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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 69, Applications of statistical methods, Subcommittee SC 8, Application of statistical and related methodology for new technology and product development.
A list of all parts in the ISO 16355 series can be found on the ISO website.
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Introduction
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a method to assure customer or stakeholder satisfaction and value with new and existing products by designing in, from different levels and different perspectives, the requirements that are most important to the customer or stakeholder. These requirements are well understood through the use of quantitative and non-quantitative tools and methods to improve confidence of the design and development phases that they are working on the right things. In addition to satisfaction with the product, QFD improves the process by which new products are developed.
Reported results of using QFD include improved customer satisfaction with products at time of launch, improved cross-functional communication, systematic and traceable design decisions, efficient use of resources, reduced rework, reduced time-to-market, lower life cycle cost, improved reputation of the organization among its customers or stakeholders.
The current ISO 16355 series describes methods and tools of QFD independent of industry because the principles of applying statistical methods for product and technology development are similar for all types of products. However, when applying the standard for the development of fully or partially digitized products, specific characteristics of digital goods in product development (such as measurability, immateriality, etc.) should be taken into account. Digital goods such as software are specific in economies of scale and network effects and thus require specific strategies and concepts for design, development and marketing. Due to the progress of digitalization in almost any market, the observed phenomena and measures gain relevance and importance in business and academia. Hence the emerging convergences in industries, suppliers, businesses and products cause a game change in markets for digital or digitized goods.
Therefore, this document describes guidelines for developing digitalized products and services. It aims at adapting the (QFD) process, its purpose, users, and tools as they are described in the ISO 16355 series with respect to the specific characteristics of digitalized products and services. All companies affected by the digitization of their products and services are intended users of this document.
The methods and tools shown and described represent decades of improvements to QFD; the list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive. Users should consider the applicable methods and tools as suggestions, not requirements. As the other parts of the ISO 16355 series, this document is descriptive and discusses current best practice; it is not prescriptive by requiring specific tools and methods.
1 Scope
The current ISO 16355 series is written intentionally independent of industry because the principles of applying statistical methods for product and technology development are similar for all types of products. However, when applying the standard for the development of fully or partially digitized products in practice, specific characteristics of digital goods in product development (such as measurability, immateriality, economies of scale effects, etc.) are taken into account.
This document gives guidelines for adapting the quality function deployment (QFD) process, its purpose, users, and tools as they are described in the ISO 16355 series that consider these specific characteristics for developing digitalized products and services. Table 1 illustrates the scope of this document by stating examples of the types of products the standard focuses on.
Users of this document include all organization functions necessary to assure customer satisfaction, including business planning, marketing, sales, research and development (R&D), engineering, information technology (IT), manufacturing, procurement, quality, production, service, packaging and logistics, support, testing, regulatory, and other phases in hardware, software, service, and system organizations.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 16355-1, Application of statistical and related methods to new technology and product development process — Part 1: General principles and perspectives of quality function deployment (QFD)