Initially, QFD was used at Japanese shipyards, having resulted from William Deming‘s PDCA cycle, which stands for Plan, Do, Check, and Act. The QFD method was invented in 1960 by Japanese planning expert Yoji Akao and Japanese quality expert Shigeru Mizuno. In all cases, however, the representation will resemble a house. This house of quality can take on different shapes. The result of the QFD method is a data matrix, also called House of Quality (HOQ). This method enables organisation to focus even more on what their customers want. It’s a method to inventory customer wishes and market demands and to then include these in the design brief. QFD is part of the Lean Six Sigma quality system. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) or the House of Quality (HOQ) makes that possible. Still, it’s not easy to meet the quality standards that customers demand.
