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).

1. QFD is a quality system that implements elements of Systems Thinking (viewing the development process as a system) and Psychology (understanding customer needs, what 'value' is, and how customers or end users become interested, choose, and are satisfied, recommend to others, etc.).

2. QFD is a quality method of Knowledge or Epistemology (how do we know the needs of the customer? how do we decide what features to include? and to what level of performance?)

3. QFD is a quality system for strategic competitiveness; it maximizes positive quality that adds value; it seeks out spoken and unspoken customer requirements, translates them into technical requirements, prioritizes them and directs us to optimize those features that will bring the greatest competitive advantage.

4. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the only comprehensive quality system aimed specifically at satisfying the customer throughout the development and realization process -- end to end.

5. Quick Facts about QFD

6. How QFD works

• 7 Management and Planning Tools.

• AHP

• Blitz QFD® with Maximum Value table

• Emotional quality with Kansei Engineering

• Strategic planning with Hoshin Kanri

• Example QFD approaches and techniques

Dr. Shigeru Mizuno and Dr. Yoji Akao of Japan.

Research papers on then-emerging QFD concepts began appearing in Japan in the 1960s. It was not until 1983 when the ASQ's Quality Progress magazine published on an article on QFD, followed by the Kaizen Institute (then Cambridge Research) inviting Dr. Akao to Chicago to give a lecture on QFD that it was presented to an American audience.

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 Laboratory, 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.

Testimonials from companies that have attended our QFD training.

Companies that have sent their employees to QFD Institute training (partial list)

Conventional design processes focus more on engineering capabilities and less on customer needs. When they do try to incorporate customer perspectives, these tend to be engineer-perceived or producer-perceived.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD), however, focuses like a laser to align all product development activities on customer needs.

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.

In this fast changing world, however, hitting the right target of customer satisfaction is made more difficult by fragmenting customer segments, new technology, and cost 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 reduced late design changes by half, etc. U.S. and European companies have reported similar results as well.

You can see the industry testimonials to the benefits of QFD in the Symposium Transactions. Companies have also used modern QFD successfully in order to anticipate future market and customer needs.

"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 study on expected vs. exciting quality was conducted and reported in a paper called "Must Be Quality and Attractive Quality" by Noriaki Kano and his students in Japan. It measured only satisfaction against the existence or absence of a 'feature'. It did not address customer needs.

Their study also relied on the two data points of "IF" and the "IF NOT" which should have produced only a linear line — even though their diagram illustrated curved lines. —It is improper to draw the curves from two data points, as the researchers had done in the paper and their diagram.

Despite this, the Kano model is often misinterpreted as a simple relationship model of expected quality vs. excited quality.

What is actually important, however, is that the target of customer satisfaction can be moving and invisible—something that many people including the original Japanese researchers were unaware of.

To identify the moving, invisible target of customer satisfaction, more complex analysis is required. This is precisely where QFD is strongest.

QFD makes invisible requirements and strategic advantages visible. The New Kano Model, which was developed by one of the QFDI directors and correctly reflects these facts, is taught in our QFD trainings.

The House of Quality (HoQ) is simply one of many tools that are utilized in various quality methods.

Although this matrix is often associated with QFD, especially among those who studied the 4-phase method from the 1980s, building a HoQ by itself does not constitute doing QFD, as Dr. Yoji Akao (co-founder of QFD method) used to say.

In fact, in most QFD studies, a HoQ is not the starting point. In technology driven QFDs and Cost Reduction driven QFDs, HoQ may not be created or it can be even detrimental to innovative solutions. In Blitz QFD®, a HoQ may be completely unnecessary.

Like any good system, QFD has evolved over the years.

Modern QFD now incorporates many advancements that were not in classical QFD. Which originated from the build-to-spec practice in the 1960s, centered around what is called a 4-House approach.

Companies that do their own design work have found that the 4-House approach does not integrate well into their new product development process, it is too time-consuming and resource-intensive for the levels of analytic outcome. They also found the House of Quality, the main tool in the 4-House model, is extremely prone to mis-application, and thus it is not sustainable. (Best vs Worst Practices)

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.

Classical QFD often did not go deep enough into the voice of the customer to uncover unspoken needs because it began at the time when most design work was done by the customer's engineers. Modern QFD has a set of rigorous front-end tools to refine the Voice of the customer into spoken and unspoken customer needs, leading to more innovative solutions.

Additionally, modern QFD includes psychological and lifestyle needs, not just functional needs. Today, consumers are making their 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.

Most recently, ISO 16355 series standard for QFD has been established. Overall, modern QFD today provides a much better framework for integration of various innovative methods into your product development process.

In addition to the benefits of implementing QFD/ISO16355 that have been documented in the Symposium Transactions and Testimonials, here are some of the reasons why QFD can be useful to your business.

• The QFD/ISO16355 methodology can be used for both tangible products and non-tangible services, from manufactured goods, service and business process development, and software & IT to government, defense, healthcare, education, environmental initiatives, marketing, strategic development. The range of its application is still expanding.

• QFD/ISO16355 seeks both spoken and unspoken true customer needs. QFD identifies positive quality and business opportunities, and translates these into actions and designs by using transparent analytic and prioritization methods, empowering organizations to exceed normal expectations and provide a level of unanticipated excitement that generates value.

• QFD/ISO16355 draws in cross functional teams across the organization to come together in data sharing, analysis, and decision making. It further enables the organization to better align the activities of new product development and different departments with the united business goals and customer satisfaction.

• The QFD framework is a natural fit for Knowledge Management as companies downsize, consolidate and change their workforce.

• Modern QFD/ISO16355 address the Four S's of today's lean business environment: Speed, Smart, Slim, and Sustainability.
  
  

At this writing, virtually all commercially available QFD software uniformly have two things in common: 1) they use the outdated 4-phased "House of Quality" centered approach; and 2) they use improper math (such as importance and priority calculations).

Such approaches may be sufficient for an academic exercise, but definitely not for real projects by professionals and businesses who want to stay ahead of their competition.

The improper math utilized in software could make your downstream deployments and analysis invalid and may even be harmful to your project outcome (for example, the improper use of math would skew priority setting and subsequently lead to less trustworthy importance calculations, etc.).

Another drawback of QFD software is the use of an oversimplified cookie-cutter approach that is forced onto your unique new product development process and business goals that demand efficiency, comprehensiveness, competitive ingenuity, and innovation.

For this reason, top researchers and practitioners of QFD prefer to use MS Excel® worksheets. If you use Modern QFD approach, matrix software may not be needed at all, depending on your project and goals.

The QFD Institute's Modern QFD templates, which include new tools such as Maximum Value Table and AHP (Analytic hierarchy Process) as well as Modern House of Quality matrix (with precise math formulae), are a part of the QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® training materials.

(MS Excel® is a registered mark of Microsoft)