Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a method pioneered by the Japanese in the late 60's as a way of translating consumer demands into design targets. To quote Yoji Akao (Akao 1988):
"With such fast paced change occurring these days, especially in our social and economic environment, many companies are facing rapid changes in industrial structure bought about by the technological innovation and changing consumer trends. These companies are finding that the effort to develop new products is crucial for their survival."
Part of the matrix for the QFD correlating attributes to measurable criteria
Immediately, one might conclude that the notion of consumers is, for the most part, not relevant to the business of launching payloads to orbit, or at least the situation is not at all similar to a person in the market for a new VCR. This perception is entirely incorrect. In so far as there are customers with demands for better or new products then QFD is fully applicable. The business of translating these demands from the vague and qualitative (and not very useful) to the more specific and material is custom made for a method such as QFD.
A QFD has certain requirements. Customer definition must be given great thought. Teams must be synergistic. The qualities of our systems, attributes such as responsiveness or flexibility, must be fully explored, defined and related. Possible measures of these qualities must be determined. Finally, the relation of the specific measures to qualitative attributes must be explored, reasoned out, and weighted. The process is methodical and with relentless pressure yields the insights leading to the all important design targets that eventually must guide product development.
Besides countless information on the World Wide Web (searches on "QFD" will yield a variety of papers, organizations and other information) one book suggested here for further reading is the translation from the Japanese of Yoji Akao's "Quality Function Deployment - Integrating Customer Requirements into Product Design".
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Edgar Zapata, NASA Kennedy Space Center
Shuttle Process Engineering Directorate, Fluid Systems Division