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.