House of Quality: A Difficult yet Powerful Tool But Make Sure You Have the Appropriate Members of the Company on the Team and In the Room

      Listening to a course lecture a few months ago, I heard the instructor ask if anyone in the audience had participated in a House of Quality (Aka Quality Function Deployment) exercise.  A dozen or so raised their hands.  The instructor then asked if anyone would ever willing participate in one again.  Not one hand went up.

      By its’ design, the tool can be complicated.  There are multiple tables and interactions.  Further there are calculations required.  Underlying all this work is the need to get accurate information to drive completion.  And this is where there can be a real challenge.

      Two critical listings are the customer requirements and comparison with the competition.  Typical members of a six sigma team are not qualified to accurately list customer requirements let alone prioritize them.  It’s the same with comparison to the competition.  It will be difficult to avoid an internal company bias to the items on both these lists.

      That is an area where it is especially important for a sales or marketing representative to be on the team.  He or she will be out on the front lines listening to customers about their likes and dislikes about your product or service features.  And they will hear how you size up compared to your competitors.  Good stuff to hear and record for the project. (February 1, 2014)