W. Edwards Deming is widely credited with planting the seeds of statistical process quality control in Japan. The Japanese, as willing learners, carried forward his use of data-driven management into broader company-wide applications. One of these applications, quality function deployment (QFD), applies Deming's quality principles to the field of new product development. The goal of QFD is to uncover positive quality that will excite the customer, and then to ensure the quality of all downstream activities in design, manufacturing, service, etc. QFD is a comprehensive quality system aimed specifically at satisfying the customer. It concentrates on maximizing customer satisfaction (positive quality) by seeking out both spoken and unspoken needs, translating these into actions and designs, and communicating these throughout the organization. In the global Internet economy of the 21st century customers have more choice than ever, and success will come to those businesses that make the effort to understand their customers, regardless of where they are located.