Texas Nameplate Company uses innovative processes and technology to produce custom nameplates in small batches. The company develops tools like dashboards to help achieve quality excellence. Quality Function Deployment is a key technique used to translate customer requirements into technical specifications throughout the product design and production processes. It involves constructing a matrix called the "House of Quality" to relate customer needs to technical features based on 6 steps including identifying attributes, features, and their relationships.

1. Tools and Techniques for
Performance Excellence

2. PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE PROFILE:
 TEXAS NAMEPLATE COMPANY, INC.

3. Located in Dallas, Texas.
Privately held, family business that produces
custom nameplates in small and frequent orders
primarily for small businesses nationwide and
abroad.

4. Effective use of innovative, systematic processes
and technology is helping TNC achieve its goal
to be:
“Better, not Bigger”.

5. The company develop innovative technology:
 The New Hotrod
 Real-time Dashboard
 Pipeline Dashboard

6. Tools for Quality Design
 Costumers needs and expectation drive the planning
process for products and the systems by which they
are produce.
 Marketing plays a key role in identifying costumer
expectation.

7. Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
 Is a method used to ensure that costumers’ requirements
are met throughout the product design process and in the
design operation of production system.
 QFD originated in 1972 at Mitsubishi’s Kobe shipyard
site. Toyota began to develop the concept shortly
thereafter, and it has been used since 1977.

8.  It is a tool used to translate the preferences of the
costumer into specific technical requirements.
 The costumer requirements– expressed in their own
terms– are appropriately called the voice of the
costumer.
 Technical features are the translation of the voice of
the costumer into technical language.

9.  A set of matrices is used to relate the voice of the
costumer to technical features and production
planning and control requirements.
 The basic planning document is called the
costumer requirement planning matrix (House of
Quality).

10. Building the House of Quality requires six basic steps:
1. Identify costumer attributes.
2. Identify technical features.
3. Relate the costumer attributes to the technical
features.
4. Evaluate competing products.
5. Evaluate technical features and develop targets.
6. Determine which technical features to deploy in the
production process.

11. Interrelationship
Technical features
Relationships between
costumer attributes and
technical features
Figure 7.1 The House of Quality
Voice of
costumer
Importance
of costumer
attributes
Competitive
evaluation
Priorities of technical
features