A reassessment of the QFD product development methodology from the perspective of knowledge creation and utilisation

Abstract

The quality function deployment (QFD) methodology has been in use for over 40 years and is still going strong as an important methodology for product innovation, and it is consequently of interest to account for what outcomes a company can expect. Departing from the construct of potential and realised absorptive capacity, the framework included the concepts of organisational learning, transactional memory systems and tacit and explicit transformation. The conclusion is that the QFD methodology is an important instrument for knowledge creation and utilisation in product innovation. The scientific evidence indicates that this often unrecognised capability can be a 'hidden gem' in methodology use. The matrix named the House of Quality emerged in an era when the QFD methodology foremost was regarded as a quality tool, but in the light of the findings, one could suggest that this matrix today could more properly be renamed as the House of Knowledge.