Best and Worst Practices

Best Practice QFD

QFD implementation is custom-tailored to the company's development process.
Gemba study is carefully designed and included in the customer data acquisition.
A cross functional team is assembled and the team members are well trained in Modern QFD and are guided by a qualified project leader such as QFD Black Belt®, QFD Master Black Belt®, QFD Red Belt®.
The team is trained to distinguish customer needs and product features and identify unspoken needs.
Sound prioritization, math, and deployments are used.
QFD project efforts are aligned with the corporate business goals / strategy, and if necessary, linked with other innovation methods to attain the project goals.
The management is also trained with the QFD Gold Belt® and can render support.
After completing several projects under the guidance of a qualified QFD Belt® trainer, the team is able to carry on future QFD projects on their own.

Best Practice Examples (click here to view)

"DREAM/QFD to Re-design Staff Service Excellence at Rutland Regional Hospital Systems"
"QFD to Re-design New Physician Orientation and Induction: Connecting New Physicians into a Healthcare Community"
"Integrating QFD into Phase-Gates Product Design"
Complex IT Systems Design Using Both Traditional QFD and Blitz QFD®"
"Developing a Church Growth Strategy through QFD, AHP, and Balanced Scorecard Strategy Mapping"

"Why We Drink Beer: Using QFD, Kansei, and AHP to Understand How Consumers Identify with Brands"
"Globalizing Gemba Visits for Multinationals"
"The Use of QFD to Develop a New Food Offering with a Cross-functional Team—from Consumer Behavior to Formulation and Production"
2008 Symposium Transactions
"Predicting Future Health Insurance Scenarios using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)"
"Using QFD to Understand, Prioritize, and Develop Solutions to Address the Future Needs of Customers"

"Context Sensitive Solutions: The Application of QFD for Developing Public Transportation Projects in the U.S."
"Using QFD to Involve All Employees in the Corporate Innovation Process"

"Using a Spec Document, the Customer Voice Table, and a QFD Matrix to Generate a CTQ (Critical to Quality) List"
"Finding Customer Delights Using QFD"
"Lifestyle QFD: Incorporating Emotional Appeal in Product Development"
"Challenges in Rapid Deployment of New Services in Healthcare"

The project is led by a book-learned facilitator / trainer.
Relying on a software to guide through QFD process.
Jumping into making a House of Quality matrix (HOQ), without several prior analytic steps.
The 4-phase model QFD method is forced instead of a tailored approach.
Customer verbatims and data are directly transferred into engineering specifications; customer needs and features are mingled.
The team set needs priority, rather than the customers.
Ordinal math is used in needs prioritization, resulting in less precision.
Unnecessary deployments and tools are forced, while the steps that are critical to project success are skipped.
All data are entered into a single matrix that grows too large to be useful; and as a result, the team can not complete the QFD analysis in time for product launch.
Consultants do all the work; no sustainable QFD takes root in the company.
Lack of support from the management.