Potential for use of a House of Quality matrix technique in rehabilitation engineering [wheelchair customized seating]

This article describes a concept of using the House of Quality matrix tool to aid the process of designing customized seating. The work of a cross-function team in two seating clinics was videotaped. At a later date the information derived from the videotapes was analyzed using a House of Quality matrix. We were interested in the capacity of House of Quality to draw out customer requirements in a seating device and relate engineering requirements for manufacturing the seating. The scores for engineering features derived from the matrix were compared with the features the cross-function team treated with high priority and also the features which the team experienced most difficulty in satisfying as revealed in the video viewed. The matrix scores demonstrated the House of Quality's capacity to select key features 50% of the time. House of Quality was time-consuming to execute. Its application in everyday clinical settings is limited by this fact.