Customer quality function deployment

Quality Function Deployment. Sometimes referred to as the House of Quahty, quahty function deployment (QFD) is a technique for translating the voice of the customer iato design requirements (19). This is a systematic approach identifyiag customer expectations and relating the expectations to product properties. The usage of QFD ia the chemical iadustry appears to be growing. QFD results ia chemical specifications optimized to assure the material is suitable for its iatended use and performs up to customer expectations. 

Quality Function Deployment set targets for the engineering characteristics of the product that satisfy the customers requirements... 

Once the customer needs (top level CTQs) have been defined a DFSS team needs to determine how process parameters that can be addressed, such as raw materials, process control parameters, etc. are related to the ability to deliver customer CTQs. This is done by generating a series of quality functional deployment (QFD) matrices as sketched in Fig. 3. There is no hard and fast rule on how many levels a QFD needs. Frequently, polymer and chemical QFDs have only three levels as there are no subassemblies, and consequently, there is no need for a parts QFD because process specifications relate directly to the process design CTQs. 

Quality function deployment (QFD), also referred to as customer driven engineering and matrix product planning , is a useful quality and planning tool which uses a structured approach in defining all the customer needs or requirements and translates these into design requirements for product development. 

Day, R. G. 1993. Quality function deployment Linking a company with its customers. Milwaukee ASQC Quality Press. 

The fundamental principle is the identification of value from the customer s point of view. Customers shall get the ordered products as desired regarding quality, quantity, delivery date, and place. It has to be proven whether the enterprise interprets the customer value successfully, and therefore the offered products fulfill the customer needs completely. An appropriate concept to prove this is, for example, the quality function deployment. This concept is used to break down and link all characteristics of a product and the corresponding customer needs to find out whether all needs get fulfilled and all product characteristics create a customer value. 

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a tool that is used to specify all major requirements of customers and then evaluate how well the designs meet or exceed those requirements. It is used in developing new products, improving existing products, and developing processes to manufacture the products. QFD is a set of methods to take all of the information gathered from a firm s customers and potential customers and organize it to facilitate the product development process. QFD is a communication and translation tool. It allows a cross-functional team to share information effectively. 

Brief Overview. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a powerful and widely used method to define your customers, determine their needs, benchmark the competition, and define engineering parameters and targets that, when met, will lead to a successful product. The QFD diagram, referred to as the house of quality because of its shape (Fig. 31.1), provides an important view of the customers needs. Understanding your customers and the environment in which you must compete is cmcial to your problem definition. 

However, supply chains, containing the processes we use to match supply and demand, often develop without benefit of conscious design. They are built over time, and decisions are made without an overall blueprint. Certainly, there is difficulty in coordinating what the customer really wants with what the company is ready to deliver. Quality function deployment, described in Section 6.5, is a tool for developing a specification. An important foundation for a specification is flexibility, as described in Section 3 5. Another important concept is identifying businesses within the business, described in Section 6.6, and creating specifications for each of the businesses identified. 

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a technique to translate requirements — defined by customers — into specifications for a product or service. The tool is promoted as part of total quality and Six Sigma improvement efforts. QFD captures the voice of the customer and has application for supply chain processes, including physical flow, needed flexibility, extended product features, and new product introduction. QFD forces supply chain designers to consider customer needs important in design. This lowers the risk of leaving something out. 

This chapter describes and applies a framework for developing the activities and associated processes for specialized supply chains. The boundaries of these supply chains can be defined by a company and its trading partners, or by a business within the business or sphere as described in Chapter 9. Chapter 11 describes how the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique supports the design of activity systems by gathering customer requirements. 

As asserted in the quotation above, quality function deployment (QFD), introduced previously in Section 6.5, has much to recommend it for supply chain design. QFD, in fact, originated in 1971 from the deployment of quality engineers to document customer requirements, remains a tool in popular siK sigma process improvement programs. 

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) A system engineering process that transforms the desires of the customer/user into the language required, at all project levels, to implement a product. It also provides the glue necessary, at all project levels, to tie it all together and to manage it. Finally, it is an excellent method for ensuring that the customer obtains high value from the product, the intended purpose of QFD. 

Voice of the customer A component of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) that provides customers requirements as the basis for design of a product or process. 

The inclusion of external use/need knowledge is also one of the main issues of marketing science (Hauser et al. 2006), and remains a remarkable challenge for research and practice (Marketing Science Institute 2010). This task can be attributed to marketing research in organizations (McDaniel and Gates 2008). Many different methods have been developed to assess customer needs, which can be broadly divided Into quantitative (conjoint analysis, quality function deployment) and qualitative techniques (focus interviews, consumer workshops). All of these methods rely on the assumption that users or consumers have the ability to articulate or express their needs. Yet this is only possible for those needs, of which customers are aware themselves. Latent needs, which are crucial for the development of new product, cannot be acquired via these techniques, as they cannot be made explicit by users (Narver et al. 2004). 

The design of the fuel cell system really begins with the Voice of the Customer (VOC). For fuel cell systems, there can be many potential customers the end user, the OEM, or an intermediate service provider. In any case, by the voice of the customer is meant that quality expectation taken directly from the customer, properly evaluated, and deployed within the product development process. One such technique for doing this is the well-known Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process which, if properly used, enables the VOC to be deployed all the way to the factory floor. Without knowing and agreeing on the key customer requirements upfront, the fuel cell system design process cannot be successfully completed. 

Quality function deployment (QFD) It is a systematic approach of determining customer needs and designing the product or service so that it meets the customers needs first time and every time. 

Stocker, Gregg D., Quality Functional Deployment Listening to the Voice of the Customer, APICS 34th International Conference Proceedings, APICS, October 1991, pp. 258-262. 

Kwong, C.K Bai, H. (2002) A fuzzy AHP approach for the determination of importance weights of customer requirements in quality function deployment. In Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 13(5), 367-377. 

An example of how to share customer needs is to develop a cross-compai r team that is product line-specific and work with all the details. I have seen this in the automobile industry where critical characteristics, final use, delivery, and cost are discrrssed. As this team functiorrs, all the issues are dug up and discussed so that problems can be formd and resolved before a major crisis develops. This is where the concept of qtrality function deployment (QFD) can be used. The ejqrlanation of QFD can be fourrd in tnary different books on quality concepts. 

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