QFD: What’s behind Quality Function De­ploy­ment?

If a company wants lasting success, they must invest in their quality assurance. Only this way can they ensure that customers won’t jump ship and will continue to be satisfied with the products and services offered. Quality Function De­ploy­ment (QFD) is an in­cred­i­bly helpful method in this area. So, how can you use this technique to move your company forward?

Quality Function De­ploy­ment (QFD) is a sys­tem­at­ic analysis of customer re­quire­ments that is used to improve the quality of your products. QFD orig­i­nat­ed in Japan in the 1960s and 70s and was primarily developed by Yōji Akao. Mit­subishi and Toyota, as well as many other companies, have used this method to better tailor their products and services to their target market and ac­cel­er­ate growth. As part of this method, customer re­quire­ments, product per­for­mance, and the products offered by the com­pe­ti­tion are all taken into con­sid­er­a­tion.

The dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Quality Function De­ploy­ment method is that all elements are brought together in a graphic and po­si­tioned in relation to one another. When you give the QFD matrix a specific form, this rep­re­sen­ta­tion is referred to as a house of quality. This technique allows you to sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly work out customer re­quire­ments and then present them in a clear way. QFD is mainly used in quality man­age­ment, but it is also used in product man­age­ment and product de­vel­op­ment. Ul­ti­mate­ly, this method involves all areas of the company.

The main aim of QFD is to improve a product or service so that it will be better received by the market. The focus here is also on customer sat­is­fac­tion. Ideally, it’s best to apply QFD during the product planning phase, but you can also make ad­just­ments to the product later on the basis of a QFD analysis.

With the Quality Function De­ploy­ment method, the features of a product or service are looked at in­di­vid­u­al­ly. QFD is based on the idea that even small changes can have a big impact on market per­for­mance. Quality features are then derived from the customer re­quire­ments. These features are then trans­formed into process char­ac­ter­is­tics. QFD also aims to adapt the pro­duc­tion processes. As opposed to other quality assurance methods, QFD involves all areas of the company. This means that the changes made can also have a direct impact on marketing and sales.

Another advantage of Quality Function De­ploy­ment – when im­ple­ment­ed early and ef­fec­tive­ly – is that it can reduce de­vel­op­ment costs and times. As this method focuses on customer re­quire­ments with a well-thought-out method and is not based on as­sump­tions, you can use it to make specific plans. Not only does QFD support companies by helping them to increase their revenue, but it also helps them to work in a more stream­lined manner during pro­duc­tion.

Quality Function De­ploy­ment is not a rigid, fixed model. It has undergone many further de­vel­op­ments since it was first used by Yōji Akao (e.g. such as those im­ple­ment­ed by Bob Kind or Emil Jovanov). Even Akao himself believed that it was in­cred­i­bly important for each person to adapt the concept to their own situation. Something that all variants of the method have in common is that they proceed step by step, starting with a customer survey and finishing with pro­duc­tion or the product launch.

The first thing to ask yourself during the product de­vel­op­ment phase is who the product is aimed at or who will buy it later. You must also think about the dis­tinc­tion between B2B and B2C – a rel­a­tive­ly banal subject. Next, you must consider in­for­ma­tion such as income, gender, marital status, age, and level of education. Finally, you may have to make some as­sump­tions about details that are more difficult to measure, such as the re­quire­ments, standards, and values of potential customers.

This first step can help you in two ways. First, it allows you to get a clearer idea of how the product or service should be po­si­tioned in the future. It also helps you to prepare for the next step, where you will look more closely at the target group.

Now it’s time to survey customers. You will have already de­ter­mined your target group (i.e. how you will put your sample group together) in the previous step. Now, you must find out what exactly potential customers want from a product or service. In­ter­views and ques­tion­naires are par­tic­u­lar­ly effective here. The QFD model can be used both for the initial de­vel­op­ment of the product and for any later ad­just­ments. This also means that any com­plaints, guarantee claims, or customer support reports can be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion during the analysis. If the man­u­fac­tur­er or service provider does not sell their products or services them­selves, it’s also a good idea to speak to the dis­trib­u­tors. A good complaint man­age­ment system can also help to provide some prepara­to­ry work for the QFD method.

The in­for­ma­tion collected also depends on the nature of the products or services offered. A service is evaluated dif­fer­ent­ly to a product, and the details that are in­ter­est­ing for a QFD analysis can vary between physical items and software, for example. This way, certain features can be de­ter­mined, as can the di­men­sions or color. Equally important, re­gard­less of the type of product or service, is the will­ing­ness to pay: how much would a customer be willing to pay for a certain product?

So as not to get lost in all the in­di­vid­ual customer re­quire­ments, you should weight them. Re­quire­ments that are re­peat­ed­ly expressed by customers get a higher priority. To do this, use a scale from 1 (not important) to 10 (very important). Another weighting method is to use an overall score. Start with 100 points in total and then dis­trib­ute the points to the different re­quire­ments with different weighting.

The next step is to look at your com­peti­tors. The best way to do this is to select around five com­peti­tors that are most like your own company and then examine them with regard to the findings obtained during the customer re­quire­ment analysis. Here, the per­spec­tives of the customers are decisive: does the competing product have the desired functions, the right weight, or the required dura­bil­i­ty?

You must evaluate your own product in direct com­par­i­son with the com­pe­ti­tion. How does the product or service perform in terms of customer re­quire­ments on the market? For example, all examined products and services can receive points or grades. This eval­u­a­tion then produces part of the QFD matrix.

It’s also important to carefully examine your own product to make sure that it meets your customers’ re­quire­ments. To do this, you must first define the relevant char­ac­ter­is­tics of the product. You can also weight the in­di­vid­ual per­for­mance char­ac­ter­is­tics if a dis­tinc­tion needs to be made between the char­ac­ter­is­tics. Now, you must examine how the product performs for each re­quire­ment. The technical spec­i­fi­ca­tions are also con­sid­ered here. For example, if customers want a faster elec­tri­cal object, you must take a closer look at the motor.

However, it doesn’t just stop at a simple as­sess­ment if the company also wants to improve their product. Therefore, the op­ti­miza­tion potential of the product must also be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion: what can be changed in pro­duc­tion to produce a better product (i.e. one that is oriented to the customers’ re­quire­ments)?

In the example above, we have added the market analysis with regard to the customer re­quire­ments and the product’s char­ac­ter­is­tics. The house of quality’s roof is formed by the re­la­tion­ships between the different product char­ac­ter­is­tics. In our example, you can see that further de­vel­op­ment of the rubber grip would have a negative impact on the lifetime guarantee. From this, you can infer that this is a weak point.

If you are not looking to optimize an in­di­vid­ual product but instead would like to work on con­tin­u­ous­ly improving your entire company, you could try using the Con­tin­u­ous Im­prove­ment Process (CIP).