QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT
Prof. U.R.Atugade
1, Prof. P.P. Awate
2, Prof. Mrs. S.P. Shinde
3, Prof. N.V.Harugade
41P.G.Student, ADCET Ashta
2,3Assistant Professor, 4Associate Professor, P.V.P.I.T. Budhgaon
ABSTRACT
Quality Function Deployment is a “method to transform qualitative user demands into quantitative parameters, to deploy the functions forming quality, and to deploy methods for achieving the design quality into subsystems and component parts, and ultimately to specific elements of the manufacturing process. Quality now a days based upon the customer’s actual experience with the product or service measured against his or her requirement. Quality just does not happen. It must be built into the product or service being marketed. The present paper deals with the application of Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a tool for listening to customer’s voice for Quality improvement.
Keywords: Quality Function Deployment, Quality control, Quality Assurance I. INTRODUCTION
QFD (quality function deployment) is defined as a method for developing a design quality aiming at satisfying the consumer and then translating the consumer's demand into design targets and major quality assurance points to be used throughout the production phase. QFD is a way to assure the design quality while the product is still in the design stage. From this definition, QFD can be seen as a process where the consumer’s voice is valued to carry through the whole process of production and services.
QFD consists of two components which are deployed into the design process: quality and function. The
“quality deployment" component brings the costumer’s voice into the design process. The "function deployment" component links different organizational functions and units into to the design-to-manufacturing transition via the formation of design teams this is a method to help transform customer needs (the voice of the customer [VOC]) into engineering characteristics (and appropriate test methods) for a product or service. It helps create operational definitions of the requirements, which may be vague when first expressed. It prioritizes each product or service characteristic while simultaneously setting development targets for the product or service.
QFD is designed to help planners focus on characteristics of a new or existing product or service from the viewpoints of market segments, company, or technology-development needs. The technique yields charts and matrices.
1.1 History
QFD was invented in Japan by Yoji Akao in 1966, but was first implemented in the Mitsubishi’s Kobe shipyard in 1972, possibly out of the teaching of Deming. Then later it was adopted and developed by other Japanese companies, notably Toyota and its suppliers.
In the USA the first serious exponents of QFD were the 'big three' automotive manufacturers in the 1980's, and a few leading companies in other sectors such as electronics. However, the uptake of QFD in the Western world appears to have been fairly slow. There is also some reluctance among users of QFD to publish and share information - much more so than with other quality-related methodologies. This may be because the data captured and the decisions made using QFD usually relate to future product plans, and are therefore sensitive, proprietary, and valuable to competitors. (Hutton, 1997)
II. PROCESSES OF QFD
According to Lockamy and Khurana (1995), the idea of QFD is timing, performance evaluation, and resource commitment. And the four phases of QFD are:
1. Product concept planning. It starts with customers and market research with leads to product plans, ideas, sketches, concept models, and marketing plans.
2. Product development and specification. It would lead to the development to prototypes and tests.
3. Manufacturing processes and production tools. They are designed based on the product and component specifications.
4. Production of product. It starts after the pilot have been resolved After the products have been marketed, the customer’s voice is taken again.
III. BENEFITS OF QFD
According to Don Clausing, the author of Total Quality Development book, pointed out that the QFD has been evolved by product development people in response to the major problems in the traditional processes, which were:
1. Disregard the voice of customer 2. Disregard the competition
3. Concentration on each specification in isolation 4. Low expectations
5. Little input from design and production people into product planning 6. Divergent interpretation of the specifications
7. Lack of structure 8. Lost information
9. Weak commitment to previous decisions
IV. TOOLS OF QFD
met and the resources that exist to meet those expectations. The structure in which QFD uses to organize information is known as the House of Quality.
In its broadest sense, the QFD House of Quality displays the relationship between dependent (WHATS) and independent (HOWS) variables (Woods, 1994) [8]. Figure 1 shows the typical House of Quality.
This House of Quality should be created by a team of people with first-hand knowledge of both company capabilities and the expectations of the employee. Effective use of QFD requires team participation and discipline inherent in the practice of QFD, which has proven to be an excellent team-building experience.
Fig.1- The Typical House of Quality
4.1 Pugh concept selection
Pugh Concept Selection can be used in coordination with QFD to select a promising product or service configuration from among listed alternatives.
4.2 Modular Function Deployment
Modular Function Deployment uses QFD to establish customer requirements and to identify important design requirements with a special emphasis on modularity. There are three main differences to QFD as applied in Modular Function Deployment compared to House of Quality.
The benchmarking data is mostly gone.
The checkboxes and crosses have been replaced with circles
The triangular “roof” is missing.
There are also other minor differences between the application of QFD in Modular Function Deployment as compared to House of Quality, for example the term "Customer Attribute" is replaced by "Customer Value", and the term "Engineering Characteristics" is replaced by "Product Properties". But the terms have similar meanings in the two applications.
4.3 Relationship to other techniques
Quality Function Deployment is closely related to Hoshin Kanri. The Hoshin process came before QFD and both are used to document the objectives and needs of an organization.
4.4 QFD implementation
A successful story of QFD can be seen at the Chrysler Motors Corporation. The QFD at Chrysler Motor Corporation was formally launched in September 1986, but its first application was begun in June 1986.
Chrysler implemented the QFD in four-stage process: (1) spreading awareness, (2) developing successful case study and examples to motivate subsequent teams, (3) company-wide training and education on QFD techniques and philosophy, and (4) adopting QFD as business philosophy.
In the beginning, QFD idea was not widely accepted in the company. For many QFD was perceived as requiring additional time and effort. Such opinions led to organizational and perceptual barriers regarding the successful implementation of QFD.
Due to various resource constraints, Chrysler management was sometimes unable to authorize first-hand customer research. In such cases teams were encouraged to document what they knew concerning the customer requirement, based on their experiences. Often team members simulated customers by actually evaluating competing vehicles, and reviewing customer ratings.
The result of using QFD in Chrysler, in the launch of LH platform for mid-size cars was successful. The total product design cycle took approximately 36 months, versus the historical cycles ranging from 62 to 54 months.
Only 740 people were required in the QFD program, while 1600 people were required in the historical environment. Also, by focusing on the customer requirement instead of only cost, Chrysler made innovative design changes that are gaining acceptance in marketplace
4.5 QFD Assurance
This facilitates the identification of system response needed to implement specific actions necessary to prevent defects from being produced or processed any where in the organization .In the present paper an attempt is made to apply the concept of QFD to Centrifugal Pump to develop Planning matrix, Cross-functional matrix, Deployment matrix, Process plan and quality control charts, Work instructions.
In developing the matrices a likert scale of 1 to 5 is used to establish the relationship between customer expectations and product characteristics. The numerical values assigned indicates the degree of relationship as 0--- no relationship
1 --- Weak relationship 3 --- Medium relationship 5 --- Strong relationship
The vertical section of the planning matrix contains customer expectations like probability, reliability etc., and horizontal axis incorporates alternate design features closely related to the customer needs such as shaft, motor, coupling etc. The varying degrees of correlation between customer needs and a design feature are established by developing a weighted scale of 1-5. The individual needs are ranked for importance and the cumulative effect on
Deployment matrix, which identifies critical component characteristics affecting final product characteristics, is developed. Process plan and quality control charts incorporating control point, checkpoint and monitoring method are developed for centrifugal pumps.
The cross-functional matrix shows the relationships between individual components of the product and different functions of manufacturing organization. Numerical values assigned indicate the degree of relationship. The individual components of the product are ranked for importance. From the cross functional matrix it is evident that besides design and production, procurement, installation and operation and maintenance play a significant role in meeting the ultimate customer satisfaction. The work instructions are developed for design, production, procurement, inspection and testing department.
V. CONCLUSION
QFD is a good system to be implemented in organization or industry, which can be seen from the examples mentioned above. QFD does not design to replace the existing organization design process by any means, but rather support the organization’s design process. And it also helps bring the customer’s voice into the production process to reduce the unnecessary cost. Cutting production time is also very beneficial to the companies.
However, QFD has not been widely accepted in the USA compared to Japan (42% or more of Japanese companies have adopted QFD to improve their quality). In the future we hope QFD can be more adopted and researched in the American manufacturing and service organizations.
REFERENCES
[1] Akao, Y., ed. (1990). Quality Function Deployment, Productivity Press, Cambridge MA.
[2] Clausing, D., (1994). Total Quality Development, ASME Press, New York, NY.
[3] Day, R. G. (1993). Quality Function Deployment: Linking a Company with Its Customers, ASQC Quality Press, Milwaukee WI.
[4] Dean, E. B. (1998). Quality Function Deployment from the Perspective of Competitive Advantage, http://akao.larc.nasa.gov/dfc/qfd.html
[5] Hutton, D. (1997). Quality Function Deployment (QFD): The House of Quality, http://www.dhutton.com/samples/sampqfd.html
[6] Lockamy, A., and Khurana A., (1995). Quality Function Deployment: Total Quality Management for New Product Design, International Journal Quality and Reliability Management, Universal Press Ltd.
(UK) 1995.
