Quality Function Deployment

Describe the basic structure of the House of Quality in Quality Function Deployment. Also, give an example of why an organization would employ this approach. Refer to this week’s lecture before crafting your post.

ANSWER

Quality Function Deployment

The House of Quality Matrix is a method of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) that interprets the customer’s needs, based on benchmarking and marketing research information (Hessing et al., 2019). House of Quality Matrix translates the data into an applicable set of engineering targets that new product design should meet. In is an internal mechanism, which propels the whole process of QFD. Mullane, Epstein and Buman (2019) noted that the matrix is a form of an abstract map providing inter-functional communication and planning. One of the most essential characteristics of the House of Quality approach is the ability to adapt to the needs of a specific problem, making it a system that is reliable and strong (Mullane et al., 2019).

The House of Quality Matrix’s format comprises of six components, which include a planning matrix, technical requirements, a technical relationship matrix, customer requirements, targets section, and a technical benchmark/priorities section (Lager, 2019). The first stage is to identify, specify, and clarify the customer’s needs. The manufacturer offers features that benefit consumers. After identifying their needs, firms interpret these findings into product specifications from market data. The second step is to identify the milestones of satisfying what the customers require while observing minimum standards of quality. 

The third stage is to formulate the planning matrix. It compares the team’s efforts of meeting the customers’ requirements with other rivals. The other step is the interrelationship matrix that connects the customer’s requirements of the product and performance methods to enhance the product from customer feedback and opinions (Lager, 2019). The technical relationship matrix helps to develop associations between product and customer requirements and identifies the link between them. Finally, the technical properties matrix records the priorities of technical requirements from specific items.