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Quality Function DeploymentQuality function deployment or "QFD" is a flexible technique used in brand marketing and product management to help a company decide what product(s) to add to its product portfolio and what characteristics to include in a new product. It matches customer requirements with product or service engineering characteristics, and in so doing, crafts a product design and/or concept from customer expectations. It has been applied in a wide variety of industries from services to consumer products, all the way to military/high tech products. QFD is considered a key practice of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and a method which is implicated in the new ISO9000:2000 standard which focuses more highly on customer satisfaction. Acquiring market needs by listening to the Voice of Customer and prioritizing them are the early tasks in QFD. Traditionally, going to the GEMBA (the "real place" where value is created for the customer) is where these customer needs are evidenced and compiled. Past concerns over QFD "taking too long" have been addressed as QFD has evolved. Today's approach, using new automated tools have streamlined the process. Tools include online survey software which is first used to gather qualitative customer feedback and then quantitatively, to prioritize the needs for QFD much faster than in the past. These tools supplement and support older, more traditional methods. Subsequently, those needs may be "flowed" into QFD Charts, and studied through a myriad of supporting templates or "deployments" (e.g. concept selection, cost analysis, manufacturing and process control design). This helps standardize the method and make the practice easier, faster and more accurate. QFD concepts of deploying the high impact controllable factors have even been applied in Strategic planning and Strategic management (also known as Hoshin Planning or Policy Deployment). It was originally developed by Yoji Akao in the 1980s. See also References - Sullivan, L. (1986) Quality Function Deployment, Quality Progress, June 1986, pp 39-50.
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