Apply Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to support improvement in food and drink operations

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This standard is about the skills and knowledge needed to apply Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as part of your organisation's drive to increase the effectiveness and productivity of food and drink operations. This is a formal approach to defining customer needs and expressing these in plans to develop products and services to meet these needs. It is the deployment of customer-driven needs/qualities to the responsible functions of a business. This is important in the achievement of excellence and the success of manufacture, processing and supply across the food and drink supply chain.

You will need to apply and understand the practices and principles of Quality Function Deployment to meet the business objectives set out in your organisation's improvement plan. You will need to show and know how to present deployment to relevant people within the organisation, including management colleagues. You will need to know how to comply with your company policy for improvement, take responsibility for your actions, and refer any issues outside of the limit of your authority to others.

This standard is for you if you work in food and drink operations including, manufacturing, processing, packing or supply chain activities. You may be a process development technologist or have responsibilities for aspects of organisational improvement in a team leadership or management role.

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1. the organisation's improvement vision, strategy, objectives and the reasons for implementation of improvement programmes
2. how the health, safety and hygiene requirements of a work area can influence the QFD technique
3. the advantages of using QFD to support the delivery of your organisation's improvement strategy and plan
4. the `quality lever' and how QFD fits this model
5. the meaning and use of the terms house of quality' andvoice of the customer'
6. how to develop and plan a QFD activity
7. how QFD relates to other improvement techniques
8. the tools used as part of a QFD activity
9. the four phases of QFD including necessary inputs and outputs for each phase
10. what are the customer's requirements within a QFD project, in terms of needs and expectations, features and functions
11. how to produce matrices for relationships, specifications, technical requirements and planning
12. how to score matrices within the QFD
13. levels of authority linked to problem resolution
14. how to report deployment and present recommendations