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Home » Glossary » Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

Quality Function Deployment: What It Is, and How It Differs from the House of Quality

Quality function deployment, or QFD, is a method for turning what customers actually want into concrete engineering specifications, so the voice of the customer survives all the way to the drawing. It gets used interchangeably with the house of quality, but the house of quality is one matrix inside QFD, not the whole method.

Why is quality function deployment important?

Quality function deployment matters because it keeps what the customer actually wants from getting lost as a product moves from idea to engineering specification. By translating the voice of the customer into measurable characteristics, it reduces late design changes and rework and focuses effort where it affects customers most. It is especially valuable early in product development and pairs naturally with APQP.

How does QFD work?

QFD carries the customer’s voice through a chain of translations:

  • Capture what the customer wants, in their words.
  • Weight those wants by importance, so trade-offs are honest.
  • Translate them into measurable engineering characteristics.
  • Map which characteristics drive which wants, and where they conflict.
  • Carry the priorities down into design, process and production planning.

How does QFD differ from the house of quality?

Method versus tool. QFD is the whole approach, often spanning several matrices from customer needs to production. The house of quality is the first and best-known of those matrices, the one that maps customer wants against engineering characteristics. Every house of quality is QFD; not all of QFD is the house of quality. It pairs naturally with APQP in early design.

QFD vs house of quality at a glance

The method versus its signature matrix.

AspectQFDHouse of Quality
What it isThe whole methodOne matrix inside it
SpansNeeds to productionWants vs characteristics
NumberSeveral matricesThe first one
RelationshipThe frameworkA tool within it

Related Terms

Further Reading

Customer requirements getting lost on the way to the drawing?
Keep requirements, checks, and sign-offs traceable in one place.

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