09 January 2023

2023 QFD Training Schedule

Here's the 2023 QFD training schedule.

All are live virtual training. You can attend over the Internet from anywhere in the word.

Please mark your calendar and let us know if you have any questions,

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QFD Green Belt® Certificate Training
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

4 hours x 3 days (total 12 hours)

2023 April 3–5  @  11:00–15:00 EDT (UTC−5:00)
2023 July 19–21  @  09:00–13:00 Tokyo (UTC+9:00)
2023 October 2–4  @  09:00–13:00 EDT (UTC−5:00)

Internationally acclaimed introductory workshop to ISO 16355 modern QFD. 
No prerequisites.

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QFD Black Belt® Update
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

4 hours x 2 days (total 8 hours)

2023 September 18–19  @  11:00–15:00 EST (UTC–5:00)

Live online, continuing education for QFD Black Belts®.

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QFD Green Belt® Update
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

4 hours x 1 day (total 4 hours)

2023 October 7 

Live online, continuing education for QFD Green Belts®. The class time will be determined based on attendee preference.

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QFD Black Belt® Certificate Training
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

4 hours per week x 10 weeks (total 40 hours)

2023 October: 9, 16, 23, 30
2023 November: 6, 13, 20
2023 December: 4, 11, 18.

Advanced training for current and future project leaders, facilitators, trainers, corporate excellence and DFLS DFSS champions. The class time will be determined based on attendee preference.




07 March 2022

QFD for Digitalized Products

The way traditional products and services have been designed, produced, and operated is now going through dramatic changes as software and information systems expand their roles.

For example, John Seabrook in his January 24 2022 New Yorker article “America’s Favorite Pickup Truck Goes Electric” reported Ford's new approach to designing and building its new F-150 Lightening trucks.

“This industry is overly focused on the propulsion change. But the real change is that we are moving to a software-defined experience for our customers,” Ford's CEO, Jim Farley was quoted in the article.  “... the most important thing was that the software decided what kind of hardware got put on those machine... Ford will no longer wait for the next model change to rework a vehicle..."

The gist of the article, from a QFD perspective, is that hardware will be designed in the future to support the software, and not the other way around.

This means, these vehicles may come in “versions” where design changes are released on an ongoing basis, like other software-intensive products, affecting the entire supply chain for components and the entire value chain for after sales support and service/maintenance.

One can anticipate a broad range of ramification from this, including the right to access proprietary software operating systems on mechanical products such as automobiles, agricultural implements, and others by product owners and non-dealer service technicians has been contentious, and the Right-to-Repair laws for independent repair shops and car owners, as well as most importantly, data security.

Recently the ISO 16355-7 standard for digitalized products and services has passed the draft stage. It is set for final publication in late 2022. There is a great urgency to this standard as the current information revolution is taking place across all industries.

For QFD practitioners, this presents opportunities for us to improve our methods. For example, a novel approach that includes hackers as one of the Voice of Customers is being studied by three QFD experts at the International Academy for Quality. Their research will be shared in the next QFD symposium and/or in the QFD newsletter.

Read about more opportunities for QFD practitioners...

Find 2022 Public QFD Courses





 

 

 

 


17 February 2022

2022 Public QFD Training Schedule -- Virtual Workshops

Please mark your calendar. The 2022 public QFD training schedule has been just announced.

Join us this year, to develop new skill-set and/or update your knowledge, to stay on top of your profession. 

All courses will be a live online workshop, with each session lasting 4-hours per day and led by internationally renowned expert(s). You can attend from anywhere in the world over the Internet; no need to travel!

The list below summarizes the 2022 course dates. For details, please visit the individual course brochures. For questions, please contact the QFD Institute.

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QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course  
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

Internationally acclaimed introductory workshop to ISO 16355 modern QFD. 
4 hours x 3 days (total 12 hours). No prerequisites.

April 4–6 @ 11:00–15:00 EDT (UTC−5:00)
July 19–21 @ 09:00–13:00 Tokyo (UTC+9:00)
October 3–5 @ 09:00–13:00 EDT (UTC−5:00)

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QFD Black Belt® Update Course
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

4 hours x 2 days, live online, refresher course (total 8 hours)

March 7–8 @ 11:00–15:00 EST (UTC–5:00) 
 

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QFD Green Belt® Update Course
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

Live online refresher for the past graduates of QFD Green Belt®

October 7 (4 hrs x 1 day)
The class time will be determined based on attendee preference.

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QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course
Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

Advanced training for project leaders, facilitators, trainers.
4 hours per week x 10 weeks (total 40 hours)

October 10, 17, 24, 31
November 7, 14,
December 5, 12, and 19.

The class time will be determined based on attendee preference.

 

 

 

 


 



08 October 2021

2021 QFD Black Belt® Update Course

You might have moved up within your company, are leading important projects, or might seek new opportunities elsewhere in the future. Staying on top of the advanced QFD knowledge and application skill is important, especially for the QFD Black Belts®.

We are offering the QFD Black Belt® Update Course this November, in response to the inquiries from past attendees of our QFD training who wish to refresh what they had learned in their previous classes so that they can a better QFD practitioner and leader at work. 

QFD Black Belt® Update Course
November 18–19, 2021 (Thur–Fri)
@ 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
  EST (New York Time)
Online Brochure
PDF Brochure
How To Attend

This 2 half-day live online seminar (4-hours each day x 2 days) is for the past graduates of the QFD Black Belt® Courses. This refresher course will bring you up to date to the current global best practices and assist you in transitioning to the new ISO 16355 standard for QFD.

Students will receive a copy of the latest QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® training manuals and templates, plus a 2-year extension of your provisional QFD Black Belt® status. 

For questions, please contact the QFD Institute.

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PS:
New to QFD? Not qualify for this Update course?
We recommend you attend the upcoming QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course, December 13–15, 2021 (4-hours x 3 days) that is also offered as a live virtual workshop.





 

 

24 August 2021

2021 QFD Black Belt® — Virtual Training

The QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course is now offered as a live online training, using the Zoom platform. 

It will be delivered over a 10-week period, with a 4-hour session every week (total 40 hours). This makes it less disruptive to students’ work schedule and allows more time to absorb the intense knowledge. 

2021 QFD Black Belt® Course:

    • Every Monday @ 9 AM – 1 PM (US Eastern/New York Time),
      starting from September 13 and continuing every Monday

      through November 22 (except for September 27).


The curriculum encompasses the breadth and depth of modern Comprehensive QFD per compliance with ISO 16355, and relevant advanced quality and design methods. Most of all, you will be taught how to adapt QFD to unique requirements of the company and project.

This advanced QFD course has prerequisites

If you would like to attend the 2021 QFD Black Belt® but do not meet the prerequisites, please contact us as soon as possible.


 


24 May 2021

2021 QFD Black Belt® Course

 Online Brochure  |  PDF Brochure  

Registration Forms:  PDF or MS Word

 

Starting September 2021, the QFD Institute will be offering the QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course as a live virtual training, using the Zoom platform. 

This facilitator-level advanced course consists of ten 4-hour sessions (40 hours total), currently planned to start in the week of  September 13–17, 2021. 

Those who would like to attend are invited to send their registrations soon — because the dates and time zone will be finalized based on attendee preferences, after their registration forms are received.

Registration Options:
  • You have a Full QFD Green Belt® (with a Gold seal on your certificate):
    Please select [QFD Black Belt® only] on the registration form.
  • You attended a QFD Green Belt® in 2020 or 2021:
    Select [QFD Black Belt® only] on the registration form.
  • You have a Provisional QFD Green Belt® from 2019 or earlier courses:
    Select [QFD Update Package] on the registration form.

We look forward to your joining us in this new virtual training. For questions, please contact us.


PS: You might be also interested in
July 26–28, 2021 QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course
@ 11am–3pm EST (New York time)



28 March 2021

Virtual QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course

April 7 – April 9, 2021  (4 hours x 3 days)
@ 7pm – 11pm Japan Time
@ Noon – 4 pm Central European Summer Time
     See what time this is in your zone
Online Brochure
PDF Brochure
Contact us to attend, reserve your seat, or ask questions
Now you can attend the QFD Green Belt® Course from anywhere in the world over the Internet. Please join us in the upcoming course:
This is a live online workshop (you will need a free Zoom account).
For questions, please contact us. To receive timely announcements about future QFD training and implementation tips, please sign up for the free newsletter.












24 March 2021

QFD in a Pandemic

Under COVID-19 lockdown, now nearly one year, we at the QFD Institute has been responding to the needs of businesses by instituting changes that are having a profound impact on QFD projects, QFD methods, and QFD training. We’d like to share some of our successes.

QFD Projects:

There has been a trend towards QFD applications in healthcare and in digitalized products. This intensified over the last year due to increased demand for new capabilities and faster time-to-market for medical devices. Unpredictable environments related to durations of use, training of non-traditional operators and users, maintenance and cleaning protocols, infectious disease control, new manufacturing, distribution, and related conditions have increased the need for faster design, re-design, quality control, and “getting it right the first time.” The emergence of telemedicine is demanding new ways for medical staff and patients to connect.

Experienced QFD practitioners will recognize these problems as the very conditions that gave rise to QFD nearly 60 years ago. This trend did not catch us by surprise, as attendees of our QFD classes in recent years were trained on a medical case study that deployed into infectious disease control services and materials, a physical device, and a software interface.

We have also seen an increased interest in applying QFD to digital and communications products as the shift to work-from-home, on-line education, and virtual meetings and family/social events has strained communication infrastructure, privacy and security, and demand for computers and other devices. Customer needs for easy setup, ease of use, and reliability have remained high priorities as first-time users (including seniors and children) require more screen time to remain engaged with their life activities.

QFD interest among companies engaging in e-commerce has also grown as customers shift from on-site shopping to pick-up and delivery arrangements. How customers browse, order, pay, and receive fresh food and household staples is different than downloading or streaming entertainment.

These disruptions have increased opportunities for QFD experts to help marketers and engineers work faster and better together to deliver solutions that help customers retain some sense of control and normalcy in their lives.

QFD Methods:

The urgency of this new commercial and social environment has been well served by the improved methods of Modern Blitz QFD® which the QFD Institute has been standardizing in recent years.

Blitz QFD® does not rely on large matrices like the House of Quality that require long hours of teamwork to complete. Instead, more concise Excel-based tools allow individuals and teams to work remotely and independently while maintaining customer priorities, communications, and innovation. This can result in much faster QFD project completion with a focus on addressing what matters most to customers.

Because customer insight and intimacy is critical to understanding what will excite and delight customers in their most critical applications, we have been exploring ways to use new technology that maintains safe, contact-free, and private gemba research.

The Modern Blitz QFD® methods are now available in the new ISO 16355 series standards for QFD, especially ISO 16355-2: 2017, ISO 16355-4:2017, and ISO 16355-5:2017. Excel templates for the Modern Blitz QFD® as well as updated Classical QFD are included in the Virtual training.

QFD Training:

The change to Virtual training has become a great opportunity for attendees from around the world. Benefits include:

  • Classes are kept small to allow the instructor to pay close attention to each attendee and their project.
  • Some sessions have more than one instructor depending on the industries of the attendees.
  • iZoom breakout rooms allow multiple students from one company to work from home, yet discuss project details in private chats with the instructor.
  • Included in the tuition is on-going support for your QFD project after the training concludes.
  • e-materials that you can print, zoom, and translate (if English is your second language) in advance of the class.
  • No travel expenses or travel time to attend.
  • Less disruption to your work and family life.

This extra attention to your success has become a great point of pride for us, and the results have been remarkable in terms of the quality of work attendees have submitted for review and the percentage of students who have quickly earned their Full QFD Green Belt® certification.

In 2020, we have attracted attendees from China, India, Europe, Canada, USA, and elsewhere with business professionals, university students and faculty.

The 2021 schedule for our Virtual QFD training will always be posted on www.qfdi.org. It is regularly updated as new course dates are added.

The upcoming virtual QFD Green Belt® course (4 hours x 3 days):

In 2021, a virtual QFD Black Belt® program for advanced facilitators is also planned. If you have particular training needs or would like different dates and time zone, we would be happy to consider private training as well. Please contact us.








11 March 2020

What is Maximum Value Table?


Maximum Value Table (MVT) is one of the powerful tools in Modern QFD that is explained in the ISO 16355 standard. Below, let us share an excerpt from a recent QFDI newsletter, describing the purpose and role of the MVT and why it is important to master this tool before attempting a House of Quality matrix.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maximum Value Table lets you deploy the same focused of voice of customer analysis as the House of Quality (HoQ) matrix does, but with greater speed, efficiency, and focus. It is an invaluable tool when budget, manpower and development time are limited.

Its purpose is to deploy only the highest priority Customer Needs into a solution design, build, and commercialization such that every necessary action to satisfy those needs is taken by each and every relevant organization department in a timely and quality way. No step must be overlooked. This is how customer satisfaction with the new product is assured.

The MVT is not constructed in one meeting, but it is populated as the design progresses, with each department adding its information in reflection of prior entries and in anticipation of later entries. It creates a traceable record that illustrates how every necessary action to achieve customer satisfaction has been sufficiently performed.

It is important to appreciate that only with a true multi-functional team can all of the MVT columns get addressed.  This forces cross-functional collaboration toward a common business goal. This is exactly how it assures the final shipped product will satisfy the highest priority customer needs.

The MVT achieves its purpose of providing maximum value to the customer by assuring their highest priority problems, opportunities, and image concerns are resolved by the new product or service. The MVT provides maximum value to the organization by aligning all critical resources (time, people, money, information) to develop and commercialize the new product or service. Value is achieved only when the customer chooses our new product or service and puts it into service to satisfy their needs.

Which should we use, MVT or HoQ?

The columns of the MVT are indicators of what, if any, QFD matrices from the Comprehensive QFD toolset described in the eight parts of ISO 16355 may be useful for more detailed analysis.

A QFD matrix is an effect-to-cause relationship matrix between two data sets. This means that any two MVT columns that share a relationship could be juxtaposed into a matrix that would indicate the strength of the relationship and transfer the weights of the rows into weights for the columns.

The House of Quality (HoQ) is the most well-known among the 30+ matrices in Comprehensive QFD. The HoQ juxtaposes a large set of Customer Needs against a large set of Functional Requirements. The top priority items in the HoQ, that is, Customer Needs and Functional Requirements, are commonly found at the start of the MVT.

As such, the MVT can often replace the HoQ when resources are constrained. Alternatively, the MTV can be used to model which Comprehensive QFD matrices are needed. There is no penalty to doing the MVT first, because by definition, the highest priority information derived from QFD matrices should already be in the columns of the MVT. A well executed MTV is more valuable than a poorly or partially deployed HoQ matrix.

Where can I learn the Maximum Value Table (MVT)?

The Maximum Value Table (MVT) is taught at the QFD Green Belt® training.

The QFD Institute offers public QFD Green Belt® courses several times a year. The same workshop is also available at your business locations. Please inquire by email.

Most attendees are able to begin using this fabulous tool in their work, once they get with it through hands-on practices in the class.


Notes:

Transferring the Customer Need weights into Functional Requirement weights in the HoQ is conventionally done using Independent Distribution calculations (in Excel this function is called SumProduct). These calculations do not support the use of ordinal scale numbers, which was inherited from the 1960-70s Japanese QFD in the pre-computer era. In the late 1980s, the QFD math was upgraded to more precise ratio scale numbers based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and other best practices from Multicriteria Decision Making theory. This upgrade is now taught in the QFD Green Belt® training (including Excel worksheets) and guidance is detailed in the ISO 16355-5:2017 standard.





06 January 2020

March 2020 QFD Workshop

QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course

March 19–20, 2019
Online Brochure
We now offer this course as a live online training workshop. Please visit the Calendar page for the upcoming course dates, or contact the QFD Institute if you have questions.
  • Internationally acclaimed introductory to Modern Blitz QFD®, ISO 16355, No-Matrix QFD.
  • Compatible with QS-9000, Six Sigma, DFSS, Stage Gate, EFQM, TQM, Baldrige, and other quality initiatives.
  • Start applying tools in the class on your own project or practice on a generic model.
  • No prerequisites.

Contact
For questions, please contact us (email).