Page 166 - DMGT524_TOTAL_QUALITY_MANAGEMENT

Unit 11: Quality Function Deployment

capacity”. The customer has expressed preferences that these be maximized. Based on what we Notes
know about physics, there may be a conflict in minimizing “weight” and maximizing “strength”
and “power capacity”. The analysis that takes place in the Correlation Matrix Room systematically
forces a technical review for all likely conflicts and then alerts the team to either optimize or
eliminate these conflicts or consider design alternatives.
The mechanics of the analysis is to review each and every “how” for possible conflict (or
symbiosis) against every other “how”. As mentioned in the previous sentence sometimes
symbiotic relationships between “hows” do surface in this analysis. This analysis also allows
the team to capitalize on those symbiotic situations.

Technical Competitive Assessment Room: This is the room where engineering applies the
measurements identified during the construction of the “Hows” room. “Does our product perform
better than the competitive product according to the specific measure that we have identified?”
Here is where the team tests the hypothesis created in the Relative Score room. It helps the team
to confirm that it has created “hows” that really do accurately measure characteristics leading to
customer satisfaction.
Analysis in the Technical Competitive Assessment and Customer Competitive Assessment
rooms can also help uncover problems in perception.

Example: Perhaps the customer wants a car that is fast, so your team comes up with the
“how” of “elapsed time in the quarter mile”. After comparing performance between your car
and the competitor’s vehicle, you realize that “you blew the doors off the competitor’s old
crate”. However when you look in the Customer Competitive Assessment Room, you see that
most of the marketplace perceives the competitor’s car as being faster. While you might have
chosen one of the correct “hows” to measure performance, it is clear that your single “how” does
not completely reflect performance needed to make your car appear faster.
Target Values Room: The last room of Target Values contains the recommended specifications
for the product. These specifications will have been well thought out, reflecting customer needs,
competitive offerings and any technical trade-off required because of either design or
manufacturing constraints.
The House of Quality matrix is often called the phase one matrix. In the QFD process there is also
a phase two matrix to translate finished product specifications into attributes of design
(architecture, features, materials, geometry, subassemblies and/or component parts) and their
appropriate specifications. Sometimes a phase three matrix is used to attributes of design
specifications into manufacturing process specifications (temperature, pressure, viscosity, rpm,
etc.).

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

16. The …………………… process is critical to the success of QFD in that there is vigorous
discussion to reach consensus as to what the customers really meant by their comments.
17. The …………………… provide the team with a prioritization of customer requirements.

18. Customer …………………… allows us to spot strengths and weaknesses in both our product
and the competition’s products.
19. Based on the Importance Ratings and the …………………… values, the team calculates the
Absolute and Relative Scores.

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