Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a system for designing products and services based on customer demands. It involves all members of an organization and aims to deploy responsibilities for quality throughout the company. QFD was developed in Japan in the 1970s and translates to meeting customer requirements by focusing on what must be done and who will do it. It breaks down customer needs and identifies how to meet each need while involving all parts of a company to facilitate simultaneous product and process design.
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Quality Function Deployment
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a system for designing products and services based on customer demands. It involves all members of an organization and aims to deploy responsibilities for quality throughout the company. QFD was developed in Japan in the 1970s and translates to meeting customer requirements by focusing on what must be done and who will do it. It breaks down customer needs and identifies how to meet each need while involving all parts of a company to facilitate simultaneous product and process design.
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Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a translation of six Japanese Kanji characters:
HIN SHITSU KI NO TEN KAI
As with any translation there is room for other interpretations. Each pair of the Kanji characters has alternate translations; illustrates these different translations. The most accepted interpretation is Quality Function Deployment (QFD). QFD is a system for designing a product or service based on customer demands that involves all members of the producer or supplier organisation. In Japanese, deployment refers to an extension or broadening of activities and hence Quality Function Deployment means the responsibilities for producing a quality item must be assigned to all parts of a corporation. It is sometimes referred to as the most advanced form of Total Quality Control, Japanese style. The system can be understood by defining each of the terms in Quality Function Deployment within the context of QFD. Quality - Meeting Customer Requirements Function - What Must Be Done - Focusing the attention Deployment - Who Will Do It, When QFD achieves these results by breaking down customer requirements into segments and identifying means for achieving each segment. QFD also involves all parts of a company and facilitates simultaneous product and process design. Finally, it integrates the use of other quality tools such as Taguchi Methods. 1.1 Scope of QFD QFD theory started in 1972 at Mitsubishis Kobe Shipyard when they began using a matrix that put customer demands on the vertical axis and the methods by which they would be met on the horizontal axis. This was recognised almost immediately as a major breakthrough. Since that time the Japanese have developed the system to encompass other areas of a secondary nature such as improved communications between the design and manufacturing departments, considering the function of the product, potential failure modes, possible new technologies and cost reduction. 1.2 Who Uses QFD? Current Japanese users of QFD concepts include Nissan, Toyota, Komatsu, Nippondenso and Honda. In the United States of America users include Ford, GM, Chrysler, DEC, TI, 3M, HP, AT&T Bell Labs, NovAtel, Xerox, Exxon and Dow. 1.3 The Purpose of QFD The purpose of QFD is three fold. Firstly, it allows us to get higher quality products to market faster and at a lower cost. Secondly, we will achieve customer driven product design and, finally, it will provide a tracking system for future design or process improvements.