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Quality Function Deployment (QFD) 215
the greatest impact on the ability to design and satisfy the needs of the
customers, both internal and external. Quality function deployment is
a zooming tool that identifies the significant design elements on which
to focus design and improvement efforts and other resources. In the
context of QFD, planning is key and is enhanced by reliable informa-
tion in benchmarking and testing.
The objectives of this chapter are to
1. Provide the black belts, green belts, and other readers with the knowl-
edge and skills they need to define quality function deployment.
2. Recognize and identify the four key elements of any QFD chart.
3. Have a basic understanding of the overall four phases of the QFD
methodology.
4. Define the three quality features of the Kano model.
5. From the process standpoint, place QFD within the DFSS algo-
rithm as highlighted in Chap. 5.
7.2 History of QFD
QFD was created by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry at Kobe Shipyards in
the early 1970s. Stringent government regulations for military vessels
coupled with the large capital outlay per ship forced Kobe Shipyard’s
management to commit to upstream quality assurance. The Kobe
engineers drafted a matrix which relates all the government regula-
tions, critical design requirements, and customer requirements to
company technical controlled characteristics of how the company
would achieve them. In addition, the matrix also depicted the relative
importance of each entry, making it possible for important items to be
identified and prioritized to receive a greater share of the available
company resources.
Winning is contagious. Other companies adopted QFD in the mid-
1970s. For example, the automotive industry applied the first QFD
to the rust problem. Since then, QFD usage has grown as a well-
rooted methodology into many American businesses. It has become
so familiar because of its adopted commandment: “Design it right
the first time.”
7.3 QFD Benefits, Assumptions,
and Realities
The major benefit of QFD is customer satisfaction. QFD gives the cus-
tomers what they want, such as shorter development cycles, avoidance
of a failures and redesign peaks (Fig. 7.1) during prelaunch, and