Customer Reviews

Quality Function Deployment: How to Make QFD Work for You

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am (among other things) a recognized QFD "Subject Matter Expert" within Xerox Corp. I've read any number of QFD books and academic papers on the topic, and lead/facilitated several major QFD projects. Cohen's book best mirrors my own experiences in using QFD effectively, and is the book I most often recommend to someone who is new to QFD but wants to actually use the process. Cohen plainly has considerable experience in actually using QFD, and clearly shares his own experiences, from the mundane (not counting on computer display tools in meetings) to the sublime (the use and importance of contextual inquiry; the importance of personality mix in the QFD team selection). Cohen's writing style is excellent - very readable, even entertaining, but always clear and informative. Highly recommended

I found the Cohen book to be the reference to Quality Function Deployment that I have been looking for. Unlike many of the Japanese books on the subject that have been translated to english, Cohen's book provides a comprehensive look at the subject of QFD, from the history of QFD through the final chapters that guide one through the mechanics of conducting a QFD study. I particularly like the no-nonsense writing style and the step-by-step approach taken to explain the method without going into tediously technical details about all the potential mathematics involved. This is the first book that I have found on the subject of QFD that I could actually USE to complete a QFD study. I also found that the method described is not dependent on any specific QFD software, but works with any of the 3 QFD software packages that I use. If you have to have just one reference for Quality Function Deployment, this is the book I would choose.

I, an engineer turned marketer, love to learn by example. Stop telling me about how it works...show me.

THE COMPLETE LACK OF SAMPLES was very disappointing. I feel my understanding would have been much deeper if the author had walked through hypothetical/real examples.

The book does a reasonably good job describing the various steps of performing the QFD process. Samples would have made it much richer.

If I had to select a single book about QFD this is the one. It so thoroughly covers this effective technique, down to nuances, that I would have to refer to at least five other books on QFD I own to get the same coverage.

For a complete beginner chapters 1 and 2 cover the what and why of QFD. However, this material is somewhat brief and the following chapters may be overwhelming if you are learning about this technique for the first time. As an aside, if you are using Visio, there is a template for QFD that ships with that product.

The remaining 17 chapters lead you through fundamental aspects of QFD (Chapters 3 through 11), starting with an overview of the seven TQM tools, and leading you through the basic planning matrix, technical response, relationships, correlations, benchmarks and targets. Part III, Chapters 12 and 13, tie QFD to product development and its associated lifecycle, and how it relates to marketing, engineering, sales and service.

Chapters 14 through 17 provide a detailed, step-by-step approach to using QFD, starting with planning and data/information gathering, and culminating in developing and analyzing results.

The final section of the book covers advanced topics, including four-phase models, complex matrices of matrices, and special applications that include strategic product planning, and organizational planning, among other topics. I found the chapter on how to apply QFD to software development particularly interesting since that is what I do for a living.

I have a number of QFD books and actively employ this technique, and this is the definitive book on the topic I recommend.

This was an excellent introduction to QFD, which I'd previously heard many good things about. I now feel that I understand how it works, how to marry it with the software development process in general, and even managed to pick up some hints on how I might integrate some more advanced customer representation ideas (like use of personas instead of instances of customers, for when your customer base is too large).

However, it was stated many times that:
1) You should have someone who has lead a QFD before facilitating it
2) It's highly customizable, by cutting things out

It would've been nice understand how to go about a first QFD with no experienced facilitators, along with some warning signs about whether you're going right or wrong. Also, examples of the customizations folks have made for smaller or larger teams and less or more rigorous organizations would've made it more concrete how to roll it out on a team such as my own.

As a Computer Science student from The Netherlands I was easily introduced to Quality Function Deployment by the book of L. Cohen. He describes very easily but also complete the fundamentals of QFD and how to use it with the House Of Quality-model. Don't hesitate if you need the best book about QFD: buy this one !!!!

Quality Function Deployment is an excellent tool for mapping market requirements into product features. Cohen's book does a superb job of presenting the basics and taking you deeper into advanced topics. Numerous practical examples are included to give you a clear picture of how to use this powerful tool in your new product development.

An excellent text that shows the interrelationships of the rooms in the House of Quality. I require all my consultants to read it.