Abstract

Improvement of a product to the satisfaction of internal customers is the role of quality function deployment (QFD). The QFD House of Quality is a tool for implementing the improvement. Before building a House of Quality (HOQ) chart, the internal supplier should identify who the customers are. Process flowcharts can help with this. Then, the first step for the HOQ is to define the characteristics of the product. In step two, the customers assign a weight of importance and a satisfaction rating to each characteristic. Step three is to identify the performance variables of the characteristics likely to improve the product. Step four is to establish baseline supplier performance for these variables. In step five, the supplier investigates how changes in one variable might affect another. Step six is for setting performance targets and implementing the improvements. Throughout the building of the HOQ, customers and supplier work together to improve their product.