I'd like my QFD sunny-side up!

You've earned your Spring Break from the coldest, snowiest winter in recent memory.
Come to Orlando, Florida for the next QFD Green Belt^® training course on March 6–7, 2014.

Learn modern QFD tools to translate voice of customer into unspoken customer needs, get accurate priorities, and operationalize innovative solutions to what matters most.

Blitz QFD^® uses simple Excel sheets (provided) to feed into, and often replace, the House of Quality and other matrices. Can be applied to systems, modules, components — for hardware, software, service, and healthcare. Bring your own project for the workshops.

Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure   |   Registration

The course has these components:

• Workshop 1: Defining project goals and outcomes. (Project Goals Table)

• Workshop 2: Defining key customers and stakeholders, and their applications/scenarios. (Customer Segments Table)

• Workshop 3: Planning customer visits (gemba) to see for ourselves, and model what they say and do. (Customer Process Model)

• Workshop 4: Documenting what goes right (and is to be protected) and wrong (and is to be improved) based on voice of customer and observational study. (Gemba Visit Table)

• Workshop 5: Translate voice of customer into true customer needs, both spoken and unspoken. (Customer Voice Table)

• Workshop 6: Structure customers needs to find missing ones. (Affinity Diagram and Hierarchy Diagram).

• Workshop 7: Prioritize customer needs. (Analytic Hierarchy Process).

• Workshop 8: Deploy high priority needs into solution requirements and concepts. Assure quality in deliver. (Maximum Value Table).

• Discussion on advanced QFD tools for competitive assessment (Quality Planning Table), complex projects (Modern House of Quality), Emotional Quality (Kansei Engineering), etc.

• Implementing QFD in your organization.

Course includes workbook, Excel tool templates for workshops, and related case studies. Bring your own projects for the workshops.

Shakespeare's Gemba

While ago, I nominated Champlain as my Mr. Gemba ("I get my kicks from Champlain").

Polonius

Here are more Gemba wisdom for you, one from the literature masterpiece and another from today's TV show.

Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3, Lord Polonius advises Laertes.

• Listen twice as much as you speak.
• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice
• Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment

Today's TV star Judge Judy puts it more directly:
"God gave your two ears and one mouth for a reason."

I believe the #1 gemba tool is a piece of tape across the lips of every QFD team member.

When we are silent, the customer fills the silence with gold – his take on his life and business, what he likes and dislikes. This is the true VOC from which we can begin to understand his needs.

Report from the 2013 International Symposium on QFD

On September 4 - 13, 2013, the QFD enthusiasts from around the world gathered together in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the 19th International Symposium on QFD and Training. It was attended from as far as Brazil, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Thailand, The Netherlands, Turkey, Canada and USA.

We learned the latest case studies and research, innovative new tools and applications, as well as the international trends. The face-to-face interactions were priceless even in this digital age. We made new friends, renewed old friendships, and learned from each other, getting inspired to do things even better at work and home with the help of QFD.

If you missed this year's event, we do hope you will join us next year (see below for 2014 Calls For Papers). Meanwhile, here are some of the highlights from the 2013 events:
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Akao Prize^® is awarded to individuals who have made notable contribution to the dissemination and advancement of QFD for many years on the international level. The 2013 Akao Prize^® was awarded to Sixten Schockert (GERMANY) and Yoshimichi Watanabe (JAPAN).

Recipients of this year's and past Akao Prize® at 2013 ISQFD
(Dr. Akao, front center, is flanked by this year's recipients)

Best Paper - SCG Chemicals, Thailand

Best Paper Award: "Quality Function Deployment for New Product Development: Transforming Waste to Worth" By Pattarit Sahasyodhin (SCG Chemicals); Kritaya Suparnpongs, QFD Black Belt^® (Siam Cement Group); Paweena Lertchanyakul, QFD Green Belt^® (SCG Chemicals), THAILAND.  

Best Presentation - Tamagawa University, Japan

Best Presentation Award: "A Study of Service Quality Improvement Using the Theories of Nonverbal Communication, FMEA and QFD" By Kazushi Nagai (Tamagawa University); Tadashi Ohfuji (Tamagawa University); Masamitsu Kiuchi, Ph.D. (Josai University), JAPAN. 

2013 QFD Black Belt^® Graduates

QFD Belts^® Achievement: Once again, we salute those who rose to the challenge of earning the QFD Green Belt^® and QFD Black Belt^® in Santa Fe. Congratulations.

Dr. & Mrs. Akao

Dr. Yoji Akao, founder of QFD, remains just as enthusiastic about learning new case studies and students as he was nearly half a century ago when he began the research that led to the development of QFD.

Native American blessing

Native American Blessing. The QFD attendees were honored to receive this special blessing, performed by the tribal governor of Picuris Pueblo, one of the Eight Northern Pueblos in the Santa Fe region.


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Join us in 2014! 

2014 QFD Call For Papers

• The 26th Symposium on QFD (Fall 2014 in USA)

• The 20th International Symposium on QFD (September 4-5, 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey)

2013 International Symposium on QFD & Public QFD Courses

For anyone wanting to find out how QFD is used today in real projects, innovative new tools and current best practices, better integration with DFLS and other initiatives, and what international markets are using QFD to their advantage, here are the annual QFD events that are perfect for you:

September 4–5 : QFD Green Belt^® Certificate Course

September 6–7 : The 19th International Symposium on QFD   See presentation schedule

September 8 : QFD Black Belt^® UPDATE and QFD Green Belt^® UPDATE

September 9–13 : QFD Black Belt^® Certificate Course


Registrations for QFD courses will be accepted up to 1 day before the start of the respective courses. The Symposium accepts walk-ins. In any case, we recommend contacting the QFD Institute as soon as you decide, so as to ensure your seat, materials, and meals.

Venue: Hotel Santa Fe

All events will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA. Please see Venue details and Travel information.

This year's International Symposium will have keynote addresses by Dr. Yoji Akao (founder of QFD) and Glenn Mazur (executive director of QFDI) and case studies and research from Germany, Japan, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, and USA. See here for details.

The QFD courses include the modern QFD templates which also include the House of Quality matrix with modernized math, AHP, Customer Voice Table, Maximum Value Table, etc.

We hope you will be able to join us.

An Apple a day — Use QFD to systematize Steve Jobs' design genius beyond a single individual

In my opinion, late Steve Jobs was a rare individual who had such an intuitive grasp of the fundamentals of QFD thinking. For example, in the April 1, 1989 interview with Inc. Magazine, he was asked by reporters Bo Burlingham and George Gendron, "Where do great products come from?"

This is what Jobs said:

"I think really great products come from melding two points of view-the technology point of view and the customer point of view. You need both.

"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new. It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we'd given customers what they said they wanted, we'd have built a computer they'd have been happy with a year after we spoke to them-not something they'd want now..."

Let me put this in QFD perspective.

We see two common flows in the way QFD is practiced: forward and reverse. Forward QFD begins with the voice of the customer which is often a mixture of "what they want," that is product performance, features, and technology. Because customers rarely know what the future may bring, their voice is typically tied to the past or present.

As Jobs points out, the product may be sufficient for the past, but insufficient at the time of launch or during its useful life. You can ask customers what they want as a starting point of a QFD analysis. The tool for this analysis is the Customer Voice table; its purpose is to translate voice of customer (VOC) into true customer needs. In this table, we explore with customers why they want something.

For example, a customer in a café may state "I need a hot cup of coffee," but what they really need is "I am cold and I want to warm up." Using Jobs logic, you could produce a cup of coffee that was too hot to drink, thus forcing the customer to wait until it cooled down. You would give them what they asked (hot), but not really meet their needs (warm up).

In modern QFD, we define a customer need as being product-independent, and that is the first step in creating great product.  Read More ...

Mirror Neurons – the science behind "gemba" ?

Recent studies on the behavior of monkeys in a research lab in Parma Italy accidentally found that brain neurons that fired when a monkey picked up a peanut, also fired when a monkey watched a human pick up a peanut.

Ongoing research in these so-called "mirror neurons" in humans have discovered what might be the root-cause of empathy. When we see someone performing a task, it triggers the same neurons as if had been doing the same task ourselves.

A recent discovery has also shown that people on the "empowered" side of a relationship lose some ability to fire these mirror neurons compared to those on the "unempowered" side of the relationship.  (See the report and video at NOVA: Mirror Neurons)

For QFD practitioners, this gives strong support for the power of gemba visits. Unlike surveys and questionnaires which are passive, going to gemba to observe and even participate in activities with our customers, apparently triggers empathy in our brains that may improve how we understand our customers and how we innovate solutions to their problems. Further, this latest research suggests that if we empower the customer to lead the gemba visit, we consequently unempower ourselves, thus improving our ability to empathize.

Wow! I've been teaching "go to the gemba" for twenty years and now have an explanation for why this works so well, especially for bringing marketing and technical people together to better understand customers.

The tools we've developed, which are now core in the Blitz QFD® approach and taught in the QFD Green Belt® course are designed to capture this implicit mirroring process and make it explicit. The result has been more marketing-technical teams attending both public and in-company Blitz QFD® training.

Why not join our next course on September 4-5, 2013 in Santa Fe NM and learn how to put your mirror neurons to good use!

QFD for membership organization, industrial design, workplace vitalization, high-speed rail, Turkish region

This continues a preview of the upcoming The 19th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) on September 6-7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA.

The 2-day symposium welcomes people of all levels QFD, from the beginner to the experienced, people of countries and industries. It is complimentary to the attendees of QFD Green Belt^® Certificate Course and QFD Black Belt^® Certificate Course  We hope you will join us!

See the previous posts:

• QFD for public transportation, software development, eco-friendly supply chain 

• QFD for modular design, value creation, business development, organic products development

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QFD for Membership Organizations — Practicing What We Teach

This keynote reports an ongoing QFD initiative at the International Academy for Quality (IAQ), a membership organization founded in 1966 by Dr. Armand Feigenbaum along with European and Japanese quality experts. 
The IAQ's growing membership in developing nations means that member needs have to be periodically assessed and incorporated into future activities, beyond its original missions of facilitating an international exchange of quality expertise to promote quality throughout all nations.The keynote will discuss the QFD process being used to reassess current member needs and plan future programs, including the data from member surveys, as well as the results to date and ongoing improvements to the organization.

Keywords: Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Modern Blitz QFD^®, Voice of Customers (VOC), Membership Organization

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Towards QFD-based Industrial Design

This paper reports how to improve web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) through integration of the elements of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Customer Orientation is achieved within QFD by a systematic approach. Within industrial design, requirements of the customer are also analyzed and deployed with the power of artistic creativity and less with a systematic or qualitative approach. This paper proposes an integration of QFD and industrial design to take advantage of the strength from each method. The presentation will include a case study and a framework for QFD-based Industrial Design.

Customer-Orientation, Industrial Design, Conceptual Integration, Conceptual Map, Deisgn Concept, Product Catalogue, GERMANY

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Quality and Safety Control Method of High-speed Rail Based on QFD & FMEA

This academic paper from a Chinese university presents the use of 4-phase model approach and FMEA in order to address the control quality and safety issues associated with China's high-speed rail systems.
The case uses hypothetical scenario and literature sources.

Keywords: Quality and Safety, QFD, FMEA, High-speed rail, CHINA

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QFD for activating a workplace Ba—Part 2

The various components of QFD draw out member's tacit knowledge through "Ba" (the workplace gemba). In order to achieve this, the "Ba" must be invigorated with changes that encourage the individuals to express and share his/her tacit knowledge. This presentation, a sequel to the author's 2012 presentation, will examine the relationship between QFD and "Ba" from the viewpoint of cognitive engineering and social-psychology, including some examples from the author's company practice.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Ba, Job Function Deployment, Workplace, JAPAN

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A Critical Analysis of the Turkish Literature on QFD

This study, based on the published resources produced between 2000 and 2012, provides a holistic picture on the current state of QFD in the Turkish region, both in private industry sectors and academic research field.
Specifically, it identifies the levels of awareness and prevalence of QFD methodology in the region, the purpose for the usage, implementation levels, difficulties, and overall analysis. With economic activities rapidly globalizing and competitive pressure mounting, this knowledge can be the competitive differentiators for the developing nations such as Turkey as they will compete more on the global stage. It also offers academic researchers a solid comprehensive reference on the state of QFD applications and studies in this economically growing region.

Keywords: Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Literature Review, TURKEY

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QFD for input device and software QA, university e-portfolio, fashion and apparel manufacturing, global markets

This continues a preview of the exciting presentations planned for the upcoming The 19th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) on September 6-7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA.

The 2-day symposium welcomes people of all levels QFD, from the beginner to the experienced, people of countries and industries. It is complimentary to the attendees of QFD Green Belt^® Certificate Course and QFD Black Belt^® Certificate Course  We hope you will join us!

See the previous posts:

• QFD for public transportation, software development, eco-friendly supply chain 

• QFD for modular design, value creation, business development, organic products development

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Application of QFD to the Symptom Analysis of Input-device Software Defects

The traditional function/regression tests following the design specification do not adequately ensure software quality, due to the evaluation complexity posed by various input-device software such as USB, wireless communication device, sensor, LCD display technologies, etc. This presentation, by a worldwide leader of graphic tablets, will show a better method for evaluating and analyzing software defects by correctly assessing the symptoms of the original causes of failures and then identifying the relationships between the operations and subjects through the use of the function deployment tables and state transition tables.

Keywords: Software QA, QFD, FTA, Symptom Analysis, Test Coverage, Evaluation Deployment, JAPAN

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Improvement of University e-Portfolio System in Consideration of Students' Demands

Using a QFD approach, demand analysis and factor analysis were performed for the successful introduction of the e-Portfolio system in a public university in Japan.By analyzing the students' demands and factors of an existing software, the researchers were able to turn the e-Portfolio system software into an information infrastructure that can be fully utilized by students for their study, helping them complete their own study plan efficiently.

Quality Assurance in Higher Education, e-Portfolio, Requirement Analysis, Software Development, JAPAN

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Starting QFD for Clothing Manufacturers in Hong Kong

Some 20 years ago, the clothing manufacturers in Hong Kong only had to deal with the sewing or knitting of the samples for fashion designers.
Today they are expected to provide technical design services as well as sample development process. The increasing degree of abstractness and the shift from quantitative to qualitative nature of technical data have created many communication problems. This paper will identify the areas in which QFD can help Hong Kong clothing manufacturers in their development and design activities, while also outlining the effective QFD approaches.

Keywords: Clothing Manufacturers, Apparel Manufacturing, QFD, Hong Kong, CHINA

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Global QFD — From Japan to the World

Since its conception in Japan in 1966, QFD continues to advance and spread across the world. In this keynote, the global history of QFD will be presented by a founder of the methodology.

The talk will share the inaugural training and projects that Dr. Akao was personally involved in each country, such as South Korea (1981), Taiwan (1882), USA (1983), Italy (1988), and many more. Businesses with international operations may gain an unusual insight into how their overseas competitors might be using QFD in what levels and which regions to look out for in the future.

Keywords: Global QFD, History of QFD, Quality Function Deployment, Japan, USA, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy

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QFD for cloud computing security, e-learning systems, service industry, FMEA, VOC codification

This continues a preview of the upcoming The 19th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) on September 6-7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA.

The 2-day symposium welcomes people of all levels QFD, from the beginner to the experienced, people of countries and industries. It is complimentary to the attendees of QFD Green Belt^® Certificate Course and QFD Black Belt^® Certificate Course  We hope you will join us!

See the previous posts:

• QFD for public transportation, software development, eco-friendly supply chain 

• QFD for modular design, value creation, business development, organic products development

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QFD and Requirements Prioritization: A Survey on Security Requirements for Cloud Computing

Prioritization is an essential task within QFD, and QFD is highly suitable for the development of Cloud Computing (CC) applications where non-functional requirements play a main role. Many of them are security requirements, often the main concern for CC investments. This paper introduces the usage of QFD for Cloud Computing (CC). In this research, CC security requirements were prioritized by pairwise comparison, showing that not all security requirements are equally important. With this finding, the appropriate usage of QFD for CC development will be discussed.

Keywords: QQFD, Requirements Prioritization, Security Requirements, Cloud Computing, GERMANY

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Improving a Learning Management System based on QFD and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

This paper reports how to improve web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) through integration of the elements of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD).
The users of an LMS are typically invisible to the systems developers and administrators, However, understanding the user needs has high priority in any networked learning systems, in order to develop and implement effective virtual learning services that meet diverse expectations of the users. An example will be presented based on a Turkish platformed LMS.

Keywords: Learning Management System, Service, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), QFD (Quality Function Deployment), TURKEY

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A Study of Service Quality Improvement Using the Theories of Nonverbal Communication, FMEA and QFD

Study of service industry presents unique challenges because of soft issue measurements such as quality evaluation and service quality.
With this in mind, the authors propose a quality improvement process specifically for service industry. The presentation will include a case study using non-verbal communication, FMEA, and QFD.

Keywords: Service Quality Improvement, QC story, QFD, JAPAN

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A Statistical Engineering Approach to Codifying the Voice of the Customer

Virtually all design projects involve the collection/processing of the Voice of the Customer to develop a set of requirements to which the producer designs their process/product.Approaches to efficiently and effectively deriving those requirements involve multiple techniques from the fields of market research, quality engineering, design engineering, and inferential statistics. This paper proposes a way to create a logical flow for the Voice of the Customer processing by codifying a series of tools into a linear statistical engineering road-map, and thereby more efficiently populating the House of Quality matrix that uses the "whats" (functions) and "hows" (functional requirements) approach. The exposition is supplemented with a lucid hypothetical example.

Keywords: Voice of Customer, Function Analysis, Kano classification, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Function Requirements, Specifications, Quality Function Deployment, USA

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QFD for modular design, value creation, business development, organic products development

Here are more exciting presentations planned for the upcoming The 19th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) on September 6-7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA.

(See the previous post: QFD for public transportation, software development, eco-friendly supply chain )

The 2-day International Symposium welcomes people of all levels of QFD knowledge, all industries and countries, and it is complimentary to the attendees of QFD Green Belt^® Certificate Course and QFD Black Belt^® Certificate Course  We hope you will join us!

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Study of Applying QFD to Modularity Strategy

Japanese manufactures are excellent at developing integral type products, such as cars and complicated machines that need fine tuning (e.g. semiconductor manufacturing machines). However, many products are currently shifting toward modular systems which require better architectures and modularity logic and rules. This presentation will show how to better define modular product architectures through the analytic structure of QFD, specifically how to arrange many complex issues such as customer needs, cost, technology, manufacturing feasibility, serviceability and so forth in a series of matrices so that modularity can be better simulated.

Keywords: QFD, Modularity, Modular, Integral Components, Modular Design, JAPAN

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Quality Function Deployment for New Product Development: Transforming Waste to Worth

This paper reports an application of QFD by the Thailand's chemical industry leader, SCG Chemicals. The company was able to develop a new eco-friendly construction material out of a chemical byproduct waste. The new product not only offers added functional value but also is boosting the customer's brand image. The presentation will report an application of QFD for this New Product Development, most challengingly in eliciting the needs from psychological elements and deploying them into design specifications, development process, souring, and other considerations for successful product roll-out.

Keywords: QFD, Psychological Characteristics, Voice of Customer, Customer Satisfaction, Product Design, Brand Image, Eco-friendly Product, THAILAND

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Top technology is not all we need for a successful business: QFD logic, methods and tools —Dutch experience.

This presentation will report a pilot project in The Netherlands, the utilization of QFD for business development. The talk will share the Dutch experience of the customer-centered marketing campaigns based on the Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Modern QFD techniques. This approach provided the logical, systematic, and interactive links between the commercial and technology teams in one organization. 

Keywords: Modern QFD, Business Development, Business Analysis, VOC, THE NETHERLANDS

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Application of QFD for the Development of An Organic Product: A Pilot Study

This presentation will report a pilot QFD application for the development of an organic product. A conceptual model which consists of four matrices for the development of an organic fruit jelly will be presented. The main adaptation is in the first matrix to include major actors in the production supply chain. The first results indicate the feasibility of the proposal for food development. 

Keywords: Product Development, Organic Products, QFD, BRAZIL

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QFD Courses at this symposium

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