(Quality Function Deployment) QFD is a system for translating consumer requirements into appropriate company requirements at each stage from research and product development to engineering and manufacturing to marketing/sales and distribution. It means, "how do we understand the quality that our customers expect and make it happen in a dynamic way."

Basically, the most important thing to know about QFD is that it is a systematic way to ensure customer requirements drive the design process. QFD ensures customer requirements are met through the use of a tool called the House of Quality--a complex graphical tool which is essentially a product planning matrix.