Quality function deployment in construction

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a system for translating customer requirements (government regulations, operating conditions and buyer expectations) into suitable technical characteristics and ensuring that important ones are prioritized in the design. The method has been successfully applied in the manufacturing sector; however, its benefits have not yet been fully realized in construction. The House of Quality (HoQ), the most common 'tool' in QFD, has been used to identify and analyse customer requirements for a new children's nursery. A focus group was formed to gather these and a comparison made between an existing nursery and two competitors to ensure that the new build was designed to be at least as good as its competition. The results showed that QFD could be applied in construction projects as a tool for considering the most important customer requirements from the outset, with favourable indicators of project success (on-time delivery and customer satisfaction). In addition, the case study company considered it to be an innovative approach and has used the results in its designs.