What is House of Quality (HoQ)?
The House of Quality (HoQ) is an assembly of several deployment hierarchies and tables, including the Demanded Quality Hierarchy, Quality Characteristics Hierarchy, the relationships matrix, the Quality Planning Table, and Design Planning Table.
The HoQ is commonly associated with QFD, and unfortunately it seems to be the only thing that need be done when implementing QFD — in the minds of many who learned QFD from obsolete sources and trainers who did not have proper QFD training. That “QFD = House of Quality” is a most common myth even today and rarely the case.
House of Quality
The HoQ is actually a matrix that connects dots between the Voice of the Customer and the Voice of the Engineer, as shown in the overview diagram here.
As such, "Consider the HoQ as a highway interchange between the customer and the engineer. To limit QFD to only this tool is like building the interchange in an empty field without connecting roads," explains Glenn Mazur, executive director of the QFD Institute.
In reality, the House of Quality is neither the starting point nor the finish in most QFD studies. 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®, HoQ may be completely unnecessary.
Building a sound House of Quality requires considerable resource and time, not mentioning deep knowledge of QFD, experience and skills. The matrix is also extremely prone to execution errors — even at the hands of Sigma black belts.
To learn how to correctly apply a modern House of Quality with mathematically sound prioritization and correct identification of true customer needs, consider attending the QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® training — before risking your project outcome.