QFD (Quality Function Deployment) in Six Sigma

T

takigiri

As far as I noticed from sixsigma discussions lots of people have extensive experience with QFD. I think that you’re also familiar with the software tools and your knowledge is also very valuable to me. Could you please have a look the questions below? Surely, not every question may be applicable to them so please, leave it blank if needed.

1. How often do you use QFD software tools for your business needs: everyday, once a week, once a month, etc?

2. Do you usually use QFD software tools alone or as a member of a QD team or any other group of people?

3. What kind of software do you usually use: fully customizable software (you may change whatever option you what) e.g. MS Excel or solution with predefined options like any other QFD packaged software?

Thanks in advance!

Moderator Edit:
Just a reminder: It's always polite to use the spelled out words or phrase at least once when using most acronyms or abbreviations - terminologies are not ALWAYS universal
(QFD = Quality Function Deployment)
 
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M

madannc

Re: QFD in Six Sigma

As far as I noticed from sixsigma discussions lots of people have extensive experience with QFD. I think that you’re also familiar with the software tools and your knowledge is also very valuable to me. Could you please have a look the questions below? Surely, not every question may be applicable to them so please, leave it blank if needed.

1. How often do you use QFD software tools for your business needs: everyday, once a week, once a month, etc?

2. Do you usually use QFD software tools alone or as a member of a QD team or any other group of people?

3. What kind of software do you usually use: fully customizable software (you may change whatever option you what) e.g. MS Excel or solution with predefined options like any other QFD packaged software?

Thanks in advance!

1. We use QFD when looking at Product improvements, assessing our product versus competition, so approx 1/month

2. QFD works best as a team, the principles of interpretating customer/competitor information is best done with variuos groups (mkting, development, product performance etc etc)

3. We are using excel spreadsheet this work well for us but there are software solutions out there if you want to purchase dedicated QFD solution.

Quality Functional Deployment is a methodology of trying to improve things that are not that easily done for the fuzzy customer requirements.

Setting out preferences user needs, competitor solutions all goes into the mix and using a simple scoring system you get indications of where to focus development.

good luck
 
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Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
The original poster (takigiri) sent me the email copied below. I think it deserves some comment, since I receive dozens like it from other Covers, wondering why I don't reply to their query if I "know so much."
Dear Wes Bucey,

thanks for the reminder. I see that you are familiar with the QFD tool tools. May I ask you answer these questions, please? Thanks in advance
1. How often do you use QFD software tools for your business needs: everyday, once a week, once a month, etc?
2. Do you usually use QFD software tools alone or as a member of a QD team or any other group of people?
3. What kind of software do you usually use: fully customizable software (you may change whatever option you what) e.g. MS Excel or solution with predefined options like any other QFD packaged software?
Thanks a lot again!
As anyone can see, I have thousands of posts here in the Cove and maybe several thousand more in other Forums. I'm not shy about posting, but I recognize that often folks hesitate to post their opinions after I have posted mine, for lots of reasons I won't go into here.

As a Moderator here in the Cove, I want to keep the answers flowing freely from as many Covers as possible. My primary task is to help folks clarify their own questions or comments to make them understandable to a wide audience, NOT just the folks who understand a particular jargon. Hence my seeming obsession with clarifying acronyms and abbreviations!

Surprisingly, many folks who do have meaningful input to a particular query may simply not recognize the jargon or acronym because of a language or cultural difference.

I'm also interested in learning new points of view because, despite my age, I am NOT an old hide bound fogey set in my ways. If I hold back on an immediate response in a thread, it is because I am interested in seeing what others have to say and I don't want to shut down the discourse by appearing to give the ONLY, FINAL, and DEFINITIVE answer.

Thus said, let's hear more about Quality Function Deployment.
 
R

ralphsulser

I had some training in QFD about 20 years ago and we used flip charts, and notebooks. Not many computers around everywhere then, and certainly no laptops. Our corporate president made it mandatory so all 24 quality & technical managers spent a long weekend in a hotel in Akron working on QFD projects day and night. We then made team presentations Sunday afternoon. It is also known as "The voice of the customer" which has obvious input. I have not heard much about QFD since then, but view it as another tool available that could be beneficial.
Sorry I can't provide better answers for you, but QFD is not usually a priority
project in the manufacturing sectors I have been involved with since then.

I think QFD software would be a big help to cover all the details, and expedite results.
Hopefully some one on the Cove has had recent QFD experience and will add their information.
 
T

takigiri

/.../
I'm also interested in learning new points of view because, despite my age, I am NOT an old hide bound fogey set in my ways. If I hold back on an immediate response in a thread, it is because I am interested in seeing what others have to say and I don't want to shut down the discourse by appearing to give the ONLY, FINAL, and DEFINITIVE answer.

Thus said, let's hear more about Quality Function Deployment.

Dear Wes Bucey, it has been some time since last reply in this topic and I think that anyone who wanted has already expressed himself. Would you mind providing us with you opinion? :cool:
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
Dear Wes Bucey, it has been some time since last reply in this topic and I think that anyone who wanted has already expressed himself. Would you mind providing us with you opinion? :cool:
From the first glimmerings of the term "Quality Function Deployment" during the 1960's, I've considered the concept merely "systematic tracking" of the normal planning most professionals undertake when planning new products or services or when trying to enter new markets with existing products or services. In a sense, QFD is really only a subset of FMEA (Faillure Mode & Effects Analysis.) In both, the worth of the process depends upon the validity of the "what if . . .?" questions posed, not in the statistical manipulation of the answers.

Essentially, whether we are looking at profit making or non profit organizations, their whole reason for existence is to provide their product or service to end users or consumers.

The method of learning customer likes and dislikes really depends on asking and posing the right questions. Keeping track of the questions and answers is really just a
mechanical activity. Crucial activity lies in sorting out true and valid answers (i.e. will the customer actually pay for these features?) from "noise." The statistical results are worthless unless the folks can really delve into the psyche of the customer by asking the right questions and correctly interpreting the answers received.

There is a whole branch of science devoted to creating valid questionnaires (the exact designation eludes me at the moment) and I have taken several courses at leading universities, including the University of Chicago, on Questionnaire Design. Almost universally, the consensus of experts is that the form of the question posed can determine the answer a respondent will return.

One of the classic "tricks" professors use is to recast the United States Declaration of Independence from 1776 into modern English, substituting "government" in lieu of "king" or "parliament" and then asking leading questions to see if respondents are willing to overthrow a government. By subtly changing the form of the questions, similar groups of people will either overwhelming accept the premise or reject it.

A clue to my long term and long time thinking on the value and validity of various statistical "manipulations" can be found in my ASQ Profile, written five or six years ago:
I believe an effective Quality Management System (QMS) is a profit center, NOT a "cost item."

My entire career has been centered on the concept "Quality should be involved in every aspect of a company - including executive planning, administration, marketing, purchasing, design, production, shipping, and service."

This concept holds true whether the company is a manufacturer or service company (banking, insurance, communications, transportation, construction, janitorial, etc.) The major emphasis is on pleasing or delighting the customer while maintaining or increasing organizational profitability. (In the case of non-profits, does the organization's performance delight both recipients and the contributors? If so, the organization will continue to thrive.)

I put more emphasis on "big picture" and "company culture" than on metrics. If all the members of the organization are indeed working together, metrics are a natural function of identifying areas to improve. If the organization is NOT working together, the imposition of metrics can be draconian and serve to divide the culture even more.

I have a special interest in Document Management and Control, especially concerning Configuration Management (ensuring only the most recent revised version is available for production and assuring backward and forward compatibility between versions or withdrawing non-compatible versions.)
Accordingly, in "statistic speak," I am more concerned with the validity (and thus usability) of surveys of existing and prospective customers than in reliability of those surveys.

In the admittedly limited view I have seen of QFD software, the big hitch still lies in the validity of the questions posed despite wonderful "user friendliness" and reliability/repeatability of the implementation of the software.

If you feel the questions you are to propose are indeed valid, then any software which easily presents those questions and deals with the data generated will serve the purpose. I have seen some good stuff created in Access and Excel - after all, how many questions will you need before the targets balk at completing the survey and how big a sample will you need to be statistically valid?
 
Q

QFDMAN

takigiri,

I think that the answers to this will vary widely based upon the maturity of an organization with QFD. Some make big starts and then fizzle out while other's embed QFD into their culture and keep using it to design better products and services. I personaly use QFD at least once per month. We develop in teams (consumer electronics) as well as individually for smaller parts/sub-systems. We just switched from a very expensive $1000+ package to QFD XL from SigmaZone.com due to cost. It is much simpler and easier to bring new people up to speed with. Although I would by lying if I didn't say cost was the primary motivator.

Jose Johnson
 
G

GTJones

Hi Fellow Covers

As far as QFD (Quality Function Deployment) goes my Company is new to this process (Although i have used it in varying organisations prior) the penny has dropped and there is a recognition that Customer Satisfaction (Kano Model) can only be influenced if we understand our Customers Voice (VOC), therefore QFD is a great tool in hearing this voice and converting it into a language my company can understand right from Order recruitment through to Order Despatch.

We currently use an Excel QFD template and have identified a number of QFD champions within each sector (In 6 Sigma Speak QFD Black Belts), these are currently being trained.

We use QFD on both New Product Development and Product Re-engineering activities currently and have also used it to assess the relationship between our "Continuous Improvement Activities" and the EFQM (European Foundation of Quality Management - A.K.A Baldridge Criteria) model.

Hope that helps

Gary :thanx:
 
I

Ishtiyaqahmed

Hi Fellow Covers

As far as QFD (Quality Function Deployment) goes my Company is new to this process (Although i have used it in varying organisations prior) the penny has dropped and there is a recognition that Customer Satisfaction (Kano Model) can only be influenced if we understand our Customers Voice (VOC), therefore QFD is a great tool in hearing this voice and converting it into a language my company can understand right from Order recruitment through to Order Despatch.

We currently use an Excel QFD template and have identified a number of QFD champions within each sector (In 6 Sigma Speak QFD Black Belts), these are currently being trained.

We use QFD on both New Product Development and Product Re-engineering activities currently and have also used it to assess the relationship between our "Continuous Improvement Activities" and the EFQM (European Foundation of Quality Management - A.K.A Baldridge Criteria) model.

Hope that helps

Gary :thanx:

Hi Gary,

I'm planing to carry out a six sigma project to achieve 100% quality socres in a BPO. I work for t-mobile UK customer service, we deal with customer emails and resolve issues either via email or by making a call. I'm new to this concept any help from you would be appreciated. I'm also a little confused with SIPOC diagram who is the supplier in this case as we are dealing with a BPO a service provider. If you can provide any data pertaining to six sigma projects on BPO that'll be great.

Warm regards,
Mohammed Ishtiyaq Ahmed
 
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