QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

Quality Function Deployment: A Comprehensive Reflection



Quality Function Deployment: A Comprehensive Reflection

Introduction

Since the invention of the cannon, the explosive fills used to drive lethal mechanisms have been the subject of ever increasing interest and study. Traditionally, munitions designers have used such explosives as Comp-B, TNT, or LX-14, depending upon the particular application. While these munitions passed various safety and rough handling tests in order to be certified for fielding, they may still experience a severe adverse reaction if caught in a fire or hit by bullets, fragments, or other battlefield threats. Indeed, many well-documented accidents/incidents happen over the years involving explosive ordnance (Sallis, 2002).

Discussion

In an effort to improve munitions survivability and safety, the Department of Defense (through the Joint Requirements Oversight Council) several years ago established a policy requiring all new munitions be capable of withstanding accidents, fires, or enemy attack. One method of addressing this requirement, the use of "Insensitive Munitions" (IM), including propellants and explosives, was mandated. Thus a new class of IM explosives has been developed over the past decade. Because these IM formulations differ somewhat from each other in a variety of ways (physical properties, explosive output, manufacturing process and cost, sensitivity and toxicity, etc.,) the explosive selection process for a given munition has become more complex (Sallis, 2002). How, then, do we determine which of these many explosives formulations is best to use for a particular munitions design?

To deal more effectively with this challenge, some munitions-design teams used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as a decision support tool for their explosive downselect process. QFD provides an organized, step-by-step approach to comparing how well a particular solution addresses customer needs. Recently, the Army's "Excalibur" artillery projectile development program, located at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., used QFD to support their explosives downselect decision. They established a multi-functional QFD team consisting of explosives design experts, munitions systems analysts and engineers, and a QFD facilitator. To assure all relevant parties were represented, team members were drawn from the Army (including the authors of this article), Navy, government, and contractor organizations.

The QFD Approach

The QFD team tackled the problem using the four-step process described in Figure 1.

Step 1

Determine who the customers are and what they need. We decided there were two sets of customers involved with the IM explosive decision:

* The warfighter who uses the munition.

* The Program Manager who is responsible for developing and manufacturing the munition (Zbaracki, 2000).

The user/warfighter's military ...