QFD Case Study

House Of Quality

The first phase in the implementation of the

Quality Function Deployment process involves
putting together a "House of Quality.
The HOQ translates the VOC into design
requirements that meet specific target values
and matches that against how an organization
will meet those requirements .
Many managers and engineers consider the HOQ
to be the primary chart in quality planning. The
structure of QFD can be thought of as a
framework of a house.

Building the House Of

Quality
Step 1List Customer
Requirements (WHATs)
The list of customer requirements is divided
into a hierarchy of primary, secondary, and
tertiary
customer
requirements.
For
example, a primary customer requirement
might
be
dependability
and
the
corresponding
secondary
customer
requirements
could
include
reliability,
longevity, and maintainability.

Case Study: Application of QFD

in Automobile Industry

Performance Aesthetics

Customer Requirements
(WHATs)

Reasonable Cost
Aerodynamic Look
Nice Finish

Corrosion Resistant
Lightweight
Strength
Durable

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary

A company that manufactures bicycle

components such as cranks, hubs,
rims, etc., wants to expand their
product line by also producing
handlebar stems for mountain bikes.
The target here is to design this ,
keeping customer requirements in
mind.

 Step 2List Technical

Descriptors (HOWs)

Material
Selection
Manufacturing
Process

Technical Descriptors
(HOWs)

Steel
Aluminum
Titanium
Welding
Die Casting
Sand Casting
Forging
Powder Metallurgy

Tertiary

Primary

Secondary

The goal of the house of quality is to design or

change the design of a product in a way that
meets or exceeds the customer expectations. The
QFD team must come up with engineering
characteristics or technical descriptors (HOWS)
that will affect one or more of the customer
requirements.

 Step 3Develop a Relationship Matrix

between WHATs and HOWs
Relationship Matrix
Technical Descriptors
(HOWs)
Material Manufacturing
Process

Lightweight
Strength
Durable

Sand Casting

Steel
Aluminum
Titanium
Welding
Die Casting

Secondary

Aesthetics

Reasonable Cost
Aerodynamic Look
Nice Finish
Corrosion Resistant

Performance

Customer Requirements
(WHATs)

Primary

Secondary

Forging
Powder Metallurgy

Primary Selection

Relationship between
Customer Requirements and
Technical Descriptors
WHATs vs. HOWs
+9
+3

Strong
Medium

+1

Weak

Adding relationship matrix to the house of quality

 Step 4Develop an Interrelationship Matrix

between HOWs
Interrelationship between Technical
Descriptors (correlation matrix)
HOWs vs. HOWs

Technical Descriptors
(HOWs)

Sand Casting

Die Casting

Titanium
W elding

Aluminum

Steel

Secondary

Prim ary
Perform ance Aesthetics

Customer Requirements
(W HATs)

Secondary

Strong Positive

+3
-3

Positive
Negative
Strong Negative

-9

Forging
Pow der Metallurgy

Primary

Material Manufacturing
Selection
Process

+9

Reasonable Cost
Aerodynamic Look
Nice Finish
Corrosion Resistant
Lightweight
Strength
Durable

Adding interrelationship matrix to the

house of quality

Relationship between
Customer Requirements and
Technical Descriptors
WHATs vs. HOWs
+9
+3

Strong
Medium

+1

Weak

 Step 5Competitive Assessments

Interrelationship between Technical
Descriptors (correlation matrix)
HOWs vs. HOWs

Negative
Strong Negative

Material
Selection

Manufacturing
Process

Secondary

3
4
4
4
3
3
3

Reasonable Cost
Aerodynamic Look
Nice Finish
Corrosion Resistant
Lightweight
Strength
Durable
Our Product
As Product
Bs Product

Relationship between
Customer Requirements and
Technical Descriptors
WHATs vs. HOWs

0
0
5

5
0
0

0
5
0

0
0
4

5
5
0

0
0
0

0
0
0

0
0
0

4
5
5
4
4
3
3

+9

Strong

+3

Medium

+1

Weak

2
3
3
2
2
4
4

O u r P ro d u c t
C u s to m e r
C o m p e t i t Ai v es P r o d u c t
A ssessm ent
B s P ro d u c t

Technical
Competitive
Assessment

S e co n d ary

a ry
P e r f o r m aAn ec se t h e t Pic rs i m

C u s to m e r R e q u ire m e n ts
(W H A T s)

Primary

Technical Descriptors
(HOWs)

T it a n i u m
W e ld in g

-9

S te e l
A lu m in u m

-3

F o r g in g
P o w d e r M e t a ll u r g y

Positive

S a n d C a s t in g

Strong Positive

+3

D ie C a s t i n g

+9

Adding customer and technical competitive assessment to

the house of quality

 Step 6Develop Prioritized Customer

Requirement
Absolute Weight and Percent
Finally, the absolute weight is calculated by
multiplying the importance to customer, scale-up
factor, and sales point:
Absolute Weight = (Importance to Customer)
(Scale-up Factor)(Sales Point)
After summing all the absolute weights, a percent
and rank for each customer requirement can be
determined. The weight can then be used as a guide
for the planning phase of the product development.
Step 7Develop Prioritized Technical
Descriptors

Interrelationship between Technical

Descriptors (correlation matrix)
HOWs vs. HOWs

Negative
Strong Negative

F o r g in g
P o w d e r M e t a ll u r g y

Durable

0
0
5
1
5

5
0
0
6
5

0
5
0
9
5

0
0
4
4
4

5
5
0
7
5

0
0
0
3
0

0
0
0
6
0

0
0
0
9
0

As Product
Bs Product
Degree of Technical Difficulty
Target Value
Absolute Weight and Percent

168 227193 92 162122132125

Relative Weight and Percent

251 401303167 213 203165171

Prioritized Technical
Descriptors

+1

Weak

8
5
5
2
7
5
3

4 1.3 1.5 16
4 1 1.5 8
4 1 1 5
4 1 1 2
4 1.3 2 18
3 1 1 5
3 1 1 3

Adding prioritized technical descriptors & prioritized customer

requirements to the house of quality

P rio ritiz e d C u s to m e r
R e q u ire m e n ts

Lightweight
Strength

2
3
3
2
2
4
4

Strong
Medium

S a le s P o in t
A b s o lu te W e ig h t a n d P e rc e n t

Aerodynamic Look
Nice Finish
Corrosion Resistant

4
5
5
4
4
3
3

+9
+3

S c a le -u p F a c to r

3
4
4
4
3
3
3

Reasonable Cost

Our Product

Relationship between
Customer Requirements and
Technical Descriptors
WHATs vs. HOWs

T a r g e t V a lu e

T it a n i u m
W e ld in g

Secondary

S a n d C a s t in g

Manufacturing
Process

D ie C a s t i n g

Material
Selection

C u s t o m e Or u r P r o d u c t
C o m p e t i t iAv e s P r o d u c t
A ssessm ent
B s P ro d u c t
Im p o rta n c e to C u s to m e r

Technical
Competitive
Assessment

S e c o n d ary

ary
P e r f o r m a An ec se t h e t icP rs i m

C u s to m e r R e q u ire m e n ts
(W H A T s)

Primary

Technical Descriptors
(HOWs)

A lu m in u m

-3
-9

Strong Positive
Positive

S te e l

+9
+3

Calculation of Absolute Weight

and Relative Weight

Absolute Weight and Percent

The absolute weight for the jth technical descriptor is then
given by

where aj= row vector of absolute weights for the technical

descriptors
(j = 1,..., m)
Rij = weights assigned to the relationship matrix (i = 1 ,...,
n,
j = 1,..., m)

 The absolute weight for each technical descriptor

is determined by taking the dot product of the
column in the relationship matrix and the column
for importance to customer. For instance, for
aluminum the absolute weight is 98 + 15 +
95 + 92 + 97 + 35 + 33 = 227. The
greater values of absolute weight indicate that
the handlebar stem should be an aluminum die
casting.
Relative Weight and Percent
In a similar manner, the relative weight for the jth
technical descriptor is then given by replacing the
degree of importance for the customer
requirements with the absolute weight for
customer requirements. It is

 where bj = row vector of relative weights for the

technical descriptors (j = 1,..., m)
di = column vector of absolute weights for the
customer requirements (i = 1,..., n)
Higher absolute and relative ratings identify
areas where engineering efforts need to be
concentrated. The relative weight for each
technical descriptor is determined by taking the
dot product of the column in the relationship
matrix and the column for absolute weight in the
prioritized customer requirements. The greater
values of relative weight also indicate that the
handlebar stem should be an aluminum die
casting.