QFD Online

QFD Online announced this week that they intended to develop and release software for creating and maintaining Quality Function Deployment matrices. What they intend to develop, however, is not just another “House of Quality” application…

House of Quality vs. Other Six Sigma and DFSS Tools

The House of Quality (a.k.a. “QFD“) tool differs from most other Quality Management and/or Engineering tools in that is designed to be a collaborative tool. Most Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma tools (control charts, MSAs, confidence intervals, DOEs, etc.) can be performed by a single individual assigned to collect and analyze data. QFDs, on the other hand, are designed around communication and collaboration in order to capture the “voice of the customer”.

Currently, there are numerous Six Sigma and DFSS software applications on the market. However, most of these applications fail to address the House of Quality tool entirely. Several software companies have recently introduced QFD applications in an attempt to address this void. Unfortunately, these companies have failed to note the key difference between the House of Quality and other Quality Management/Engineering tools, and have attempted to use the same mold for their QFD solution that they used for other statistical process control and improvement tools. Specifically, they have created QFD applications that are designed to be used by single individuals, and are therefore not well-suited for collaboration.

Existing QFD Applications

The QFD solutions that are currently available fall primarily within two categories: those that require full application installations and those that depend on spreadsheet technology for creating their Houses of Quality (HOQs). The applications that require QFD-specific software to be installed in order to edit and/or view QFDs impede collaboration due to the fact that the “customers” involved frequently do not have the software required for viewing the proprietary QFD files. Packages that rely on Excel and other spreadsheet technology do facilitate group distribution of files, but they are generally more limited in the functionality that they are able to offer (for example, sorting requirements in one House of Quality will generally break the ratings in subsequent Houses of Quality on different tabs).

Both formats (proprietary applications and spreadsheet add-on “applications”) have a major drawback in that they require emailing and transferring files in order to share and review information. This generally requires some individual to merge the data from the distributed files back into a master or official file. There are occasionally even issues with determining which file is considered the authoritative or official group file.

QFD Online’s Approach

The House of Quality has been a central part of QFD Online’s software development process for a considerable time, and it was out of their own personal need for a truly collaborative QFD tool that the idea for a web-based QFD application was born. An online QFD tool offers several significant advantages to QFD practitioners:

• A browser-based application would not require any proprietary software installations (all that would be required is an internet connection and a web browser)
• The application could provide advanced QFD-specific functionality that is not available in spreadsheet based solutions such as:
• Ability to re-order and sort requirements lists without negatively impacting other Houses of Quality in the QFD
• Ability to delete and/or insert a House of Quality at any point in the series of HOQs
• Ability to keep the requirements lists between HOQs synchronized (so that if the ordering or text is changed in one HOQ, it is changed in the subsequent or previous HOQ)
• Users of the application could share their data and information with other individuals without those individuals having to purchase QFD software
• A browser-based application would be cross-platform compatible (i.e. it would run on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS, and other operating systems)
• A web-based application provides for a centralized repository for QFDs, allowing all of the users involved to edit the “master” or “authoritative” QFD directly

QFD Online’s “QFD Builder”

Because of the tremendous usefulness associated with a browser-based House of Quality solution, QFD Online announced this week their intention to develop a web-based “QFD Builder” application with a targeted release date of Q1 2008. They intend to offer this software for free as a service to the QFD community. It is their hope that a web-based QFD application will facilitate greater collaboration among QFD practioners, as well as further the adoption of the House of Quality tool.