BENCHMARKING THE APPLICATION OF QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT IN RAPID PROTOTYPING

The increased importance of rapid prototyping of manufactured goods in the global market environment has generated extensive interest in ''d oing enough of the right things'' the first time. One very successful approach, called Quality Function Deployment (QFD), introduced by the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan in 1972, is a structured process for t aking the needs and desires of the customer and translating them into technical engineering requirements. Providing products and services th at meet the quality expectation of the customer is a challenge facing every corporation. QFD provides a way to ensure customer needs and exp ectations are addressed from concept through delivery. QFD is an excel lent means of communication between interdepartmental teams of product development staff, design engineers, manufacturing engineers, marketi ng personnel and the final user of the product.