Strategies in Action: How Quality Function Deployment Model Is Applied - Term Paper Example

Introduction: Increasing competition has forced organisations to not just to produce products that are devoid of defects. What many organisations try is to create and manufacture products that exceed customer expectations. Quality function deployment is a tool of designing the products’ characteristics on the basis of the customer preferences. Quality has become an increasingly important means of competition in all kinds of business. In today’s competitive markets quality is a business imperative rather than a luxury. . House of quality is the basic design tool of QFD. Companies can measure customers’ expectations of products with remarkable accuracy and thus they can compete on product quality. (Kannan 2008). Better understanding of customer needs before making production plan will help to achieve customer satisfaction and to reduce correction cost. QFD can be used even to measure and satisfy employee requirements. (Woods 1993). House of quality refers to a matrix that aligns the customer needs (business priorities), the design features (technical priorities), and the customer preferences. The factor of these inputs is represented in the Bench marked target values. From these target values the product designers can establish objective metrics to indicate acceptance and fulfilment. QFD is used in all types of business for improving the quality of products and services of customers in accordance with their needs and expectations. According to an article titled ‘What’s the Use’ by John Livingston “QFD is only useful for those industries that have decisions to make and customers to please.” (Livingston 2008). This implies that nay organisation that has customers and is intend on pleasing them can make use of QFD. The author in an indirect way stresses that organisations need to make decisions to please and satisfy their customers which is essentially what any competitive organisation will do. In effect QFD cab is used in any industry which has identifiable customers. It would be difficult to list all areas where QFD can be effectively applied, but a few examples are given below. It can be as varied as improving service in the hospitality industry, healthcare industry, banks, universities, manufacturing, electronics and the entertainment industry. QFD was applied in designing and developing real life and realistic robotic models of dinosaurs in the movie Jurassic Park. (Bolt & Mazur 1999). QFD was used to improve catering services at US Airports by the well known hotel chain Marriott in a group company called Host Marriott. (Lampa & Mazur1996, P.4). It was used by the Baptist Medical Centre to develop a diabetic foot clinic, by TELUS a Canadian telecommunication company in the field of human resources. An example of QFD being used in the banking sector was when it was applied for ‘Quality infrastructure improvement’ by the National City Bank. It was applied for ‘planning of vocational education in the manufacturing industry in Hong Kong.’ (Mazur 2004). Many well known companies, IBM HP, P&G, Toyota, Honda, ICI, Black and Decker etc have also made use of QFD in various areas. Innovation and QFD: Competitive markets ensure that companies will try to innovate in the hope that the product will create a huge impact in the market place. Innovation in as sense is easier than invention because the latter implies creation of something new altogether. A classic example is the invention of the video tape in 1954 by Ampex of the United States. The technology to record and play moving images on tape at that time required players that were as big as juke boxes and hence were mostly used by broadcasting firms. Two innovations based on this invention brought out by Sony (Betamax) and JVC (VHS) revolutionised the viewing of moving images in homes worldwide. The innovation was based on recording in vertical parallel lines on the tape instead of horizontal lines used by Ampex. This resulted in the ability to record the equivalent of a large number of spools into one video cassette. (Valery). Both companies had successfully anticipated the impact and developed a product that might not have been a customer expectation back then. The advantage with QFD is that the ‘customer voice’ can be incorporated when developing or innovating an existing product or technology. This is transformed as the ‘voice of the customer’ in the house of quality. (Crow 2004). Knowledge Management and QFD: Another important factor that is essential in developing a competitive environment for any organisation is how information or knowledge is handled. In a situation where communication facilities are highly developed, obtaining information and data is not a difficult task. Gene Bellinger in an article on knowledge management quotes to Neil Fleming, in saying that data or information is not knowledge. (Bellinger 2004). He brings into the picture four concepts when he says that ‘a collection of data is not information, a collection of information is not knowledge and a collection of knowledge is not wisdom. What we have in hand now is data, information, knowledge and wisdom. According to the author, once a relationship exists between certain data, it amounts to information and when a pattern is visible in the information, it becomes knowledge. QFD develops a relationship between information which in this case is the ‘voice of the customer’ and develops it into knowledge with the help of the house of quality matrix. Application of Quality Function Deployment: The area in which quality function deployment is to be applied is for a automobile workshop and maintenance organisation. Existence of similar units that undertake repair and maintenance works has forced the management of the organisation to think in terms of differentiation of service. On an average its customers are those who own automobiles that are more than five years old or have run more than 50,000 kms. Ownership category includes privately owned vehicles and taxis and is limited to cars. The company has a reputation of giving good service and value for money. But, as mentioned earlier, lack of differentiation of service has begun to tell and the number of customers availing the services of the company has started to come down. A brainstorming session of the owners along with managerial staff and works manager was conducted. All participants were asked to give their own suggestions and ideas as to how service could be improved as to ring in more customers and also provide service that the customers did not expect or anticipate. It was also decided that in order to find the voice of the customer, a survey would be conducted with existing and past customers. This was made possible because either the address or phone number of all customers were available with the company. Professional help was sought for conducting the survey which was mainly done through questionnaires which were to be answered by respondents one-on-one. Apart from its customers, a survey using random sampling of vehicle owners in the city was also done. The basic aim was to find out customer aspirations of how they would expect service from a workshop. The responses were categorised under the following three categories namely, revealed requirements, expected requirements and exciting requirements. (Mazur 1994). These were received directly from customers and recorded using the words used by the customers. Expected requirements and exciting requirements can be formed in part on the basis of these requirements. a. Prompt service. b. Courtesy. c. Booking facility. d. Convenient timings. e. Customer care hotline. Expected requirements: a. Customer expects an employee to attend to him within five minutes of his arrival for repairs. b. Courtesy is not very common in workshops and hence this is to be classified as an expected requirement. c. According to our estimates, customers expect service to be available from 8.a.m. till around 9.p.m. d. Availability of spares in case parts need to be changed. e. Repairs/service need to be completed within the time stipulated. Exciting requirements: These are based upon our suggestions and the services offered by competitors. a. 24x7 services. b. On call haulage for stranded vehicles within a 10 km radius. c. Call all customers within 24 hours of finishing repairs, then after 7 days and thereafter once every month. The purpose is to check performance of vehicle and also to keep in touch with customers. d. Warranty: Warranty offered by parts manufacturers will naturally be extended to customers. But offering a job warranty for 6 months to 1 year will be an advantage. e. Service package: It is proposed that a service package be offered. Customers can register with us for the package for a fixed fee. Those registered customers will be provided all of the above services at no extra charge. Moreover, service and repairs will be attempted on site (e.g. Customer’s house) wherever practically possible. Voice of the customer: From the above requirements a voice of customer table with weights are given below. Voice of the customer is used as a benchmark on which a new product or service will be built or implemented. (Lee and Lin, 2007). Attributes Weight 1 24x7 service 7 2 Prompt service 9 3 Courtesy 6 4 Customer care desk 7 5 Availability of spares 7 6 Repairs and service as per schedule 8 7 Follow-up calls 5 8 Maintenance package 8 9 Break-down haulage 6 Engineering Attributes: For item numbers 1, 2, 6 and 9 above, additional service and repair staff will have to be employed. Training in basic courtesy will have to be provided. Help desk staff, preferably ladies will have to be created. They will also be responsible for follow-up calls. Computerised stocking with low stock warning will have to be incorporated into existing software. A better coordination between purchase section and stores will have to be developed. A local area network through which spares requirements can be requisitioned from purchase department will have to be developed. The local area network will also cover front office/customer care desk. A break-down vehicle will have to be purchased. Registration for maintenance package will also have to be incorporated into existing software. Workshop supervisor will be in overall charge to see that all customer attributes are being met or satisfied. Engineering Attributes 1 Networked systems + 2 Software + 3 Maintenance staff + 4 Front office + 5 Break-down vehicle + 6 Training in customer relationship + Explanation of product matrix: Explanation of the house of quality: The relationship or priority between customer attributes and engineering characteristics is given here. The plus sign given alongside engineering characteristics indicate that all these are to be added for meeting customer attributes. The symbol stands for high priority, stand for medium priority and stand for low priority. For example, to meet the target of 24x7 hour service additional staff is a must and is given high priority. This also holds good for introduction of maintenance package and for providing prompt service. A networked system is essential for purchase department to see stock availability and replenishment. A medium priority is given for the software for maintenance package since it is possible to manage without it at least till a reasonable number of packages are sold. Front office staff had medium priority in helping 24 hour service since calls made between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. would be handled by night shift maintenance staff. Additional front office staff is essential for customer care desk and follow up calls since it would be their duty. A break-down vehicle is top priority for haulage of vehicles and implementation of maintenance package. There is medium priority between this attribute and front office desk, since service requests that come to the front office will occasionally be transferred directly to the trucks. Training is essential for all staff for customer courtesy and how to handle the front office. The following weights are given to the priorities in the matrix. - 9 High priority, - 5 Medium priority and - 1 Low priority Technical priority for Engineering Attributes is calculated in the following manner. (Priority score x Relative importance). Network system 9 x 7 =63 Software. 5 x 6 + 30 Maintenance staff. 9 x 7 + 9 x 9 + 1 x 6 + 9 x 8 + 9 x 6 + 5 x 6 = 306 :Front Office staff 5 x 7 + 9 x 7 + 9 x 5 = 143 Break down vehicle 5 x 7 + 9 x 6 + 9 x 6 = 143 Training 9 x 6 + 9 x 7 = 117. Competitive benchmarks: The Y indicates that a particular engineering attribute is currently available with us or with competitors and N indicates the opposite. It can be seen that none of the required engineering attributes are currently held by us. Our competitors are better place than us currently in the case of current engineering attributes. Targets: In order to fulfil the ‘voice of the customer’ and be better than our competitors the following targets have to be met. The Company needs new networked hardware systems and new software. Twenty additional maintenance staff, three front office staff and two break-down vehicles are needed. Training is also needed for front office staff and maintenance staff especially for handling customers. Reflections: Creating a quality deployment function along with the house of quality was a very informative and enlightening task. The QFD was applied to a service industry, which in this case was an automobile maintenance centre and workshop. It should be noted that this is service sector industry where product specification cannot be easily calculated as in the case of a manufacturing industry. There were a few difficulties encountered in the whole process. It was difficult to obtain customer preferences from other than our own customers. It was also difficult to quantify the same. It is hoped that the attributes that we came up with regard to expected requirements and exciting requirements were relevant. This was achieved through a brainstorming session involving all departments after collecting the expected customer requirements. Looking back we can see that the house of quality will give an overall picture of the whole issue. Another insight gained was the relevance and importance of involving personnel across all departments. The customer attributes would not have been made possible without this exercise. Previously communication and interaction between departments was very limited. Since this was the first comprehensive experience with the process of QFD, the outcomes at best can be termed as satisfactory. Further attempts will definitely bring about a clearer picture of expectations and means of achieving them. This project has made it clear that QFD can be applied across many applications and is not limited to manufacturing. In other words, it has generic use and is not limited to a particular area. This fact has been mentioned earlier in the paper along with different examples as to where it has been used. Designing a house of quality with limited number of customer and engineering attributes would be relatively easy. As with any technique or application, QFD has its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that QFD allows customer requirements to be made a reality. Many organizations do it the other way in the sense that a product or service is designed in the hope that customers will accept it. QFD if applied properly can help in reducing, the time required for designing a product or service, waste, delivery lead time and rework. It can also help to improve quality. (Badiru 1995, P.64). The whole TQM process requires a lot of time and effort. Care must be taken to see that customer attributes are accurate. Engineers of a company in their eagerness to start QFD process discussed possible customer attributes among themselves thereby belittling the value of the QFD(Soderberg & OHalloran 1992). If not the whole process would become a waste of resources. There are some inherent limitations of QFD as well. A large number of customer and engineering attributes can create a lot of confusion in creation and understanding of the house of quality. The resulting graphic would be very large and it would be difficult to render it to paper. It can be time consuming and once created, removal of certain sections for modification would be difficult. Mostly the house of quality is a single use application and a fresh one has to be developed in case customer attributes change. (Bedi 2006, P.2). But whatever may be said QFD and the house of quality is an invaluable tool in developing or innovating a product or service. Automating the whole process by means of software systems will go a long way in removing some of the limitation mentioned above. Bibliography BADIRU, Adedeji Bodunde (1995). Industrys Guide to ISO 9000. P.64. [Online]. Wiley IEEE. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=oYgNxJvEE8EC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=%22advantages+of+QFD%22&source=web&ots=2HLgzqv-1c&sig=vanTKiJZ34NM6FiiIczLP0MQrTg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result BEDI, Kanishka (2006). Automating the Quality Function Deployment House of Quality: Limitations of QFD house of quality in its present form. P.2. [Online]. U21Global Working Paper. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.u21global.edu.sg/PartnerAdmin/ViewContent?module=DOCUMENTLIBRARY&oid=157353 BELLINGER, Gene (2004). Knowledge Management – Emerging Perspectives: Developing a Context. [Online]. Systems Thinking. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm BOLT, Andrew., & Mazur, Glenn H (1999). 3.4: Body Deployment: Jurassic QFD: Integrating Service and Product Quality Function Deployment. [Online]. The 11th Symposium on Quality Function Deployment. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.mazur.net/works/jurassic_qfd.pdf CROW, Kenneth (2004). Quality Function Deployment: What, Why and How: Issue 1: Current and Future Customer Needs are not Adequately Understood. [Online]. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.npd-solutions.com/whyqfd.html Kannan, G. (2008). Introduction: Implementation of Fuzzy Quality Function in an Automobile Component to Improve the Quality Characteristics. Taylor and Francis. [Online]. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.asq.org/quality-engineering/2008/07/process-managementment/implementation-of-fuzzy-quality-function-deployment-in-an-automobile-component-to-improve-the-quality-characteristics.pdf LAMPA, Steve., & Mazur, Glenn H (1996). Bagel Sales Double at Host Marriott: Using Quality Function Deployment: Customizing QFD Roadmap for Host Marriott. P.4. [Online]. The Eighth Symposium on Quality Function Deployment. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.mazur.net/works/bagel_qfd_at_host_7qfds.pdf LEE, Tzong-Ru and LIN, Jiun-Hung (2007). Generating Customer voice Based Improvement Strategy for Logistics Service Providers in Taiwan from the Perspective of Quality Function Deployment: Introduction. International Journal of Logistics, Economics and Globalization. [online]. Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Vol 1, No.1. Last accessed 26 June 2008 at: http://www.inderscience.com/storage/f102417893612511.pdf MAZUR, Glenn H (2004). QFD Case Studies and White Papers by Glenn Mazur. [Online]. QFD and Voice of Customer Analysis. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.mazur.net/publishe.htm MAZUR, Glenn H (1994). QFD for Small Business – A Shortcut through the Maze of Matrices: Types of Requirements. [Online]. The Sixth Symposium on Quality Function Deployment. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.nauticom.net/www/qfdi/7thSymposium.Papers/SMALLBSN.pdf. Quality Function Deployment QFD: Overview. (2008). [Online]. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://thequalityportal.com/q_know01.htm SODERBERG, Leif G., & OHalloran, J David (1992). ‘Heroic’ engineering takes more than heroes. No. 1. [Online]. Questia. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.questia.com/read/5001676933?title=%22Heroic%20Engineering%20Takes%20More%20Than%20Heroes VALERY, Nicholas. Innovation in Business: Industry Gets Religion. [Online]. The Economist. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkx9RhFtI_6wAYd5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyZ3E4aWFjBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNQRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA0RGUjVfNzU-/SIG=132a1bv8h/EXP=1214043601/**http%3a//prc.wharton.upenn.edu/~faulhabe/732/Innovation%2520in%2520Business.html WOODS, Robert C (1993). Managing to Meet Employee Expectations: Quality Improvement Tools Narrow the Gap between Employee Expectations and Company Resources. Vol. 16. [Online]. Questia. Last accessed23 June 2008 at: http://www.questia.com/read/5000256469?title=Managing%20to%20Meet%20Employee%20Expectations%3a%20Quality%20Improvement%20Tools%20Narrow%20the%20Gap%20between%20Employee%20Expectations%20and%20Company%20Resources Read More