“…The QFD process and the House of Quality tool can be applied in most any industry to increase quality and better meet the needs of its customers. The HOQ matrix can assist in prioritizing the initiatives of anything ranging from computer processor design to hotel management. It facilitates decision making for engineers and sales people, alike. It helps to document the voice of the customer just as easily for healthcare services as for fast food services. In truth, the House of Quality is universally applicable, and probably the only “building” big enough to accommodate all the industries in the world.”

“…I then asked how they communicated this information upstream to the business stake holders and received some blank stares. When I asked why they had removed the ‘difficulty’ row from their QFD, I was met with questioning glances and the response, ‘difficulty row?’…”

“…These teams typically do a fantastic job of delivering working software every two weeks that has numerous new features. The new features are typically coded well and are very stable and maintainable. Unfortunately, these teams also find that in their rush to begin solving their customers problems correctly, they have ceased to solve the correct problems….”

“…It is true that one must be very judicious when adding new requirements to any House of Quality. The fact of the matter is that as the requirements lists become longer, more and more time is required for adjusting ratings and maintaining the Quality Function Deployment model. However, different industries, different products, and even different teams will have dramatically different definitions of what constitutes a ‘long’ list of requirements for a House of Quality….”

“…Believe it or not…you can change the orientation of your Houses of Quality. Go ahead and run your secondary requirements down the side and your primary requirements across the top. I know that such an idea may seem like sacrilege in the eyes of many Quality Function Deployment purists, but the fact of the matter is that if it will help you use the tool more successfully, then you should make the change….”

“…However, it is not the use of the Quality Function Deployment tool in applying Lean principles that has had the largest influence on QFD usage. On the contrary, it is the application of Lean principles to the QFD tool itself that has had such a profound impact on its adoption….”

“…Although most quality engineers and product managers would prefer to take their cues from the consumer of their product or service, the best sources for requirements on any professional project are the project’s internal stake holders….In short, when listening to the voice of the customer, the “internal customer” should be given the bullhorn….”

“…Similarly, the name ‘Quality Function Deployment’ gives little hint as to what the tool actually is or what purpose it serves. So why is its name so perplexing? The answer lies in two main issues…”