1-Write a short essay (about 500 words) on QFD as an approach

to requirements development and analysis.

Once information about customer expectations has been obtained,

techniques such as quality function deployment can be used to link the voice
of customer directly to internal processes. QFD is not only a quality tool but
also an important planning tool. It allows the consideration of the “voice of
the customer” along the service development path to market entry.

There is no single definition for quality function deployment, but a general

basic concept of this method is as follows:
“Quality Function Deployment is a system with the purpose of translating
and planning the VoC into the quality characteristics of products, processes
and services for reaching customer satisfaction”

Benefits of QFD
 Quality Function Deployment is a powerful prioritization tool
that combines several different types of matrices into one to form a
house-like structure.
 Quality Function Deployment is a customer-driven process for planning
products and services.
 It starts with the voice of the customer, which becomes the basis for
setting requirements.
 Quality Function Deployment provides documentation for the decision-
making process.
 QFD helps you to:
 Translate customer requirements into specific offering specifications
 Prioritize possible offering specifications and make trade-off decisions
based on weighted customer requirements and ranked competitive
assessment

The QFD technique is based on the analysis of the clients’ requirements,

which normally are expressed in qualitative terms, such as: “easy to use”,
“safe”, “comfortable” or “luxurious”. In order to develop a service, it is
necessary to “translate” these fuzzy requirements into quantitative service
design requirements; QFD makes this translation possible. Quality Function
Deployment is also a system for design of a product or service based on
customer demands, a system that moves methodically from customer
requirements to specifications for the product or service. QFD involves the
entire company in the design and control activity. Finally, QFD provides
documentation for the decision-making process

Quality Function Deployment Process

Let us briefly have a look at the QFD approach; which is used for the
purpose of designing an error free process or product. In this approach,
design engineers typically start progressive drill-down approach with
planning the development and go through four phases to reach a deeper
understanding of the required process control and quality. The details are as
follows:

1. Product Planning QFD. It helps identify service offerings characteristics,

that best meet customer requirements, helps analyze competitive
opportunities, and establishes critical target values too.
2. Component Deployment QFD. It helps identify the critical parts and
assembly components using the prioritized offering characteristics in
QFD 1 and establishes critical target values.
3. Process Planning QFD. It helps determine critical process operational
requirements and elements using the prioritized components in QFD 2
and establishes critical process parameters
4. Quality Control QFD. It helps prioritize the process control methods and
parameters and establishes production and inspection methods that best
support the prioritized process elements of QFD 3

2-Create a heterogeneous team since QFD will normally be practiced

with large, multidisciplinary groups. 1) Select a system of interest to
you (or a subsystem thereof) and develop a House of Quality (HoQ) for
it (about 10 customer attributes and 10 engineering characteristics).
Provide some supporting text or annotations to explain the HoQ. For
example, you will need to explain what the system is and who the
customers are.

The first phase in the implementation of the Quality Function Deployment process
involves putting together a “House of Quality”
which is for the development of a climbing harness
Steps to the House of Quality

Step 1: Customer Requirements – “Voice of the Customer”

The first step in a QFD project is to determine what market segments will be
analyzed during the process and to identify who the customers are. The team then
gathers information from customers on the requirements they have for the product or
service. In order to organize and evaluate this data, the team uses simple quality tools
like Affinity Diagrams or Tree Diagrams.
Step 2: Regulatory Requirements

Not all product or service requirements are known to the customer, so the team
must document requirements that are dictated by management or regulatory standards
that the product must adhere to.

Step 3: Customer Importance Ratings

On a scale from 1 – 5, customers then rate the importance of each requirement.

This number will be used later in the relationship matrix.

Step 4: Customer Rating of the Competition

Understanding how customers rate the competition can be a tremendous

competitive advantage. In this step of the QFD process, it is also a good idea to ask
customers how your product or service rates in relation to the competition. There is
remodeling that can take place in this part of the House of Quality. Additional rooms that
identify sales opportunities, goals for continuous improvement, customer complaints,
etc., can be added.

Step 5: Technical Descriptors – “Voice of the Engineer”

The technical descriptors are attributes about the product or service that can be
measured and benchmarked against the competition. Technical descriptors may exist
that your organization is already using to determine product specification, however new
measurements can be created to ensure that your product is meeting customer needs.
Step 6: Direction of Improvement

As the team defines the technical descriptors, a determination must be made as to

the direction of movement for each descriptor.

Step 7: Relationship Matrix

The relationship matrix is where the team determines the relationship between
customer needs and the company’s ability to meet those needs. The team asks the
question, “what is the strength of the relationship between the technical descriptors and
the customers needs?” Relationships can either be weak, moderate, or strong and carry
a numeric value of 1, 3 or 9.

Step 8: Organizational Difficulty

Rate the design attributes in terms of organizational difficulty. It is very possible

that some attributes are in direct conflict. Increasing the number of sizes may be in
conflict with the companies stock holding policies, for example.

Step 9: Technical Analysis of Competitor Products

To better understand the competition, engineering then conducts a comparison

of competitor technical descriptors. This process involves reverse engineering
competitor products to determine specific values for competitor technical descriptors.

Step 10: Target Values for Technical Descriptors

At this stage in the process, the QFD team begins to establish target values for
each technical descriptor. Target values represent “how much” for the technical
descriptors, and can then act as a base-line to compare against.

Step 11: Correlation Matrix

This room in the matrix is where the term House of Quality comes from because it
makes the matrix look like a house with a roof. The correlation matrix is probably the
least used room in the House of Quality; however, this room is a big help to the design
engineers in the next phase of a comprehensive QFD project. Team members must
examine how each of the technical descriptors impact each other. The team should
document strong negative relationships between technical descriptors and work to
eliminate physical contradictions.
Step 12: Absolute Importance

Finally, the team calculates the absolute importance for each technical descriptor.
This numerical calculation is the product of the cell value and the customer importance
rating. Numbers are then added up in their respective columns to determine the
importance for each technical descriptor. Now you know which technical aspects of your
product matters the most to your customer!
3-Why 5Sis considered as a base tool in any quality deployment
operations?
The Kaizen toolbox includes the 5S for improving workplace effectiveness. 5S is rather a management
tool focused on fostering and sustaining high quality housekeeping. The 5S practices are:

1. Sort

2. Straighten

3. Scrub

4. Systematize

5. Standardize

The Japanese equivalent names for the five practices start with the alphabet “S”. Thus, these are known
as 5S practices.

The purpose of 5S tools are

4-Explicate Poke Yoke and its importance w.r.t design, process and
quality
Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "inadvertent error prevention". The
key word in the second translation, often omitted, is "inadvertent". There is no poka-yoke solution
that protects against an operator's sabotage, but sabotage is a rare behavior among people.[1] A
poka-yoke is any mechanism in a lean manufacturing process that helps an equipment operator
avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting,
or drawing attention to human errors as they occur.[2] The concept was formalised, and the term
adopted, by Shigeo Shingo as part of the Toyota Production System.[3][4] It was originally described
as baka-yoke, but as this means "fool-proofing" (or "idiot-proofing") the name was changed to the
milder poka-yoke.

Usage
More broadly, the term can refer to any behavior-shaping constraint designed into a process to
prevent incorrect operation by the user.
A simple poka-yoke example is demonstrated when a driver of the car equipped with a manual
gearbox must press on the clutch pedal (a process step, therefore a poka-yoke) prior to starting an
automobile. The interlock serves to prevent unintended movement of the car. Another example of
poka-yoke would be the car equipped with an automatic transmission, which has a switch that
requires the car to be in "Park" or "Neutral" before the car can be started (some automatic
transmissions require the brake pedal to be depressed as well). These serve as behavior-shaping
constraints as the action of "car in Park (or Neutral)" or "foot depressing the clutch/brake pedal" must
be performed before the car is allowed to start. The requirement of a depressed brake pedal to shift
most of the cars with an automatic transmission from "Park" to any other gear is yet another example
of a poka-yoke application. Over time, the driver's behavior is conformed with the requirements by
repetition and habit.

Implementation in manufacturing
Poka-yoke can be implemented at any step of a manufacturing process where something can go
wrong or an error can be made.[7] For example, a fixture that holds pieces for processing might be
modified to only allow pieces to be held in the correct orientation,[8] or a digital counter might track
the number of spot welds on each piece to ensure that the worker executes the correct number of
welds.[8]
Shigeo Shingo recognized three types of poka-yoke for detecting and preventing errors in a mass
production system:[3][7]

1. The contact method identifies product defects by testing the product's shape, size, color, or
other physical attributes.
2. The fixed-value (or constant number) method alerts the operator if a certain number of
movements are not made.
3. The motion-step (or sequence) method determines whether the prescribed steps of the
process have been followed.
Either the operator is alerted when a mistake is about to be made, or the poka-yoke device actually
prevents the mistake from being made. In Shingo's lexicon, the former implementation would be
called a warning poka-yoke, while the latter would be referred to as a control poka-yoke.[3]
Shingo argued that errors are inevitable in any manufacturing process, but that if appropriate poka-
yokes are implemented, then mistakes can be caught quickly and prevented from resulting in
defects. By eliminating defects at the source, the cost of mistakes within a company is reduced.[citation
needed]

A methodic approach to build up poka-yoke countermeasures has been proposed by the Applied
Problem Solving (APS) methodology,[9] which consists of a three-step analysis of the risks to be
managed:
 1. Identification of the need
2. Identification of possible mistakes
3. Management of mistakes before satisfying the need

Benefits of Poka-yoka
A typical feature of poka-yoke solutions is that they don't let an error in a process happen. But that is
just one of their advantages. Others include:

 Less time spent on training workers;

 Elimination of many operations related to quality control;
 Unburdening of operators from repetitive operations;
 Promotion of the work improvement-oriented approach and actions;
 A reduced number of rejects;
 Immediate action when a problem occurs;
 100% built-in quality control.