Design requirement absolute importance

A major objective of QFD 1 is to derive a prioritised list of design requirements to enable design effort to be focused on areas that will make the maximum contribution to satisfying the customer. To do this it is necessary to assign numerical values to the relationships in the matrix. The values used are:

Weak relationship	=	1
Medium relationship	=	3
Strong relationship	=	9

The numerical values of the relationships are multiplied by the importance weighting for the relevant customer requirement, and the results added for the matrix column associated with each design requirement. The total is displayed in the 'Absolute importance' cell

The design requirements with the highest totals are those which are most closely involved in satisfying the customer's wants and needs. These are the ones that we must get right. The design requirements with low scores are those which are not very important to the customer. These are the ones where we can possibly afford to compromise. The ranking of the design requirements is displayed in the Ranking row on the chart. It can also be displayed and printed graphically on an interactive bar graph.

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