Quality Function Deployment Implementation in Construction: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The construction of new buildings represents a significant investment. The goal of new building construction is to maximize value and minimize cost while staying on time and within budget. Translating customer requirements into engineering terms for new construction design is vital for a construction project to be successful. Quality function deployment has been successfully used in product development to capture the voice of the customer and translate it into engineering characteristics. Quality function deployment then carries these parameters into production and service to ensure the voice of the customer is being met with the final product. The house of quality, a tool within quality function deployment, can provide a means for comparison of owner’s project requirements and the proposed design, along with identifying how the design decisions impact meeting customer requirements and green building requirements. Quality function deployment can effectively link the project phases through design and construction and into operations and maintenance to ensure the owner’s project requirements are met with the final building. This research identifies and categorizes studies of quality function deployment applications in construction. The research method used is a systematic literature review from databases related to quality function deployment in the construction industry published in the periodicals through 2016. The principal findings of implementations, practices, and integrated approaches are then summarized. This article intends to propel further research of quality function deployment in the construction sector.