Abstract:
Small QFD/FMEA - a methodology mix that guarantees improvement for future products at
least for the known consumers problems of the today's products. The focus of Small
QFD/FMEA is not on the innovative side but during the analysis often the necessity is
shown to think about totally new concepts because the existing ones can not be improved
in a way to avoid certain consumer complaints.
For Small QFD/FMEA the original QFD approach is changed in the way that the input is no
more a consumer requirement but consumer complaints of the today's existing products.
These complaints are evaluated in a similar way QFD does for the requirements and then
they are linked to the possible failures of an FMEA using a correlation matrix -
consumer complaint vs. failure - with the same matrix technology well known of QFD.
This matrix then shows on one side (result of the rows) the criticality of a failure to
cause consumer complaints and on the other side (results of the columns) all the
failures which has to be eliminated to avoid a certain consumer complaint completely.
This evaluation makes it possible to prioritise during the development of new products
on crucial items for consumer relevant improvements.
It allows also to follow up the quality level over the whole project progress and to
give a rough estimation on how big the risk is to have with the new improved product
the same consumer problems on the market as with the former one.
Further the management gets an overview where are the limits of the today's existing
concept. It may be possible that the existing concept can not be changed / improved in
a way to get totally rid of the known consumer problem. Here the management has to
decide whether to continue to keep the time schedule and to accept the weak points or
whether to delay the market launch of this product and to rework the existing concept
in the way to avoid these consumer complaints.
Small QFD/FMEA is designed to show where to prioritise during development and to follow
up the quality level measured by - consumer complaints - over the whole project
progress.
Author: Dr. Kerstin Kosche
Diplom-Ingenieur of Material Science - Technical University of Stuttgart (Germany) and
Doctorate of Material Science in co-operation with Max-Planck-Institute of Stuttgart
(Germany) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Matériaux et d´Aerotechnique of Poitiers
(France)
From 1991 till 1999 with Daimler Benz AG today DaimlerChrysler AG
Projectleader of a lot of projects within different R&D departments with main focus
to introduce preventive tools like FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) and
QFD (Quality Function Deployment)
to develop an integrated Quality Management System - means to link the different
methodologies like QFD, FMEA, DoE, SPC, Measurement of Project progress via Quality
Gates and so on. The QMS had to ensure that the consumer requirements (QDF) at the
beginning of the project were followed up (FMEA, DoE, SPC and QG) during the whole
project and were finally compared with the consumers feedback after the product
launch.
Since 1999 with Electrolux - Division EHP (European Home Products)
From 1999 till 2001 Senior Quality Manager with the tasks
to develop a process that guarantees improvement for future products at least for
the consumers problems of the today's products - result the so called Small QFD /
FMEA
to implement Small QFD / FMEA within EHP
Since 2001 Senior Platform Manager in R&D of Cooking Kitchen High - Built in Ovens -
main tasks
to develop a strategy that on one side reduces complexity (platform) but on the
other side ensures to have enough variability to be able to differentiate the
product ranges of the different Brands Electrolux deals with
to ensure that all the running and future projects for built in ovens of Cooking
Kitchen High for the European market fit into our platform strategy.