We are pleased to announce that ISO 16355, the first
ISO standard for QFD, has won full approval, just a few weeks ago at the
International Standard Organization meeting in London UK.
This standard is intended to guide both novice and veteran product and
process developers who use QFD, including practitioners of Six Sigma,
Lean Six Sigma, and Design for Six Sigma.
One of the important aspects is the decision by the ISO working group to make this standard in descriptive rather than prescriptive, so
as to expose practitioners to the full depth and breadth of the QFD
concepts and methodology, and not limit to one particular model.
This decision came from the recognition that we cannot be successful in the future products development when bound by old methods and mindsets, while the world around us is going through rapid changes. For example, a wall-sized House of Quality that worked well forty years
ago is no longer effective for today's agile and IT-oriented
businesses.
Therefore, any approach to new
product development must continue to transform over time for a business
to survive and sustain success. Our working group decided early on to make this new
standard stand the test of time in this regard, and open the eyes of QFD
practitioners to multiple broad possibilities and options from which
they can find a feasible best path for their unique situation, such as Akao's Comprehensive QFD, modern Blitz QFD®, and the
German QFD models.
Read more about the newly approved ISO 16355.
The standard is now published and available for purchase from the International Organization for Standardization.