USING QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT IN MANUFACTURING STRATEGIC-PLANNING

Describes efforts to extend the use of quality function deployment (QF D) to manufacturing strategy development. QFD uses a house of quality to translate the ''voice of the customer'' into engineering specificat ions. Originally developed and applied as a powerful tool for concurre nt product and process design, QFD is widely used in industry as a tec hnique within total quality management (TQM). The approach has only re cently been applied in strategic planning. Describes how the tradition al QFD concepts and methods can be used in the formulation of manufact uring strategy to ensure alignment with business strategy. Presents a case study at a powdered metals manufacturer to show how the QFD metho dology can be adapted for use in manufacturing strategy formulation.