A Quality Function Deployment Methodology for Product Development

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and the house of quality are tools commonly used in product development and quality operations.The current house of quality methodology helps to improve the development process, but is not optimized for time sensitive products. Time sensitive products require precise measurement of the voice of the customer. Customer input is gathered through marketing surveys, market research and previous product feedback. Implementing this research adds to the overall product lead time due to the difficulty of gathering and analyzing the data.

By implementing a fractional factorial design when creating the survey, survey analysis time can be decreased. A comparison of data analysis methods including simple K-means, two-step clustering, and conjoint analysis are used to produce a feature set from the survey results. These results are then input into the house of quality in collaboration with a cross-functional team at a consumer electronics company.