Quality Function Deployment and Six Sigma: A QFD Handbook, Second Edition

1. What Are QFD and Six Sigma?

This chapter provides an orientation to Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Six Sigma. It begins with a brief overview of each of these topics. It then provides a chronology of events that led to the current state of QFD and its integration with Six Sigma in the United States. Finally, the chapter discusses some of the ways QFD is being used, independently and together with Six Sigma methodologies today, to provide a sense of the applicability and flexibility of the methods. Current best practices have evolved in the Six Sigma community to include Lean Manufacturing Methods and tools, and therefore is sometimes called Lean Six Sigma or Lean Sigma. For the sake of avoiding certain definition issues, the term Six ...