioritize efforts
• Willingness to take on unmanageable risks
• Tendency toward unbuildable designs
• Overreliance on formal specifications
• Testing scenarios that fail to find key defects

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Common Objections to QFD

• I cant spend time on such work.
• I already have too much to do without making
  those charts.
• Somebody made those charts without our input so
  they cant be good.
• What is wrong with the traditional method?
• The form is impressive, but the substance is
  so-so.
• Product design and development should be based on
  a balance of quality, cost and delivery factors.
  Quality considerations should not dominate.

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Why do People Object to QFD?

• The need for QFD and the accompanying expenditure
  of resources has not been communicated.
• The purpose of QFD has not been communicated down
  to a level that shows How QFD helps me to the
  practitioner.
• The necessary resources, especially people and
  time, have not been clearly devoted to make QFD
  work.
• Problems in implementation, when they arise, were
  either ignored or not thoroughly resolved.

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Making QFD relevant

• Communicate the need specific to the project.
• Commit resources, show it is important at all
  management levels.
• Choose the right people and enable them.
• Practice continuously communication and
  education.
• Get ownership at the right level.

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Benefits of QFD

• Fewer, less expensive changes
• Less time, less cost of development
• Fewer start-up problems
• Lower warranty costs
• Delighted customers

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QFD and the Product Development Cycle

• Cross-functional communication
• Functional groups communicating from a common
  reference.
• Functional groups have ownership in the results
  from using QFD.
• Decision making and problem resolution are
  performed objectively based on the criteria
  developed using QFD.
• QFD enables concurrent engineering

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QFD and the Product Development Cycle (slide 2)

• Structured, continuous process for product
  development
• Chartering of project
• Quality charts centered on customer needs
• Concept selection
• Sequence of quality charts from customer needs
  through manufacturing specifications
• Incorporation of Product architecture design,
  FMEA, and total product design.

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Quality Chart Central tool of QFD

• Two-dimensional matrix used to go from demanded
  quality to quality characteristics (from whats
  to hows)
• First and best know chart takes customer needs
  and produces quality measures (called substitute
  quality characteristics, critical customer
  requirements, critical to quality requirements,
  etc.) Called the House of Quality.
• Other tools such as process charts and FMEA are
  helpful to develop the hows.

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Deployment Through the Levels of Product
Development
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House 1 House of Quality

• List the customer needs with importance.
• Develop the technical response with priority and
  relation to the customer needs.
• Document customer competitive perception and
  competitor technical comparison.
• Develop planning priorities for meeting customer
  needs.
• Identify technical correlations between
  substitute quality characteristics.

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House 1 House of Quality
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House of Quality Minimum

• If
• Competitor data not available
• No clear competitor

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Before Starting House 1

• Get management support.
• Recruit the right development team.
• Thoroughly plan the QFD project.
• Obtain a skilled neutral facilitator.
• Have a realistic method to obtain customer data.
• Have a robust communication plan

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QFD Managers Responsibility

• Obtain a team member from all stakeholders who
  can speak for the stakeholders and make
  commitments.
• Get management commitment on the use of the QFD
  output.
• Obtain team consensus on the goals and expected
  output of the QFD activity.
• Make sure the team is right and prepared.
  Schedule training as needed.
• Obtain time and resource commitments from all.
  Schedule the QFD work time.

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Identify Target Market

• Target market is for the first introduction of
  the product.
• Target market should be big enough to support
  initial production, small enough to make it
  possible to achieve market dominance shortly
  after initial production.
• Target market has to be real people who
  communicate with each other within the market.
• Target market needs dominate the design. Follow
  on markets are considered for follow on design.

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Collecting Customer Needs

• Keep In mind the Kano model characterization of
  customer needs
• Dissatisfiers
• Satisfiers
• Delighters
• Best method Talk to customer and observe
  customer using your or a similar product.
• Additional sources Internet blogs, customer
  complaints, journals and magazines
• Dangerous Surveys, your intuition, corporate
  assumptions

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Analyzing Customer Needs

• Use affinity groups for customers and needs.
• Look for customer groups
• Group needs by category(performance, ergonomics,
  etc.)
• Look for importance overall and in customer
  groups
• Map/Analyze the customers process using your
  product
• Look for where product can improve process
• Look for possible failure modes
• Look for alternate and unintended uses of your
  product
• Turn customer statements into actionable needs
• Customer needs should be process oriented.

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Example Customer Statements to Needs

• Statement I want a powerful engine.
• Need I need to pass cars quickly and safely.
• Statement The microwave should be easy to use.
• Need (Dig deeper) I can set the cook time
  directly.
• Statement The screen needs to be big.
• Need Many people need to view the movie at the
  same time.
• Statement It needs a bright headlight.
• Need I need to see where Im going.

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Prioritize Customer Needs

• Use customer inputs.
• Best Get customers to prioritize needs
• Analytical method Analytical Hierarchal Process
  uses detail levels and comparisons to derive a
  numerical importance.
• Example easy method
• Customers prioritize need categories (1 to 5)
• Customers prioritize needs within a category (1
  to 5)
• The need global priority is the product of the
  category and the within category priority (1 to
  5) X (1 to 5)
• If possible, modified products following a small
  DOE can be evaluated by customers.
• Reflect on results

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Enter Customer Needs
Commercial grade 4-slice toaster Partial list
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Notes on Customer Needs

• In the matrix, descriptions tend to be brief
• Keep text notes for each customer need with
• A long title for each customer need
• Any background on the need
• Customer information applicable to the need
• Confidence level of the data

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Collect Planning Matrix Rationale

• Planning matrix is the repository of quantitative
  data about each customer need.
• Current product is compared to competitors in
  meeting customer needs.
• Provides data to the organization on
  opportunities to sell the product and keep
  customers happy.

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Collect Planning Matrix Data

• Importance to customer determination can be
  absolute, relative or ordinal.
• Customer perception data should come from
  customer.
• Evaluate Best in Class competitors.
• Look for non-normal distributions in satisfaction
  ratings in competitive evaluation.

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Calculations for planning Matrix

• Improvement ratio goal/(competitive evaluation)
• Sales point 1, 1.2, 1.5 connected to the
  ability to sell the product based on how well the
  customer need is met.
• Raw weight (Priority x (Improvement ratio) x
  (Sales point))
• Normalized raw weight (raw weight)/(Raw weight
  total)

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Complete Planning Matrix
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Notes on Planning Matrix

• Know the reliability of customer generated data.
• Set realistic reach goals based on overall
  organization goals and resources available.
• Kano Analysis may help determining goals.
• Improvement ratio gives quantitative information
  on effort required to improve, but is relative to
  current performance level.
• The normalized raw weight gives an organizational
  importance to meet a need that reflects sales and
  market priorities.

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Rationale for Substitute Quality Characteristics

• These measures are the key link between customer
  needs and design goals.
• Determining SQCs sets measurable, quantitative,
  actionable design goals early in the project.
• SQCs are the measures that are used to determine
  the success of the product at meeting customer
  needs.
• Performance outputs used in product testing
  should be derived from the list of SQCs.

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Brainstorm for Good Substitute Quality
Characteristics

• Use customer and management understandable
  language.
• Should be solution independent.
• Should be measurable.
• Should be continuous not yes/no.
• Should have a target (may be determined after
  competitive benchmarking).
• Should have a direction (larger the better,
  smaller the better, or nominal the best).
• The sum of SQCs for a need should reasonably
  assure a need is met if the SQC targets are met.

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Enter SQCs
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Notes on SQCs

• Ensure that all customer needs are covered.
• Check that you have not assumed a specific
  solution that is not required.
• Check that you can measure it.
• Check that each SQC is the most leading indicator
  for that capability.
• Communicate to and get consensus from all
  stakeholders on the SQCs. The SQCs are the
  measurable focus of the design.

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Relationship Matrix

• The relationship matrix helps designers visualize
  the pattern of the relation between SQCs and
  customer needs.
• The matrix shows the impact of achieving the SQC
  on achieving one or more customer needs.
• Normally three values for the relationship are
  used
• 9 strong
• 3 moderate
• 1 week
• Symbols representing values add to matrix
  visualization.
• Priorities are calculated from the sum of
  (importance to customer) x (relationship value)
  for all relationships in that SQC column.

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Enter Relationships and Priorities
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Notes on Relationships

• Matrix may start as sparse but interesting
  relationships often appear.
• Each customer need should have at least one SQC
  that has a high relation to that need.
• Reflect on SQC priority to see that it makes
  sense.
• If a negative relation exists, try to modify SQC
  to eliminate negative relation.

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Technical Correlations

• Technical correlations show where SQCs may
  conflict.
• Indicates areas for close communication and
  concurrent engineering.
• Impact shows where improving on one SQC can
  effect the performance on another SQC.
• Impact can be strong, moderate or none, either
  positive or negative.

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Complete Technical Correlation
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Notes on Technical Correlations

• Very useful to identify conflicts, bottlenecks
  and high risk areas.
• One of the most underutilized areas of the HOQ,
  but it can provide great benefits.
• Once conflicts are identified, responsible
  organizations for coordinating action on the
  effected SQCs should be identified and tasked.

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Technical Benchmarks

• Competitor performance on key SQCs are compared
  to each other and our product.
• Performed by experts in that area e.g.,engineers
  and designers.
• Should provide information on where to set the
  targets for those key SQCs.

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Add Technical Benchmarks
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Notes on Benchmarks

• Look for inconsistencies between customer
  perception and technical benchmark. Determine
  cause.
• Identify areas where performance is below norms.
• Look for opportunities to excel

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SQC Targets

• Targets are customer driven
• Target level should be based on type of customer
  need (satisfier, dissatisfier, or delighter) from
  which SQC is derived.
• Quality loss function analysis may be useful.
• Targets should have a direction
• Larger the better
• Smaller the better
• Nominal the best

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Add SQC Targets
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Notes on Targets

• Communicate with and get agreement from all
  stakeholders on targets.
• Document sensitivity of quality to target
  variation.
• At this point look back and reflect on target in
  relation to organization goals, customer needs,
  and organization capabilities.

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When House 1 is Complete

• Review entire House for completeness, errors and
  accuracy. Get team consensus on results.
• Complete and organize documentation on all
  decisions and data. Document where data was weak
  or lacking.
• Communicate and get consensus on using House 1 as
  the focus of the design effort. Often this is
  the Measure phase milestone review. Make sure
  you have buy-in.
• Establish a review schedule to ensure House 1
  stays current and relevant.
• Remember House 1 is a living document - update
  as needed.

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Proceeding to House 2

• Remember Each matrix in the chain represents a
  more specific or more technical expression of the
  product or service.
• The SQCs are the whats for House 2.
• The hows should be the function, attribute or
  characteristic that is needed to achieve the
  whats.
• The hows should be process or functionally
  oriented, not a piece of hardware.
• Based on the detail level of the project, the
  hows may be specific to a higher level of
  hardware.
• Based on the task, the team may need some new
  experts.
• House 2 should be used to provide data for
  concept selection

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QFD Sequence for Concept Selection
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Tools for Concept Building and Selection

• QFD House 1 and House 2 for priorities and key
  requirements
• Product architecture schematic and geometric
  layout
• Pugh Selection matrix
• Analytical Hierarchy Process as a selection method

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Product Architecture
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Pugh Matrix

• Criteria are from QFD either House 1 or 2.
• Priorities are also from QFD.
• Business needs are added if not already in House
  2.
• Planning matrix results should be considered in
  selection.
• Often several iterations required to arrive at
  best concept.

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The Rest of QFD

• Houses 3 and 4 often neglected but can contribute
  to significant cost savings and product
  improvement.
• Houses 3 and 4 help identifying risks such as
  manufacturing bottlenecks and tolerancing
  problems.
• Robust design and tolerance design benefit from a
  complete QFD process.
• Due to increasing detail, follow-on houses may be
  used to track only key and high risk
  characteristics.

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Simplifying QFD

• Organization wide deployment helps generate a
  library of Houses and supporting documentation.
• High level (product category) HOQ can be used to
  start a lower level (specific product) HOQ,
  saving time.
• Customer needs collection can be expedited with
  updating only.
• Access to high level team members help reducing
  effort duplication.

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Simplifying QFD (slide 2)

• Based on the notion that a simple QFD that is
  used, is better than a comprehensive one on the
  shelf
• Identify key customer needs that are not
  automatically satisfied.
• Determine key quality measures that support those
  needs
• Keep HOQ and follow-on houses short to support
  those key requirements.
• Monitor design progress to assure that no
  conflicts have occurred with customer needs left
  off HOQ

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QFD Manager Watch out for

• Waning management support for your efforts and
  for the results.
• Failure of key stakeholders to participate.
• Pressure to reduce work time to an unreasonable
  time for producing useful results.
• Working in isolation. Not keeping up constant
  two-way communication with all stakeholders.
• Not maintaining objectivity as the team
  progresses.
• Sidelining team members.
• Not taking the trouble to get the data needed.

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QFD Manager Time to regroup if

• People are not showing up for your QFD activity
  meetings.
• You cant get the resources you need to conduct
  the planning meetings.
• Management or stakeholders appear to not trust
  your results in your progress reports.
• Management or stakeholders loose interest in your
  progress (no feedback).
• The team is in a hurry and gets sloppy with their
  work.
• You feel like your doing all the work.

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References

• Cohen, Lou, Quality Function Deployment How to
  make QFD Work for You, Addison-Wesley 1995, ISBN
  0-201-63330-2
• Akao, Yoji, Quality Function deployment
  Integrating Customer Requirements into Product
  Design, Productivity Press 1990, ISBN
  1-56327-313-6
• Terninko, John, Step-by-Step QFD Customer-Driven
  Product Design, 2nd ed., CRC Press 1997, ISBN
  1-57444-110-8
• ReVelle, Jack, John Moran and Charles Cox, The
  QFD Handbook, Wiley Sons 1998, ISBN
  0-471-17381-9
• Ulrich, Karl and Steven Eppinger, Product design
  and Development, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill 2008, ISBN
  978-0-07-310142-2
• Kiemele, Mark, Richard Murrow and Lee Pollock,
  Knowledge Based Management, 2nd ed., Air Academy
  Associates 2007 ISBN 978-1-880156-08-7