Quality function deployment: A literature review

This paper presents a literature review of quality function deployment (QFD) based on a reference bank of about 650 QFD publications established through searching various sources. The origination and historical development of QFD, especially in Japan and the US, are briefly accounted first, followed by a partial list of QFD organizations, softwares, and online resources. Then a categorical analysis is conducted about QFD's functional fields, applied industries and methodological development. Ten informative QFD publications are also suggested, particularly for those who are not yet familiar with QFD. It is hoped that the paper can serve the needs of researchers and practitioners for easy references of QFD studies and applications, and hence promote QFD's future development. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.