What is QFD?

To excel in business, crafting products and services that captivate customers and pioneering new markets stands as a pivotal strategy. While growth avenues vary—from diversifying sales channels to expanding geographically or through acquisitions—nothing invigorates a company more than innovating new products or enhancing existing ones to inspire customer satisfaction. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) serves as a methodology to embed the "Voice of the Customer" into product and service design. Originating in Japan through Yoji Akao's teachings formalization in 1966, QFD has significantly influenced American business practices.

Since its introduction in the U.S., QFD has revolutionized business practices by:

• Strategizing new product development

• Defining product specifications

• Establishing process standards

• Monitoring manufacturing processes

• Documenting product specifications

QFD integrates principles from Concurrent Engineering, involving cross-functional teams throughout product development phases. Each phase employs matrices to translate customer requirements from initial planning to production control, ensuring that pivotal aspects proceed to subsequent phases.

Phase Breakdown:

Phase 1 (Product Planning): Spearheaded by marketing, this phase, often termed "The House of Quality," anchors the QFD process. It meticulously gathers and documents customer requirements, warranty data, competitive insights, product metrics, and organizational capabilities crucial for subsequent phases.

Phase 2 (Product Design): Led by engineering, this phase fosters creativity and innovation to conceptualize product designs. Critical part specifications that align with customer needs are identified and transitioned to process planning (Phase 3).

Phase 3 (Process Planning): Managed by manufacturing engineering, this phase charts manufacturing processes and defines process parameters essential for product realization.

Phase 4 (Production Planning): Culminating in production, this phase establishes performance metrics for process monitoring, devises maintenance schedules, and refines operator training. Quality assurance, in collaboration with manufacturing, oversees this phase to mitigate risks and ensure operational excellence.

QFD methodically ensures that customer demands translate into precise technical specifications across every stage of product development. Meeting and exceeding customer expectations entails more than product performance—it requires creating products that resonate with customers' articulated and unarticulated desires. Businesses poised for 21st-century growth will be those fostering innovation to pioneer new markets.

Product Design

We streamline processes to maximize productivity and ensure your business operates at peak efficiency.

Voice of the Customer

Our approach prioritizes customer needs, ensuring products are designed with the end-user in mind.