What is Quality Function Deployment or House of Quality ?

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a structured approach used in product development and design to ensure that customer needs and requirements are effectively translated into specific design and engineering parameters. QFD helps organizations align their products or services with customer expectations and preferences, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.

The House of Quality is a central tool used in QFD. It is a matrix that visually represents the relationships between customer requirements and the technical features or characteristics of a product or service. The House of Quality is so named because of its house-like structure. It consists of several components, including the customer requirements matrix, the technical requirements matrix, and the correlation matrix.

Here is a breakdown of the key components of the House of Quality:

1. Customer Requirements: This matrix identifies and prioritizes the various needs and expectations of the customers. These requirements are gathered through market research, surveys, interviews, and other methods.
2. Technical Requirements: This matrix defines the technical features or characteristics of the product or service that will fulfill the customer requirements. It helps in determining how the product will be designed or developed to meet those needs.
3. Correlation Matrix: This matrix establishes the relationships between the customer requirements and the technical requirements. It shows the degree to which each technical requirement contributes to meeting a particular customer requirement.
4. Importance Ratings: These ratings indicate the relative importance or priority of each customer requirement. They help in determining which requirements should be given higher attention during the design and development process.
5. Competitive Evaluation: This section compares the organization’s product or service with its competitors’ offerings based on various parameters. It helps in identifying areas where improvements or enhancements are required to gain a competitive advantage.
6. Target Values: This section sets the desired values or performance levels for each technical requirement based on customer expectations and competitive analysis.

The House of Quality serves as a visual communication tool for cross-functional teams, enabling them to understand and prioritize customer needs and translate them into specific engineering and design decisions. By using QFD and the House of Quality, organizations can improve their product development processes, increase customer satisfaction, and enhance the overall quality of their products or services.

How to Fill out a House of Quality ?

Filling out a House of Quality involves a systematic process of gathering information, analyzing data, and translating customer requirements into technical design parameters. Here are the general steps to fill out a House of Quality:

1. Identify Customer Requirements: Start by gathering customer requirements through market research, customer feedback, surveys, interviews, or any other relevant sources. These requirements should reflect the needs, expectations, and desires of the target customers.
2. Prioritize Customer Requirements: Once you have identified the customer requirements, prioritize them based on their importance or impact on customer satisfaction. This can be done through techniques such as pairwise comparison or direct rating scales. Assign importance ratings or weights to each requirement to indicate their relative priority.
3. Define Technical Requirements: Determine the technical characteristics or design features of the product or service that will fulfill each customer requirement. These technical requirements should be specific, measurable, and achievable. Consider input from engineering, design, and manufacturing teams to ensure technical feasibility.
4. Establish Relationships: Create a correlation matrix that shows the relationships between customer requirements and technical requirements. Assess and quantify the extent to which each technical requirement contributes to meeting a specific customer requirement. Use symbols or numerical values to represent these relationships.
5. Competitive Evaluation: Compare your product or service with those of your competitors based on various parameters. This evaluation helps identify areas where your product is lacking or where improvements are required to gain a competitive advantage. Include this information in the House of Quality.
6. Determine Target Values: Set target values or performance levels for each technical requirement based on customer expectations and competitive analysis. These targets should be ambitious yet realistic. Consider factors such as cost, time, and resources when determining the target values.
7. Iterate and Refine: Review the House of Quality and analyze the interdependencies and trade-offs between the different requirements and design parameters. Make adjustments, refine the correlations, and update the target values if needed. Seek input and feedback from cross-functional teams to ensure accuracy and completeness.
8. Communicate and Act: Once the House of Quality is filled out and validated, communicate the findings and recommendations to relevant teams and stakeholders. Use the information as a guide for decision-making in the product development process. Continuously monitor and update the House of Quality as new information or customer feedback becomes available.

Remember that the House of Quality is a dynamic tool, and its effectiveness depends on the accuracy of the input data and the collaboration of cross-functional teams. Regularly review and update the House of Quality throughout the product development lifecycle to ensure that customer requirements are met effectively.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and the House of Quality are important tools for several reasons:

1. Customer Focus: QFD and the House of Quality place a strong emphasis on understanding and meeting customer needs and requirements. By systematically capturing and prioritizing customer requirements, organizations can develop products or services that align with customer expectations, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
2. Cross-Functional Collaboration: QFD involves the collaboration of various stakeholders, including marketing, engineering, design, and manufacturing teams. By bringing these teams together and providing a common framework for communication, QFD promotes collaboration, information sharing, and shared understanding of customer requirements, leading to more effective product development processes.
3. Decision Making: The House of Quality provides a visual representation of the relationships between customer requirements and technical features. It helps teams make informed decisions by identifying trade-offs, highlighting areas that need improvement, and prioritizing design decisions based on customer importance ratings. This enables organizations to allocate resources effectively and make data-driven decisions throughout the product development process.
4. Design Optimization: QFD helps in translating customer requirements into specific technical requirements. By analyzing the correlation matrix and target values, organizations can identify gaps or inconsistencies between customer needs and the design parameters.