Total Quality Management
Figure 4.1 shows the basic form of the matrix used in QFD, which is often called the house of quality because of its shape. The customer needs, or “WHATs,” are listed along the left-hand side of the matrix. Design characteristics related to these needs are listed along the top as “HOWs.” The relationship matrix in the middle (WHAT versus HOW) indicates the nature of the relationship between each customer need and each design characteristic. Figure 4.2 shows the house of quality for a limited set of customer needs related to an automobile. As shown, the need for good gas mileage is positively related to the design characteristic of fuel economy, negatively related to acceleration, and has no relationship to turning radius. In some cases, the simple plus or minus signs used in Figure 4.2 are replaced by other symbols indicating the strength of the relationship, from strongly nega- tive to strongly positive.
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CHAPTER 4Section 4.4 Total Quality Management
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CHAPTER 4Section 4.4 Total Quality Management
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CHAPTER 4Section 4.4 Total Quality Management
When designing products and processes, companies often face trade-offs, such as that between fuel economy and acceleration. The house of quality can help a company evalu- ate trade-offs. The roof part of the house shows how each design characteristic affects other design characteristics. The right-hand side of the house shows the importance of each customer need, and can also indicate customer perceptions about how well the com- pany is performing relative to competitors. Performance on each design characteristic can be compared against competitors along the bottom. Thus, less emphasis may be placed on a customer need that is not very important, or on a design characteristic in which the company already outperforms the competition. The house of quality shown here is only a simple example; those developed by companies can be very complex.
This first house of quality translates the voice of the customer into design characteristics, but characteristics alone will not indicate to the firm how to make a car. Those design characteristics must be transformed into parts characteristics, as shown in the second house in Figure 4.3. Parts characteristics define how the engineering characteristics will be achieved, but the parts characteristics can only be achieved when the process is planned to do so. Thus, a third house is required to convert the parts characteristics into opera- tional processes that describe how the parts are to be produced to obtain the required characteristics. In the fourth house, the operational process is the basis for determining the production requirements, which specify inspection details, measuring methods, operator training, and related details.
Using the four steps shown in Figure 4.3, the voice of the customer has been deployed throughout the entire organization. Further, all parts of the organization have worked together to achieve that deployment.
In the past, many companies used quality control (QC) departments to ensure quality. Unfortunately, this practice allowed others in the organization to assume that the QC department was solely responsible for quality. Organizations that embrace TQM have realized that everyone must accept responsibility, from the company CEO to the person who cleans the parking lot. Each individual contributes to quality (or lack thereof) in some way. In addition, company suppliers must also accept responsibility for their role in qual- ity. It is essential that TQM have top management support and commitment in order for it to succeed.
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