Customer Driven Product Development Through Quality Function Development (QFD)

Over the years, quality has been a differentiating factor within the manufacturing industry. In this paper, an attempt is made not only to analyze existing models of product development but also introduces the concept of Customer Driven Product Development (CDPD). Here the methodology for the development of CDPD Model through Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is presented. The QFD process includes prioritization of customer needs, competition ranking and technical deployment for the new/improved product. The paper is composed of Product Development background, related literature review and explanatory steps for model development. A Customer Driven Product Development Model is depicted to build the proposed House of Quality, along with comprehensive details of the pertinent components. The paper will serve and motivate product designers and developers to incorporate this QFD methodology and hence promote QFD's future development.