to marketing/sales and services (Jikar et al. 2007).
Akao (1990) defines the QFD process as a method for
determining design qualities that are aligned with
customer expectations, and then translating the customer
requirements into design targets and critical
quality assurance points that can be used throughout
production or service development. QFD has been
extended for application in any planning process
where a team wants to systematically prioritize its
possible solutions to a given set of objectives (Urban
and Hauser 1993). Gonzalez (2001) states that QFD
has two fundamental purposes:
1. To improve the communication of customer
requirements throughout the company
2. To improve the completeness of specifications and
to make the specifications directly traceable to
customer requirements and needs
In recent years, QFD has received more attention
because of its perceived benefits and its fundamental
role in the Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma
methodologies. The major benefits of applying QFD
are (Benner et al. 2003):