Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

© 2009 ~ Mark Polczynski Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 1

An Integrated Strategic Technology Planning and Development Environment

New Concept Ideation

Scenario Planning

Technology Roadmapping Voice of the Customer Intellectual Property Generation Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 2

Voice of the Customer Input Process:

• Purpose ~

Reveal

unrecognized customer needs - what we

don’t

~

Validate

our perceptions and plans - what we

do

know.

know. •

Desired Strengths

~ Systematic vs. anecdotal – turns over most of the rocks.

~ Fact-based vs. opinion-based

prioritization

of needs.

•

Potential Weaknesses

~ Can create inappropriate customer

expectations

.

~ Risks compromising intellectual property – tip our hand.

~ Can keep us from being more inventive than our customers.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 3

QFD Resources

• We will be using a QFD format based on QFD Designer, available from IDEACore ( www.ideacore.com

). You can download a free demo version of their product from their web site. The download contains a good users manual.

• Another good reference is: Quality Function Deployment, by Lou Cohen.

• Also, here is a link to an on-line QWFD tutorial by Dr. Robert Hunt. This includes some templates you might find useful.

http://www.gsm.mq.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/internet/Root/research/ researchclusters/cmit/tutorials/ Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 4

Quality Function Deployment

• Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a common general method invented in Japan in the late sixties initially to support the ship building product design process.

• QFD has been adapted and expanded to apply to

any planning process

that requires: ~ identification and prioritization (

whys

) ~ of possible responses (

hows

) ~ to a given set of objectives (

whats

).

• Other formal, systematic V-O-C processes exist. We use QFD to demonstrate one way to obtain customer inputs.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 5

HKT



QFD

Origin of the term Quality Function Deployment: • • • Hinshitsu Kino Tenkai  quality; qualities; features; attributes  function; mechanization  deployment; diffusion; development; evolution So, somehow, we ended up calling this “Quality Function Deployment”, But it just as well could have been “Attributes Mechanization Evolution”.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 6

• • • • •

What specific problems are solved by QFD?

Poor understanding of

customer needs

~ Solve the wrong problems, miss the big problems.

Failure to strategically

prioritize

efforts ~ No time and money left to solve the most important problems.

Willingness to take on

unmanageable risks

~ Don’t know what we are committing to.

Overreliance on formal

specifications

~ Spec often misses “contextual cues”, e.g., why are we building this in the first place?

Fixing the

wrong

problems ~ Often times forced to ship product before all bugs are eliminated, so did we fix enough of the

most important

bugs?

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 7

• •

NOTE!

QFD takes significant time and effort to do correctly.

It is explicitly (visibly) time-consuming – meetings, reviews, delays.

• •

BUT…

Every issue resolved by QFD before-the-fact..

Must be resolved after the fact anyway!

Pay me now, or pay me later - with interest.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 8

Purpose of QFD

1.

Find out what your

customer’s

specific needs are (

WHATs

), 2.

Determine the things

you

need to work on (

HOWs

), 3.

Determine

priorities

of what you should work on (

WHYS

).

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 9

Example QFD

• The following is an example of QFD applied to the “Perfect Mousetrap”, from QFD Designer.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 10

The Whole Nine Yards

Please remain calm, it’s not that bad!

Whys

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos.

: med. pos.

: wk. pos.

+ : med. neg.

# : str. neg.

11

QFD Diagram is sometimes call the “House of Quality” because of the shape.

But people use the term “House of Quality” for other diagrams, too.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 12

Building a QFD Matrix

It’s not as bad as it looks!

• You can build it

one section at a time

.

– Phase 1: Whats – Phase 2: Hows – Phase 3: Whys

Let’s look at the steps in building the matrix…

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 13

QFD Phase 1: Whats

Phase 1: Whats Phase 2: Hows Phase 3: Whys Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 14

Phase 1

1. Gather WHATs These are the desired effects you are trying to bring about.

Not problems or solutions!

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 15

Phase 1

2.

Quantify Importances of WHATs Rated by customer , not by you.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 16

3. Identify WHAT-WHAT Correlations How do the WHATs affect each other?

Phase 1

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

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17

A trap that kills quickly is not easy to set, so this is a strong negative correlation.

Phase 1

Many negative correlations tells

customer

that product will be expensive and will take a long time to develop.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos.

: med. pos.

: wk. pos.

+ : med. neg.

# : str. neg.

18

Controls customer expectations!

Phase 1

Customer may choose to re-prioritize items with strong negative interactions.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos.

: med. pos.

: wk. pos.

+ : med. neg.

# : str. neg.

19

Negative correlations are prime targets for “

ideation

” processes.

“How can we make a trap that kills quickly

and

is easy to set?”

Sneak Preview

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos.

: med. pos.

: wk. pos.

+ : med. neg.

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20

Details of WHATs section

Logical

grouping

of WHATs… Eliminates Mice Controls Luring Easy to Use Effective Luring Good Camouflage Effectiveness Reliable Small Kills Quickly etc… Safety Easy to Bait Easy to Set Easy to Empty etc… Safe to Set Safe from Kids etc… Government EPA etc… Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 21

4.

Gather Competitor Ratings Your

customer’s

assessment of your

current

offering vs. your competitors.

Phase 1

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 22

Your Product High High Low Low High High Low Low Competitor Product High Low High Low High Low High Low Customer Need High High High High Low Low Low Low

RELATIVE

Importance ?

Low High

?

?

?

?

?

.

5. Determine Required Improvement Which really needs improvement?

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Phase 1

23

Your Product High High Low Low High High Low Low Competitor Product High Low High Low High Low High Low Customer Need High High High High Low Low Low Low

RELATIVE

Importance ?

Low High

?

?

?

?

?

Phase 1

What will

your

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 24

Thus Ends Phase 1 - Whats Phase 1

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 25

Hints on Identifying WHATs

• WHATs tend to show up in

similar forms

for different customers/applications/products, • Thus, there will always be some

basic commonality

to the list of WHATs.

• You probably don’t need to start from scratch every time once you’ve done a few of these, • You can probably

build a common library

of generic WHATs, • Identifying WHATs in this structured environment gets much easier with experience!

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 26

Nevertheless!

• You still need to interview the customers to get WHATs, • Just in case a new need is emerging.

• Further, this is a great way to build good customer relations, • Even if you already know all the answers, • Since “sympathetic listening” is a powerful tool.

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 27

QFD Phase 2 – HOWs

Phase 1: Whats

Phase 2: Hows

Phase 3: Whys Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 28