07 July 2016

The First ISO Standard for QFD

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.

(ISO 16355-1)
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.