Quality Function Deployment Template & Examples | What is QFD? – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com
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What is Quality Function Deployment (QFD)?
A quality function deployment (QFD) takes the customer’s needs, as determined based on the voice of the customer, and creates a matrix that analyzes how those customer requirements can be best met. QFD is also called:
- Decision matrix: The matrix helps in making product decisions.
- Matrix product planning: A matrix is used to plan how the product will be designed.
- Customer-driven engineering: The engineering decisions in building a product are determined based on the customer’s needs.
How Does Quality Function Deployment Work?
QFD takes each customer’s requirements and measures how they interact with engineering needs, the current product, and competitor products. This information is also used to determine which qualities are more important, how difficult each would be, benchmark, and target values. All this information is presented in a matrix referred to as the house of quality, or HOQ. It is called a house of quality because the template’s outline looks like a house spread out into a 2D surface. The different sections of the house are referred to as rooms, with ten rooms in total. These rooms are:
- Customer needs/requirements
- Priorities or Importance of needs
- Product features
- Relationship matrix between customer needs and product features
- Interaction matrix
- Competitive value or analysis
- Importance rating
- Technical evaluation or difficulty
- Technical competitive benchmark
- Target or assigned values
Customer Needs
Customer needs are listed, with each one in its own row or line on the far left side of the matrix. These are the needs that can be identified by listening to the voice of the customer. A pizza place is looking to attract more customers and wants to analyze the customer’s expectations when choosing a pizza place. They determine that the customer expectations, listed as the customer needs, are:
- Fast delivery
- Quality of pizza
- Price of pizza
Each of these customers’ needs is listed on its own line.
Importance of Needs
The importance of needs, or the priority room in the HOQ, gives importance to each line item within the customer’s need room. This priority may be determined based on which needs were most commonly heard from customers or ones that seem to have the most impact on the customer’s decision process. For the customer needs of choosing a pizza place, the priorities may be set as follows:
- Fast delivery: 1st
- Quality of pizza: 3rd
- Price of pizza: 2nd
On the matrix, this is found in the room right next to the customer needs room. Sometimes this room is depicted as the chimney of the house.
Product Features
Product features refer to the attributes that the company’s product or service currently has or is planned to have. This section is sometimes referred to as critical customer requirements, particularly when this matrix is used to plan a new product instead of improving a current one. Furthermore, when used for designing a new product, it may be referred to as the engineering requirements. For a pizza place, the product (or service) features may include:
- Number of ovens
- Ingredient suppliers
- Number of employees
On the HOQ, this room is found second to the top or the room right below the roof. Each product feature is listed within its own column.
Relationship Between Customer Needs & Product Features
The central room in the HOQ analyzes the relationship between customer needs and product features. The intersection between the row of a customer’s need and the column of a product feature will indicate their relationship. There are different methods used to indicate the relationship. This may include a numerical rating where a one indicates the lowest impact and a nine indicates the highest impact. It may have shapes where specific shapes indicate a strong positive interaction, a weak positive interaction, a strong negative interaction, or a weak negative interaction. For example, the number of employees may have a strong impact on the speed of delivery.
Interaction Matrix
The interaction matrix is the roof of the HOQ. This interaction matrix indicates any interactions between product features. For example, more ovens may require more employees, causing an interaction between these two product features.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is a brief overview of how customers view competitor products. Each competitor product examined is rated for each customer’s need line item. This room is the farthest right in the house.
Importance Rating
The importance rating is similar to the importance of needs, except it ranks each product feature with a level of importance. This is the first basement level of the house.
Technical Evaluation
The technical evaluation is a rating indicating how difficult each product feature is to implement or improve. This is the second basement level of the house.
Technical Competitive Benchmark
The technical competitive benchmark indicates levels that competitors have for each product feature. For example, it may indicate that competitors have 20 employees. The is the third basement level of the house.
Assigned Values
Assigned or target values are the levels that this company wants to aim for with each product feature. For example, it may indicate that the company needs 25 employees.
Quality Function Deployment Example
Room 1-10 lists customer needs, priorities for each customer need, relationship matrix, competitor analysis, product features, interaction matrix, importance rating, technical evaluation, competitor benchmarks, and target values, respectively.
QDF is performed starting with customer needs and then waterfalls down through different levels. In level one, customer’s needs are analyzed with design requirements. In level two, design requirements move into room one of the HOQ, taking the place of customer needs; it is then analyzed with engineering design. This process continues in a waterfall fashion. The levels of the waterfall include:
- Level one: customer’s needs and design requirements
- Level two: design requirements and engineering design
- Level three: engineering design and product characteristics
- Level four: product characteristics and manufacturing/purchasing operations
- Level five: manufacturing/purchasing operations and production/quality controls
Lesson Summary
Quality function deployment or QFD is a method used to translate the voice of the customer (or the consumer’s needs and requirements) into product requirements and specifications. It is also called a decision matrix, matrix product planning, and customer-driven engineering. It utilizes the house of quality (HOQ) to analyze the relationship between:
- Customer needs and design requirements
- Design requirements and engineering design
- Engineering design and product characteristics
- Product characteristics and manufacturing/purchasing operations
- Manufacturing/purchasing operations and production/quality controls
The first step of QFD, which is critical, is assessing the relationship between customer needs and design requirements (or product features). The customer needs are determined using the voice of the customer, which are the customer expectations for a product or service, such as having fast delivery from a pizza place. HOQ always also includes an analysis of competitors in its assessment.
