I E 361Jennifer TapkeAllyson MullerGreg JohnsonJosh SieckHouse of QualitySteps in Understanding the House of QualityHouse of QualitySteps in Understanding the House of QualityIntroductionEvery successful company has always used data and information to help in its planning processes. Inplanning a new product, engineers have always examined the manufacturing and performance history of thecurrent product. They look at field test data, comparing their product to that of their competitor’s product.They examine any customer satisfaction information that might happen to be available. Unfortunately,much of this information is often incomplete. It is frequently examined as individual data, withoutcomparison to other data that may support or contradict it.By contrast, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) uses a matrix format to capture a number of issues thatare vital to the planning process. The House of Quality Matrix is the most recognized and widely usedform of this method. It translates customer requirements, based on marketing research and benchmarkingdata, into an appropriate number of engineering targets to be met by a new product design. Basically, it isthe nerve center and the engine that drives the entire QFD process. According to Hauser and Clausing, it is“a kind of conceptual map that provides the means for interfunctional planning and communication.”There are many different forms of the House of Quality, but its ability to be adapted to the requirements of aparticular problem make it a very strong and reliable system to use. Its general format is made up of sixmajor components. These include customer requirements, technical requirements, a planning matrix, aninterrelationship matrix, a technical correlation matrix, and a technical priorities/benchmarks and targetssection.2The Voice of the CustomersThe initial steps in forming the House of Quality include determining, clarifying, and specifying thecustomers’ needs. These steps lay the foundation for a clearly defined venture and will ensure a project orprocess is well thought out prior to any further development.Clarifying Customer NeedsCustomers buy benefits and producers offer features. This seems like a relatively simple notion, however,unless customers and producers are perfectly in tune with one another, it may be very difficult to anticipatethese features, or each underlying benefit from each producer. It is of utter importance to translate thewishes of each and every customer into some tangible values that can be turned into engineeringspecifications. Some of theses features include but are not limited to:• Parts • Costs • Functions• Quality Character& Reliability • Processes • Tasks• Figure 1: Examples of Customer NeedsSpecifying the Customer NeedsAfter determining what items are most important to the customer, organizations must translate them intoparticulate specifications. Nothing can be produced, serviced or maintained without detailed specificationsor some set of given standards. Each aspect of the desired item must be clearly defined: Measurementsmust be defined, heights specified , torques stated, and weights targeted.These values can be derived from several locations. Organizations can use known data from marketresearch, or conduct new studies to gather necessary information. In any event, the needs, which wereclarified and then explicitly stated, should be satisfied to the best of that organization’s ability.Technical RequirementsThe next step of the QFD process is identifying what the customer wants and what must be achieved tosatisfy these wants. In addition, regulatory standards and requirements dictated by management must beidentified. Once all requirements are identified it is important to answer what must be done to the productdesign to fulfill the necessary requirements. Figure 2 explains how to use a requirement chart to help thedesign process.3Requirements WhatA list of requirements from customers,management and regulatory standardsAn expanded list of what needs to be doneto the product to fulfill the requirements• Figure 2. Requirement ChartPlanning MatrixThe next step in the QFD process is forming a planning matrix. The main purpose of the planning matrix isto compare how well the team met the customer requirements compared to its competitors. The planningmatrix shows the weighted importance of each requirement that the team and its competitors are attemptingto fulfill. Customer ratings, typically ranging from 1 to 5, are given to each company under eachrequirement. The customer ratings are combined with the weighted performance of each demand toproduce an overall performance measure for the companies. The planning matrix is a part of the “House ofQuality” matrix.Interrelationship MatrixThe main function of the interrelationship matrix is to establish a connection between the customer’sproduct requirements and the performance measures designed to improve the product. The first step inconstructing this matrix involves obtaining the opinions of the consumers as far as what they need andrequire from a specific product. These views are drawn from the planning matrix and placed on the left sideof the interrelationship matrix.With this customer overview, the company can begin to formulate a strategy to improve their product. Indoing this, the strengths and weaknesses of the company are weighted against the customer priorities todetermine what aspects need to be changed to surpass the competition, what aspects need to change to equalthe competition, and what aspects will be left unchanged. The optimal combination is desired.Knowing what improvements need to be made allows the list of performance measures to be generated anddisplayed across the top of the interrelationship matrix. By definition, a performance measure is a technicalmeasure evaluating the product’s performance of a demanded quality (Terninco). In other words, thecompany must take the voice of the customer and translate it into engineering terms. The matrix will haveat least one performance measure for each demanded quality.4After setting up the basic matrix, it is necessary to assign relationships between the customer requirementsand the performance measures. These relationships are portrayed by symbols indicating a strongrelationship, a medium relationship, or a weak relationship. The symbols in turn are assigned respectiveindexes such as 9-3-1, 4-2-1, or 5-3-1.