The House of Quality

(Harvard Business Review May 1988)

David Segrera 16.842 Systems Engineering 25 September 2009

What is Quality?

More than avoiding repairs Reconcile what consumers want with what can be built Before Industrial revolution Marketing + engineering +manufacturing = 1 person Now we must get these different divisions to talk to each other, how? The House of Quality

Background
The House of Quality aka Quality Function Deployment Originated in Japan 1972 Mitsubishis Kobe Shipyard
Others credit two Japanese professors back in the 1960s (Drs. Yoji Akao and Shigeru Mizuno)

Graphic tool which links customer needs to product capabilities focuses and coordinates skills within an organization, first to design, then to manufacture and market goods that customers want to purchase and will continue to purchase.

House of Quality
Japanese automaker with QFD made fewer changes than U.S. company without QFD

1st look at customer needs

Design changes

2nd Design across corporate functions Leads to reduced prelaunch time and after launch tinkering
Toyota 1977-1984 60% reduction in cost

U.S. company

Japanese company 90% of total Japanese changes complete 20-24 Months 14-17 Months 1-3 Months +3 Months

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

Building the House

1. Customer Attributes What do Customers want?
Take the product to the consumer and listen Market Research: focus groups, qualitative interviews Group CAs into bundels Remember customers may be regulators, or retailers
X X X

Roof Matrix Facilitates Engineering Creativity

Engineering characteristics

Open-close effort
+ Check force on level ground o + Check force on 10 slope

SealingInsulation

Relative importance

Not all preferences are created equal

Objective Easy to open measure Isolation and close door

+ Road noise reduction

Energy to close door

+ Door seal resistance

Customer perceptions

Necessitates tradeoffs, Rank importance

Customer Attributes
Easy to close from outside Stay open on a hill

7 5

2. Customer Perceptions Perceptual Maps

Comparison with the competition to identify strategic positioning

Doesn't leak in rain No road noise

3 2
lb lb lb ft/ lb lb /ft

Measurement units Our car door 11 12 13 A'S car door 9 12 6 B'S car door 9.5 11 7

3 9 2 5 2 6

Our Car A'S Car B'S Car

Relationship Strong positive Medium positive X Medium negative X Strong negative

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

Building the House

3.Technical Requirements
Identify engineering characteristics that will effect customer attributes
Roof Matrix Facilitates Engineering Creativity
X

Engineering characteristics

Open-close effort
+ Check force on level ground o + Check force on 10 slope

SealingInsulation

Objective Easy to open measure Isolation and close door

indicates how much each engineering characteristic affects each customer attribute based on engineering experience, customer responses and data from experimentation

+ Road noise reduction

Energy to close door

4.Relationship Matrix

Relative importance

+ Door seal resistance

Customer perceptions

Customer Attributes
Easy to close from outside Stay open on a hill

7 5

Doesn't leak in rain No road noise

3 2
lb lb lb ft/ lb lb /ft

Measurement units Our car door 11 12 13 A'S car door 9 12 6 B'S car door 9.5 11 7

3 9 2 5 2 6

Our Car A'S Car B'S Car

Relationship Strong positive Medium positive X Medium negative X Strong negative

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

Building the House

5. Targets
Objective Measures and target values Additional information: technical difficulty, estimated cost, sales data, etc
X

X X

Engineering characteristics

Open-close effort
+ Check force on level ground o + Check force on 10 slope _ Energy to open door _ Peack closing force

SealingInsulation
+ Door seal resistance + Acoustic transmission, window + Road noise reduction + Water resistance

Relative importance

Energy to close door

Customer perceptions

Customer Attributes Objective Easy to open measure Isolation and close door
Easy to close from outside Stay open on a hill Easy to open from outside Doesn't kick back Doesn't leak in rain No road noise

7 5 3 3 3 2
b lb lb ftlb lb

6.Roof Matrix
identifies engineering features that must be improved collaterally

Measurement units Our car door 11 12 6 10 18 A'S car door 9 12 6 9 13 B'S car door 9.5 11 7 11 14 Technical difficulty 4 5 1 1 3
ftl

/ft

db

ps

3 .10 9 70 2 .10 5 60 2 .10 6 60 1 3 3 5 6 6 2 4 3 6 9 2

Our Car A'S Car B'S Car

Imputed importance (%) (all total 100%) 10 6 4 Estimated cost (%) Targets
(all total 100%)

9 1 9 5

5 2 2 7.5 9

6 7.5 12

Relationship Strong positive Medium positive X Medium negative X Strong negative

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

lb

3 .10 9 70

Using the House

Connects the what with the how
X
X X X

Engineering characteristics

Engineers
Summarizes basic data in usable form

+ Check force on level ground o + Check force on 10 slope _ Energy to open door _ Peack closing force

Relative importance

HOW

+ Door seal resistance + Acoustic transmission, window + Road noise reduction + Water resistance

Energy to close door

Sets Targets, facilitates communication about priorities and goals

Objective Easy to open measure Isolation and close door

Open-close effort

SealingInsulation

Customer perceptions

Customer Attributes

WHAT

Easy to close from outside Stay open on a hill Easy to open from outside Doesn't kick back Doesn't leak in rain No road noise

7 5 3 3 3 2
b lb b

Marketing
Expresses the voice of the customer

Management
Displays strategic opportunities

Measurement units Our car door 11 12 6 10 18 A'S car door 9 12 6 9 13 B'S car door 9.5 11 7 11 14 Technical difficulty 4 5 1 1 3
ftl lb ftl lb

/ft

db ps i

3 .10 9 70 2 .10 5 60 2 .10 6 60 1 3 3 5 6 6 2 4 3 6 9 2

Our Car A'S Car B'S Car

Imputed importance (%) (all total 100%) 10 6 4 Estimated cost (%) Targets
(all total 100%)

9 1 9 5

5 2 2 7.5 9

6 7.5 12

Relationship Strong positive Medium positive X Medium negative X Strong negative

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

lb

3 .10 9 70

House to House
Principles apply to any effort between manufacturing functions and customer satisfaction that are not easy to visualize The Hows become the Whats
the outputs become a starting point for the next stage in development

Engineering characteristics Engineering characteristics Customer attributes

Parts characteristics Parts characteristics

Key process operations

Production requirements Key process operations

II

III

IV

House of quality

Parts deployment

Process planning

Production planning

Linked houses convey the customer's voice through to manufacturing

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

Discussion

Has anyone used this method? What was your experience? Which processes or products lend themselves well to this type of approach? Are there processes and products that do not work well with this method?

Sources

John R. Hauser & Don Clausing (1988) The house of quality. Harvard Business Review, May-June, 63-73. http://www.qfdonline.com http://www.qfdonline.com/templates/qfdand-house-of-quality-templates/

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16.842 Fundamentals of Systems Engineering

Fall 2009

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