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.

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.

Report: ASQ 2016 World Conference on Quality and Improvement

On May 16-18, 2016 the American Society for Quality (ASQ) held its 2016 World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. The annual event drew over 3,000 attendees from more than 50 countries.

Glenn Mazur of the QFD Institute presented "ISO 16355: A Standard for Innovative Customer Experience," during which the audience actively participated in the interactive survey, a new feature offered by ASQ. Here is a photo that one of the attendees kindly sent to us.

 

Missed this year? Plan to attend other conferences Mazur will present at this year to learn more about ISO 16366. 

•  2016 International Symposium on QFD, September 9-10 in Boise ID.
•  2016 ASQ Service Quality Conference, October 24-25 in Chicago.
•  2016 ASQ International Conference on Quality Standards, November 14-15 in Pittsburgh PA.

Omron hits a home run with a new mindset

Example of Omron products
(source: Omron youtube channel)

In a business magazine interview, the new Omron president, Mr. Ogino, described not only innovation in their new products displayed at the the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but also advances in the company's core beliefs about customers and product development.

Omron is an international medical device manufacturer that sells home healthcare devices such as blood pressure monitors, body weight and composition meters, and others.

Under Mr. Ogino's directives, Omron product developers now must investigate the validity of product concept from the customer's perspective and identify "true" customer needs. No longer are product features such as 'integrated,' 'compact,' 'easy to read,' and so forth sufficient.

"Tens of thousands people end up with amputations every year because of high blood sugar. We make blood glucose meters to make such incidents zero. We make nebulizers with a conviction to cure asthma during childhood. I make sure in our company that no product planning takes place without first making clear why we should make the product, what is the ultimate goal," says Mr. Ogino.

This new mindset, code-named "Project Zero" (meaning driving down users' adverse health events to zero), will not only help the company differentiate itself from other wearable technology manufacturers, but also it can bring them closer to becoming in compliance with the new ISO 16355 for QFD.  Here is how... Read the full article.

Learn the new tools...

ISO QFD Training in EU

Here are upcoming opportunities for those who live in EU and surrounding regions.

These events can help you learn how to comply with the new ISO 16355 and modern QFD methods.

Stay ahead of your competitors who may be still using an outdated House of Quality and conventional approaches. Most important, enhance your professional skills, business performance, and career with the best QFD training.

• 25–27 May 2016
  QFD Green Belt^® training
  at Laatukeskus Excellence Finland (Keilaranta 16, 02150)
  Espoo, FINLAND
  Please register by 21st May, to assure your seat and training materials.
   
  
• 31 May 2016  (from 10:00 to 15:00)
  Introduction to ISO 16355
  Half-day seminar at the European Organization for Quality Congress
  at Laatukeskus Excellence Finland (Keilaranta 16, 02150)
  Espoo, FINLAND
   
  
• 1 June 2016  (@ 13:30)
  ISO 16355: A Quality Approach to New Product Development
  at the European Organization for Quality Congress
  (Track "Quality Tools and Business Improvement" )
  Helsinki, FINLAND

A Standard for Innovative Customer Experience

Looking forward to seeing you there!

May 17, 2016
ISO 16355: A Standard for Innovative Customer Experience
2016 World Conference on Quality and Improvement
@ 4 pm–5 pm Concurrent Sessions T30
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Click to see the video preview
"ISO 16355: A Standard for Innovative Customer Experience"

ISO Standard for Innovative Customer Experience

ASQ's annual congress will again take place this May in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA.

Mark your calendar for May 17, 2016 at  4 pm–5 pm as Glenn Mazur, executive director of the QFD Institute, will present "ISO 16355: A Standard for Innovative Customer Experience."  It will be in "T30: Customer Experience Track."

Click to see the video preview
"ISO 16355: A Standard for Innovative Customer Experience"

By the way, companies with international business and those who lead corporate efforts in Design for Six/Lean Sigma (DFSS/DFLS) should also consider attending the March 22–23, 2016 QFD Green Belt^® Course, to develop the skills needed to achieve 21st century levels of innovation and quality in their new products and comply with the new standard.

In addition to the modern QFD software templates and case studies, students of the March 2016 QFD course will receive the ISO 16355-1 Tools Matrix reference eBook ($149 value). This course has no prerequisites. Registration is here.

New ISO 16355-1 for QFD

Since 2009, an international team of QFD experts convened by the QFD Institute has been writing the new ISO standard 16355 for QFD. The Part I is now on sale through various standards organizations listed below.

The purpose of the standard is to guide the global community of QFD practitioners, international businesses, and Quality and Design professionals in complying with the skills they need to achieve 21st century levels of innovation and quality in their new products.

To comply with this standard—more accurately, to be able to use the standard successfully, you must possess important QFD foundations.

Simply copying from the standard will not help achieve the desired success. You must know how to tailor QFD methods discussed in the standard, you must be able to distinguish which QFD tools and which deployments in what sequence are best for your project, not falling into copying something that turns out to be detrimental to your particular project.

To develop the sound QFD foundation to comply with ISO 16355 and develop successful product development skill-set, consider proper training. This will save you from making costly mistakes, wasting resources, and project failure.

The papers and links referenced in the standard and its Tool Matrix have been complied in a 1400+page eBook, which was complimentary to the March 2016 QFD Green Belt^® attendees. After that, this eBook is available from the QFD Institute. It contains case studies using the tools cited in the ISO 16355 as well as other resources. 

Standard organizations selling ISO 16355-1:2015 (Part I):

• ISO (International Standards Organization)
• ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
• ASQ (American Society for Quality)
• BSI (British Standards Institute)
• DIN (German Institute for Standardization)
• JSA (Japan Standards Association)
• NEN (Netherlands NEN)
• EESTI (Estonian Centre for Standardisation)
• SIS (Swedish Standards Institute)
• NO (Standards Norway)
• AFNOR (France)
• Normservis (Czech Republic)
• SCC (Standards Council of Canada)

Original post Feb. 27, 2016.  Updated March 25, 2016.

Modern QFD tools for Gemba study

One of the most frequently asked questions about customer gemba visits is what questions to prepare in advance.

Gemba preparations depend greatly on the type of QFD project. Is it an improvement, a refresh, an upgrade, a new technology, a next generation, or totally new to the world?

The new ISO 16355 for QFD explains the process in Part 2 (ISO/DIS 16355-2). Modern QFD offers specific tools for this, including the customer process model and gemba visit table, and this critical part of QFD is taught in detail in the QFD Green Belt^®.

The most important thing to remember during a Gemba visit is to encourage your customer to speak openly about what frustrates them, not just product complaints. Use the gemba visit to discover what you don't know you don't know. A January 2, 2016 article in The New York Times by Pagan Kennedy "How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity" calls this wonderfully, "the art of finding what we're not seeking."

illustration of the Persian tale
source: wikipedia {PD-US}

The article explains the history of the word 'Serendipity' to a Persian fairy tale about three princes from the Isle of Serendip who have super powers of observation — a skill, not just dumb luck. Three types of observers are identified by University of Missouri information scientist, Sanda Erdelez:

•  Non-encounterers who stick to a preferred list;   
•  Occasional encounterers who have moments of serendipity;
• Super-encounterers who have happy surprises wherever they look.

Among a super-encounterer, these are some of their attributes:

• Open to ideas that evolve on an unrelated project.
• Transform mistakes into a breakthrough.
• See patterns that others don't see.

Readers familiar with the modern QFD tools may recognize some of these attributes. You can master these tools and techniques and you too can become a "serendipiter."

1. Gemba visits should be conducted by...
2.  ....
3.  ...  Read the full article at www.qfdi.org

Master the art of super Gemba, AHP and ISO 16355

• Desktop brochure 
• Mobile view 
• Registration

Please contact us or see the Calendar if above dates do not work for you.

Thomson Reuters 2014 Journal Citation Reports® recognizes "Using QFD to Write an ISO Standard"

Writing and publishing implies a level of authority on a particular subject. We say "imply" because it may not always be the case. There are numerous books, papers, and articles that suggest a certain expertise but fall short of delivering it.

The recent advent of self-publishing technology, without peer review, makes it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Even the Quality community is not immune.

That is why it was a pleasant surprise to receive a notification from Francis and Taylor, publishers of the Quality Engineering Journal, saying that a recent article by Glenn Mazur, "Using Quality Function Deployment to Write an ISO Standard for QFD,"  has been recognized by Thomson Reuters 2014 Journal Citation Reports® for improving Quality Engineering Journal Impact Factors.

screen shot of Thomson Reuters JCR

Thomson Reuters is a major multinational media and information company based in New York City. Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports® measures how many times a particular article has been cited by peers, as an indicator of the article impact on the subject matter. This is what they say on their web page:

Hooray for Glenn Mazur, executive director of the QFD Institute and also one of the contributors of this QFD Blog. He also shares his expertise often in the QFD Institute Newsletter, which is free and you can subscribe from here. He will be speaking at the December 5, 2014 Symposium on QFD.

 Thomson Reuters® and Journal Citation Reports® are registered marks of Thomson Reuters.

QFD in Europe - Reporting 2014 QFD activities across EU

2014 has been a big year for QFD in Europe.

The statue of Poseidon in Gothenburg
photo: Historiker/Wiki Commons

1. The spring blossomed with QFD Green Belt^® and QFD Black Belt^® in-company training sessions in Nuremberg Germany, Prague Czech Republic, and Waterloo Belgium. Several projects are well under way.
2. The summer heated up with a June QFD workshop during the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) annual meeting in Stenungsbaden Sweden, using QFD tools to capture the voice of the IAQ membership (including our Chair, Sr. Mary Jean Ryan) in order to explore ways to improve the membership experience. The session was followed by an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet and musical dinner cruise!
3. Next was a special Pre-EOQ Congress session in Gothenburg Sweden attended by 37 participants. This included a 2.5 hour QFD White Belt^® training session to introduce the new VOC (Voice of the Customer) and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) tools used in Modern Blitz QFD^®.
4. In the main European Organization for Quality (EOQ) session was a paper on the ISO 16355 standard (new QFD standard).



Vienna
photo: Eliza0027/Wiki Commons

5. The ISO Technical Committee (TC) 69 for Statistical Methods held its annual plenary session in Vienna Austria later in June. We were able to finalize the ISO 16355 draft and launch its commentary phase. Work on Parts 2 and 3 have begun.
6. The autumn is ablaze with new events, starting with the 20th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) as well as a
   QFD Green Belt^® course to be held in Istanbul Turkey from September 2 - 5, 2014.  This is a great opportunity for readers in EU and ME regions to attend the today's best QFD training and earn an international QFD certificate.
7. The 2014 Akao Prize^® is being awarded to Associate Prof. Jaroslav Machan of the Czech Republic during the ISQFD.

Keep up the good work, Europe. I will update you on Turkey soon!

The Quality Conference Crush has begun…

Well, the American Society for Quality (ASQ) World Conference on Quality Improvement (WCQI) has come and gone, and I must say for me, it was a tremendous success.

Hilton Anatole Dallas was ASQ WCQI venue

First, it was held in what could only be described as a museum of Asian art – the Hilton Anatole in Dallas Texas. Yes, it took 20 minutes to walk across the lobby to the ASQ center, but the art and the gardens were a welcomed distraction to stave off the fatigue of doing this 3-4 times a day. (I lost a pound of weight despite the never-ending buffets for lunch and dinner!)

Presentations by leading CEOs, a sketch artist, and others reminded us that quality should also include – fun!  2015 is in Nashville at the OpryLand, so I recommend y'all come on down

ASQ Division meetings I attended for Healthcare and Service are revising their Body of Knowledges (BOK) and I am pushing to modernize the QFD entries. Some of them are stuck in the 1980s!  I also popped in to the TAG 176 meeting to hear the latest on ISO 9001-2015. This is a BIG thing.

Concurrent with the ASQ were the annual U.S. meetings of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) of which I am now Secretary-Treasurer. Our general meeting included updates on work with UNESCO educations projects, work on quality in governance. We had really great introductions on design of experiments for wine and the growth in food and product safety testing in China. I also learned a lot from a presentation on the early philosophers whose work is often cited by quality professionals.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Coming up is the IAQ concurrent meetings with the European Organization for Quality (EOQ) to be held in Gothenburg Sweden in June. I'll be presenting a Pre-Congress workshop and a paper on the new ISO 16355 standard for QFD being developed.

The ISO 16355 QFD standard is going into its first draft to be reviewed in June in Vienna, so I'll be traveling there after Sweden. Stay informed with the ISO 16355 group on LinkedIn.

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

2014 ISQFD in Istanbul

Istanbul Turkey is my next stop. The basics of the Modern Blitz QFD^® and the ISO 16355 standard will be taught at the International QFD Green Belt^® course on 2-3 September 2014. We're running a great early bird discount, so register soon.

On 4-5 September is the International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) where we will celebrate 20 years of this annual get-together of the top QFD professionals in the world. Especially folks in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, we are close to home.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The ASQ Technical Communities Conference has invited me to Orlando Florida (yeah Mickey!) to present "Delighting Customers in Health Care using QFD" on 30-31 October 2014. This will include updates on recent projects in clinical, medical device, software, and insurance applications. 

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

For three consecutive years, Charleston was named
the top U.S. destination by Conde Nest readers.

Charleston SC is our chosen spot for the North American Symposium on QFD.

Our 26th consecutive program still has the Call for Papers open (we want you!) and will include updates on ISO 16355.

 As always, we will offer the QFD Green Belt^®, QFD Black Belt^® and the Update courses.

Some great package discounts await your registration.  

So, wherever you are this year, try to catch one of these events. At the least, stay in touch because your official source for QFD is on the move.

 glenn