What is Quality Function Deployment (QFD)?
Quality Function Deployment, or ‘QFD’ is a powerful design tool, which prioritises ‘What’ is required and translates this into specific deliverables (ie. ‘How’ it will be achieved), at key stages of development, ensuring that what is delivered is ultimately linked to the customers’ requirements. QFD focuses on a matrix, known as the ‘House of Quality’, or ‘HOQ’ (the matrix looks a bit like a house because of its ‘roof’). This provides structure and focus. There are four ‘Houses of Quality’: • Product Planning – translates the requirements of the customer into product / service design requirements, effectively creating a high-level, prioritised specification • Product Design Planning – translates the design requirements into design characteristics, ie. identifying and prioritising the characteristics of you design concept that impact the key design requirements, which impact the key customer requirements • Process Planning – translates the design characteristics into the key process ope
