House of Quality (QFD) in a Minute, Second Edition

Presentation of the Outline of the Book
Unique qualities of the book

This book discusses an important quality management tool known as quality function deployment (QFD). This tool has been widely used by companies around the world to better design their products to satisfy customers' needs. Some management practitioners frequently treat QFD as an abstract technical tool that is to be used as a standalone. This perspective makes it difficult to then link QFD to a firm's quality imperative. This book challenges this perspective, and instead offers ways to integrate QFD into a firm's existing quality management framework. This book is therefore unique in the following ways: 1. It is written as a basic book to introduce the concept of QFD and why it is an important tool in the quality imperative of a firm. The basics of QFD are outlined so that practitioners and managers can achieve an understanding of what QFD is all about, and learn to participate with consultants in developing a QFD chart for their own in-house applications. 2. The book makes extraordinary effort to link QFD to all other quality imperatives of a firm so that it is not treated as a standalone tool. In its ten short chapters, QFD is linked to other major management and quality initiatives such as strategic planning, customer satisfaction, benchmarking, quality control, product design, concurrent engineering, cost control and productivity improvement. This approach is unique since many of the other books on QFD focus exclusively on designing QFD. However, QFD can not be successfully implemented without a link to other quality programs that a firm may have already embarked on. 3. The book is purposely designed to be short to offer a quick overview to the busy manager who may not have the time to read the voluminous technical books in the area. The book is 102 pages long but packed with precise information that is easy to assimilate. It is therefore, an excellent addition to this important management area that is too often crowded with quantitative tools that are narrowly focused. 4. It is also reasonably priced and could make a quick general reading list for managers, students, engineers, practitioners and everyone else who is interested in quality management topics but do not have time to read the voluminous books, or take expensive courses and seminars in the area. 5. The book's author is a renowned expert in quality management, and has authored numerous research articles and books on quality management. This adds the present book to an existing lineup of impressive texts that tackle contemporary management issues. In addition, the author also is currently a co-editor of the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management Journal. Thus, the present book can be presented as a primer on QFD management approach that on its own will satisfy management enthusiast readers and, more importantly, the book also directs more involved management professionals and students to related, but more technical sources.

Contents

Preface Biographical Sketch; 1. History and Definition of Quality Function Deployment (QFD)1; 2. Voice of Customer 9; 3. House of Quality 17; 4. QFD and the Analytic Hierarchy Process 27; 5. QFD and Benchmarking 35; 6. QFD and Strategic Planning 43; 7. QFD and Statistical Quality Control 55; 8. Stakeholder vs. Customer in Product Design 71; 9. QFD and Concurrent Engineering 83; 10. QFD, Cost Control and Productivity Improvement 91; Index 101.

About the Author

Christian N. Madu, Ph.D. is a recognized authority in quality management with extensive research and consulting experience. He is the author of a dozen books and more than 100 research papers. He edited the popular Handbook of Total Quality Management (1998) and Handbook of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing (2000), and the author of several other books on Quality. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA, published both books. He is the co-Editor of the International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management and was previously, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Quality Science. Dr. Madu is currently, Research Professor & Chair of Management Science Program at Pace University, New York.