Quality Function Deployment Procedure for LzBellz Ltd. | ISO 9001 QMS Audit

The assignment focuses on the use of QFD, but is not primarily an assignment about QFD. The QFD process provides the focus for a procedure (and audit of that procedure). The assignment does not expect a QFD to be undertaken, nor detailed knowledge of QFD beyond what can be easily sourced online. The level of QFD required does not go beyond what was covered in the block course, and a zoom recording and lecture notes exists for that material. Case Scenario
LzBellz Ltd. are a medium-sized manufacturer of home and office alarm systems. The organisation consists of a Chief Executive (Jayne), supported by managers for production, quality, finance, HR, and Sales & Marketing. Lzbellz Ltd. produce a range of standard alarm systems for sale by the major retail chains (The Alarm Warehouse, Bunnings Warehouse, Mitre 10 and ten more smaller chains or single retailers) and also produce bespoke security systems and solutions whereby the sales team deal directly with end-user customers (via a ‘shop window’ website) and produce tailored solutions depending on the type, size and nature of premises involved.

Lzbellz Ltd. have found over recent years that their designs are not competing well in the market, and they are losing market share to close competitors (The Loud Alarm Co., Scream Inc. and Eco Alarms).
They are also experiencing some problemsin relation to manufacture, that stem from designs that are proving difficult to produce. As the recently appointed quality manager, you suggest at a management meeting that if design is an issue and competitor designs are being preferred by the market, then maybe Quality Function Deployment is a possible answer. No-one knows anything about QFD, but you manage to sell it internally on the basis of an impressive presentation. The CEO agrees that the method should be adopted, and after an initial attempt proves worthwhile, requests for a standard operating procedure (SOP) to be developed that means QFD is used in a consistent way going forward.

Assignment task 1: Put yourself in the shoes of the production manager of LzBellz Ltd, and develop a procedure that conforms to the relevant requirements (and/or any relevant guidelines) of ISO 9001, relating to how Quality Function Deployment should be carried out within LzBellz.
Notes on task 1
• Note 1: There are several ways to do a QFD, so in order to introduce some methodical consistency, we will assume that the organisation has adopted the template ‘traditionalhoq.xlt’ that was used in the block course. You can find it in the QFD session on stream. This will take care of the finer details of QFD such as carrying out calculations, meaning that they do not need to be written into the procedure. This leaves you free to focus on how to obtain the information that needs to go into the template sections. So your procedure should have enough detail to enable the matrices listed below (1-7) to be populated with relevant data (but no detail on how calculations are performed – spreadsheet takes care of that) consider what documents and records will be produced that fall under ISO 9001 documentation requirements.
• Note 3: Make whatever assumptions become necessary as you proceed. Clearly, you cannot specify everything, know who every customer is, what they want or how competitors perform. This assignment is about how QFD should be generally used and integrated into the product and
process design. Use your judgement here.
• Note 4: Follow any necessary document control requirements of ISO 9001. You can invent a numbering or file labelling system as required.
After some successful months of use, QFD proves effective, complaints, repairs and returns begin to fall and production are happier. Market share begins to increase. Marketing are even promoting the company’s use of the tool externally as a competitive advantage.
Task 2: An audit of the ISO 9001 QMS has been scheduled for next month. Now put yourself in the shoes of one of the QMS auditors who will conduct the audit. The lead auditor has assigned to you the QFD procedure (which was developed for task 1). Develop a checklist and audit plan for how you will now conduct a conformance audit against that procedure, and under the requirements.