Design function deployment-a design for quality system

The integration of the quality function into engineering design, has become an imperative necessity in today's design and manufacturing industry. This move has been primarily aimed at satisfying the ever increasing sophisticated needs of customers. Design and quality, are hence considered necessary ingredients for meeting these demands. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the capabilities and potentials of a comprehensive design system, called design function deployment, DFD, developed at City University Engineering Design Centre. The system was developed by the expansion of quality function deployment (QFD) and the integration of other important aspects of design. Design function deployment incorporates useful features of various design models and methods, uses QFD techniques to translate explicit and implicit customers' requirements into design requirements in a solution neural form, and accommodates several auxiliary design methods necessary for a simultaneous engineering approach to design.<>