QFD-Quality Function Deployment

Activities

• Activity 1: Clarifying and itemising the problem or Task
• Activity 9: Assurance of the fulfilment of the requirements

Necessary tools

• Spreadsheet or software-based QFD tools

Description

QFD is an abbreviation for Quality Function Deployment and supports quality planning and assurance in the product and process development phase and the implementation of customer requirements into technical features. With QFD, the customer-defined requirements can be divided into plans, assemblies, individual parts, features and processes in four phases.

1. Product definitions: Make customer requirements clear.
2. Component planning: Create an implementation concept and develop the system with subcomponents and individual elements.
3. Process planning: Develop process and test flow plans for later production.
4. Production planning: Develop parameters of the manufacturing and testing equipment to produce the product.

Procedure

1. Represent each of the phases in a quality matrix with questions about the goal (what should be achieved?) and the implementation options (how will the goal be achieved?).
2. Derive concrete targets based on individual steps of the House of Quality for all phases:
   1. Step: Determine customer requirements
   2. Step: Weighting customer requirements
   3. Step: Evaluate your own and competitor products
   4. Step: Translate customer requirements into technical features
   5. Step: Show connections in the influence matrix
   6. Step: Determine the importance by multiplying customer requirement weight and rating in influence matrix
   7. Step: Evaluate existing products
   8. Step: Estimation of the level of difficulty of the technical implementation
   9. Step: Determination of the target values ÔÇïÔÇïfor the new development
   10. Step : Correlation between the technical characteristics in the roof of the House of Quality

Possibilities for support/ Alternatives

• FMEA to support the second phase

Sources

• Lindemann 2009, p. 298
• Pahl u. a. 2007, p. 705-708
• Dietrich, J.R., Meitinger, T.H. (2021). Methoden zur Ideengewinnung, -bewertung und Projektumsetzung. In: Erfinderhandbuch. Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg p. 56-59