Reinforcing QFD with group support systems: computer-supported collaboration for quality in design

Over the last decade quality function deployment or QFD, thanks to the efforts of Akao and others, has gained widespread popularity in its applicability to business and industry. Many organizations have adopted it as a tool of continuous improvement in their quest for quality through total quality management (TQM). QFD in simple terms, has been looked on as a mechanism of translating the customers’ expectations of a particular product or service into product planning, parts development, process planning, and production planning. Explores the robustness of QFD for translating the available knowledge within a product design group into appropriate design choices, ones that consider the customer’s view of quality throughout the product’s entire life cycle. Conventional QFD analysis allows equity of participation through “consensus”, but often trades outcomes influenced by expertise for those attained with “fairness”. This process may lead to less than optimal results. Discusses the role of group support systems (GSS) to improve the qualitative discussion of the whats and the hows in the QFD process. Also introduces influence allocation processes, methods that allow differential weighting of participants and an incremental usage of knowledge within groups. Discusses their potential impact for QFD analysis