| Quality
function deployment |
INTRODUCTION The
QFD analysis include identifying customer needs and expectations, determining
how to meet them, defining quantified goals, and methodologies for identifying
and resolving conflicting requirements. One of the advantages of QFD analysis
is that it deploys the "voice of the customer", and forces product development
teams to focus on customer needs and expectations. As mentioned, the QFD is a
relatively advanced concept, and is probably best employed when used in conjunction
with other previously-implemented disciplines. Organizations that use QFD successfully
prepare numerous matrices for the products concept development phase, detailed
design work, and various phases of the products manufacture. The approach is the
same focus on the customer's needs and expectations, and develop everything else
in a manner than optimally satisfies these needs and expectations. This seminar
also includes case study on NOKIA, its observations, voice of the customer research,
optimizing, planning, prioritizing, selecting the target customer and benefits. Quality
function deployment is the conversion of the consumer's demands into quality characteristics
and developing a designed quality for the finished product by systematically deploying
the relationships between the demands and the characteristics, starting with the
quality of each functional part and extending the deployment to each part process.
Dr, Mizuno, professor emeritus of the Tokyo institute of technology, is credited
with initiating the quality function deployment (QFD) system. The first application
of QFD was at Mitsubishi, heavy industries, ltd., in the Kobe Shipyard, Japan,
in 1972. After four years of case study development, refinement, and training,
QFD was successfully implemented in the production of mini vans by Toyota. Using
1977, as a base, a 20% reduction in startup costs was reported in the launch of
the new van I October 1979, a 38% reduction by November 1982, and a cumulative
61% reduction by April 1984. Quality function deployment was first introduced
in the United States in 1984 by Dr. Clausing of Xerox. QFD can be applied to practically
any manufacturing or service industry. It has become a standard practice by most
leading organizations, which also require it of their suppliers. WHAT
IS QFD? A
systematic procedure for translating the "VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER" into
technical requirements and operational terms, displaying and documenting the translation
information in matrix form.
Quality function deployment is a planning tool
used to fulfill customer requirements or expectations, often referred to as the
voice of the customer. It is employed to translate customer in terms of specific
requirements, into directions and actions, in terms of engineering characteristics,
that can be deployed through
" Product planning
" Part development
"
Process planning
" Production planning
" service
QFD is a
team based management tool in which the customer expectations are used to drive
the product development process. Conflicting characteristics or requirements are
identified early in the QFD process and can be resolved before production.
Organization today uses market research to decide what to produce to satisfy customer
requirements. Some customer requirements adversely affect others, and customers
often cannot explain their expectations. Confusion and misinterpretation are also
a problem while a product moves from a market to design to engineering to manufacturing.
This activity is where the voice of the customer becomes lost and the voice of
the organization adversely enters the product
design. Instead of working on what the customer expects, work is concentrated
on fixing what the customer does not want. In other words, it is not productive
to improve something that the customer did not want initially. By implementing
QFD, an organization is guaranteed to implement the voice of the customer in the
final product.
QFD helps identify new quality technology and job functions to carry out operations.
This tool provides a historic reference to enhance future technology and prevent
design errors. QFD is primarily a set of graphically oriented planning matrices
that are used as the basis for decisions affecting any phase of the product development
cycle. Results of QFD are measured based on the number of design and engineering
changes, time to market, cost, and quality. It is considered by many experts to
be a perfect blueprint for quality by design. QFD
enables the design phase to concentrate on the customer requirements, thereby
spending less time on redesign and modifications. The saved time has been estimated
at one-third to one-half of the time taken for redesign and modification using
traditional means. This saving means reduced development cost and also additional
income because the product enters the markets sooner.
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