11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written book about a valuable technique, March 28, 2001
This review is from: Step-by-Step QFD: Customer-Driven Product Design, Second Edition (Paperback)
I stumbled into QFD by accident: while browsing through sample drawings in Visio I spotted a "House of Quality Matrix" under Business Diagrams. The drawing looked fascinating, which led me to do a quick search on the Internet. The search yielded a large number of hits and interesting content. That, in turn, led me to this book because capturing and validating requirements is a difficult undertaking and I am always on the lookout for new techniques and tools.
The book opened a whole new world to me. The opening chapter, "The Role of the Customer in Design", starts with an example of using QFD in a project and gives compelling reasons for using this technique. Subsequent chapters walk you through the mechanics of a generic design process. This prepares you for the detailed treatment of QFD that follows.
Based on my initial research QFD looks simple and straightforward. However, this book reveals a rich process and set of procedures that show its real power (and complexity for large undertakings). For example, I discovered that the "house of quality" structure can have multiple matrices, each of which is linked. This gives both forward and backwards traceability, but requires painstaking attention to detail. This is where this book proves its value - it breaks this complexity down into manageable pieces and provides you with a thorough understanding of the process.
The section that I found most meaningful and valuable addresses customer segments. I am an IT consultant who specializes in service delivery, so my natural focus is on strengthening alignment between IT and the business processes that IT supports. Among the things I learned from this section are: how to effectively identify customer segments and classify them, what measurements are meaningful (especially important for satisfaction measurement), and ranking and prioritizing. One of the most powerful prioritization techniques that I discovered in this book is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This technique is an excellent way to objectively quantify priorities and requirements. The steps are relatively simple: 1.Choose the requirements to be prioritized. 2.Set the requirements into the rows and columns of the n x n AHP matrix. 3.Perform a pair wise comparison of the requirements in the matrix according to a set criteria. 4.Sum the columns. 5.Normalize the sum of rows. 6.Calculate the row averages.
However, for a large number of requirements this can quickly get complicated in a hurry. The simple math for small numbers of requirements gets replaced by sophisticated (to me) matrix techniques that are outside of my skill set when the number of requirements to be prioritized grows. Also, AHP is useful for managing requirements revealed via surveys. Most of my requirements come directly from contact with end users. I have found that a facilitated meeting using paired comparison techniques to be as valuable aas AHP. This is not covered in the book, which I found to be a minor shortcoming. If you want details about paired comparisons I will be happy to share them via email.
The rest of the book addresses QFD within the context of quality planning and management, and measuring the effectiveness of quality. Interwoven into these are valuable tools and techniques, such as affinity diagrams, TRIZ and various analysis techniques. While the remainder of the book began focusing on manufacturing, which is outside of my professional specialty, I found the material interesting because some of my clients are manufacturers and it gave insights into business processes that will surely prove valuable in the future. Almost everything in this book was new to me. The author did a magnificent job of explaining how to effectively capture, prioritize and management requirements in ways that I never expected. Moreover, the methods embodied in QFD are both powerful in that you can actually capture the voice of the customer, and practical in that you can trace a final design (product or process) back to customer requirements. I also learned about some powerful techniques, such as AHP, that I would have never discovered had I not read this book. If you are involved in requirements management, product or process design or quality then this book will be a valuable addition to your professional reading.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall Excellent Introduction to QFD, Good First QFD Book, October 17, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Step-by-Step QFD: Customer-Driven Product Design, Second Edition (Paperback)
Great book for persons just starting QFD within their organizations. Straight forward step-by-step chapters that build upon each other to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of QFD concepts and mechanics. Team/group excercises within each chapter make this a great introductory training manual to solidify learning of material covered in each chapter.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good examples...not well written, May 18, 2001
This review is from: Step-by-Step QFD: Customer-Driven Product Design, Second Edition (Paperback)
This book provides a nice overview of QFD with more than adequate examples. One of the nicer things is that it provides Workshop forms from which you can begin putting together a training forum. However, where this book fails is in the original authorship and editing. To be honest, it must be one of the most poorly put-together books I have read. Incorrect spellings, incomplete thoughts, and figure-to-text mismatches makes this book all but un-readable. If you need a book filled with examples at a decent rate, this is the one for you. If you can, skip this train and spend your money more wisely on a book that the author and publisher obviously took more time than a weekend to put together.
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