Contemporary Quality Function Deployment For Product And Process Innovation

In today's highly competitive industrial climate, and in times of limited company resources and a continual need to improve company performance in all areas, the use of effective and efficient tools and development methodologies for research and development (R&D) is one interesting avenue to follow. Thus, the question is not really whether they should be deployed or not, but rather which methodologies and best-practices should be used, and why, when and how they should be deployed.Contemporary Quality Function Deployment for Product and Process Innovation: Towards Digital Transformation of Customer and Product Information in a New Knowledge-Based Approach introduces the reader to the industrial use of the Quality Function Development (QFD) methodology in product and process innovation. Customer, product, and production data related to each product family will be digitized in the matrix structures used in this methodology, and be made accessible, more transparent, and visible, thus facilitating a holistic product information perspective. Moreover, using this information in the creation of Integrated Knowledge Platforms (IKPs), supporting more digitalized product and process innovation work processes, will speed up product development and capture vital information to be used in your next-generation product innovation projects. From an overall company perspective, the well-proven ability of the QFD methodology to stimulate cross-functional product innovation will guide product innovation towards a new knowledge-based approach in its enhanced digital transformation and use of integrated customer, product, and production informationUsing the QFD methodology, you will learn how to create a retrievable and accumulated digitized company knowledge base, coupled with improved company communication. You will get better decision support, assisting in the development of better product specifications, and resulting in better products, and ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction. The adoption of the QFD tool and matrices in building such well-structured knowledge-based platforms (IKPs) related to individual products or product families is the heart of the matter and the 'hidden gem' of QFD methodology use.The book aims to serve as a manual introducing the methodology and how to use it, offering a guiding framework, and being a handbook for the methodology's industrial use for both newcomers and product developers. Furthermore, it offers new perspectives on a more efficient and effective use of the QFD methodology for the seasoned practitioner. This book can also serve as a textbook for students in all disciplines of the natural sciences, innovation management, product design, and engineering. Each part of the book concludes with a number of questions that can be used as learning instruments in lecturing and for more advanced tutorials.

This book puts management of product innovation in a corporate strategic perspective and argues that a company's competitive position is strongly related to an underlying unique and continually renewed product innovation work process, which drives innovation and delivery of new or improved products in the marketplace. The book will take the reader through a systematic examination of the necessary consecutive steps for companies' successful development of non-assembled products in the cluster of process industries.For readers in search of a seamless, easy-to-use, effective formal product innovation work process, from customer understanding to product launch, this book provides a guiding framework and 'hands-on' advice for work process design. A novel five-phase structural process model of the product innovation work process is initially introduced in order to orchestrate a more dynamic interaction between product and process innovation and the integration of sustainability and product eco-design in product design.The reader will learn first about the importance of aligning new product ideas with the corporate business model and product innovation strategy during the contextualization phase and then how to transform product ideas into well-defined complementary product and process concepts. In the movement of product ideas from the conceptualization phase to industrialization, the use of pilot-planting and production trials for scale-up of product and process concepts is further explored. To secure a design for processability, a novel industrialization sub-process is introduced, and the integration of complementary development of product and service offerings is further examined. The deployment of application development throughout and after product launch is highlighted for an enhancement of product commercialization and a reduction of 'time to break even' for new products.

This book not only presents the overall development of quality function deployment (QFD) and what it has been used for to date but a new product support orientation by which it can be employed. It is product and service “system” focused and presents how blending the processes and elements of supportability and analysis into a QFD-modeled methodology can achieve optimal cost savings and performance efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, a working model is provided that will assist those that elect to use such an approach to current/new product and/or service development. QFD is widely spreading throughout the world because of its outstanding usefulness. It is aimed to fulfill the customer’s expectation of a product or service design. Organizations of all sizes are using it to (1) save product and service design and development time, (2) focus on how the product or service might satisfy the customer and (3) improve communication at all levels of an organization during the development process. Based on these three reasons, today's traditional QFD can be divided into three branches and analyzed. First, QFD can be implemented effectively for developing new products and designs by establishing the linkage between design stages through the manufacturing environment. However, research has found that traditional QFD is quite weak in implementing modifications to existing product and service design during its predicted lifecycle. Second, most research to this point has been squarely focused on the “voice of the customer” for prioritizing customer needs. While certainly needed, the “voice of the system” that is being used to produce the product/service and how they operate during its intended life cycle has been given less attention. Third, QFD is often viewed as overly labor-intensive and thus costly, and, because of its team-based development logic, manual in nature by those involved during its development and implementation. Research has shown that life cycle sustainment planning and support for current or proposed products and/or services requires a seamless and balanced life cycle support methodology. To achieve this type of support, twelve functional elements have been identified that form the product support infrastructure. A new approach, one that views product support as an integrative activity where all twelve product support elements are assessed over the entire product and/or service life cycle is being deployed. With this deployment comes a need to ensure Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) are achieved and functional alignment obtained by balancing supportability element cost and provisioning throughout the entire product and/or service lifecycle, not just during the development stage, and to view the system as the “customer” and thus listen to the “Voice of the System” when assessing supportability requirements. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is such a tool. This book contains four sections. Section 1 provides an initial overview of QFD origins, and history and highlights some of its use today. It addresses how QFD fits within the organization, increasing revenue, and reducing cost. It outlines a step-by-step strategy for successfully deploying QFD within the organization. Section 2 examines the evolving product and/or service requirement, creating the design solution using QFD, assessing supportability characteristics using QFD, and performing functional supportability analysis using QFD. Section 3 provides a guide for developing the life cycle supportability solution using QFD methodology on an ongoing basis, and managing processes throughout the systems lifecycle. Section 4 addresses using QFD in an imperfect world and will provide insight into how to use QFD beyond the standard “house of quality” concept.

A versatile manual that can be used to stimulate product innovation, benchmarking analysis, and engineering design, this book goes beyond theory to provide relevant advanced methods and techniques that readers can apply in their work for both short- and long-term results. The author links Quality Function Deployment (QFD) with other quality design

Quality function deployment (QFD) is an effective tool to help organizations become more competitive by designing their products and services to satisfy cutomers' requirements. The manager is guided on a step-by-step process to attaining this goal. This book is precise and direct and focuses on key issues in building the House of Quality otherwise known as QFD. By reading this book, the manager understands how to solicit customer requirement information, how design requirements are matched to customer requirements, how weights are assigned, how priorities are developed, and how activities can be benchmarked. The manager also understands how to solve the critical problems that help achieve customer satisfaction. This book also guides the reader to understand how companywide quality activities are related to QFD. This link is often lacking in other presentations of QFD that often fail to show the linkage between QFD and other quality initiatives and management programs.

Best Practice: Process Innovation Management highlights best practice in innovation by bringing together practitioners and researchers in this field. This book presents contributions from leading academics and practitioners involved with innovation. They bring together all the strands of research, best practice and advice establishing an essential source of information for all involved with process innovation management.

Covers basic principles and proactive and pragmatic quality function deployment (QFD) methods. Explains how to arrange groups in an industrial organization into design and development teams. Describes how to implement QFD to effectively produce quality products in a fashion that meets customers' needs. This book includes aspects of modern planning techniques, technological forecasting methods and value engineering.