Descriptions and Definitions of Quality Terms, Tools and Techniques

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Quality Function Deployment(QFD)

Quality Function Deployment (sometimes called the House of Quality). is another of those strangely-named methods that are literal translations of Japanese. 

In the product development process there is a sequence of transformations, such as requirements to specification, specification to design, design to fabrication, specification to tests, etc. It is easy for the customer requirements to become lost in these chains. Quality Function Deployment (or QFD) addresses this problem by using a matrix at each transformation point to map forwards what is often called the 'voice of the customer'.

The first matrix used typically maps customer needs (the 'what') to the function or process that provides the need (the 'how'). Correlation between the 'how's adds a 'roof' to the matrix, which leads to the sometimes-used name of the 'House of Quality'.

Cascaded matrices are used to propagate the customer voice through more detailed parts of the design and solution stages. 

See also:

Toolbook chapter: Matrix Diagram

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