Lean six sigma process improvement tools and techniques by donna summers a

• A QFD is used to capture the voice of the customer and translate it into technical information that an organization can use in order to create or improve a product... • Building a QF

Quality Function Deployment

• A Quality Function Deployment diagram is

a matrix used to depict customer

requirements

• A QFD is used to capture the voice of the

customer and translate it into technical

information that an organization can use in order to create or improve a product

– Developed in Japan in the 1970s

– Dr Akao

• QFD’s are planning and communication

tools:

– Used for new product development

– Used to conform to customer demands

– Used any time you have customers and you

need to identify their expectations and turn

that information into workable technical

specifications.

• QFDs are planning and communication

tools:

– Used to help set strategic targets

– Used to help determine priority issues

– Used for analysis

– Used to estimate what the competition is

doing

– Used to integrate complex information

– Development of new ideas

– Remove suggestiveness from the product

development process

• Building a QFD

– Determine the Voice of the Customer

– Have the customer rank the relative importance of his/her wants

– Have the customer evaluate your company against competitors

– Determine how the wants will be met

– Determine the direction of improvement for the technical requirements

– Determine the operational goals for the technical requirements

– Determine the relationship between each of the customer wants and the technical requirements

– Determine the correlation between the technical requirements.

– Compare the technical performance with that of competitors

– Determine the column weights

– Add regulatory and/or internal requirements

– Analyze the QFD matrix

• Determine the Voice of the Customer

– Capture the Voice of the Customer

– Organize the Voice of the Customer

• Determine the Voice of the Customer:

Four types of customers

– Those customers we already have and can’t

lose

– Those customers we could lose easily

– Those customers we could gain with minor

product changes

– Those customers we can’t get.

• Determine the Voice of the Customer:

Categories of Customers

• Planner: Matches product with organizational need

• Funder: Pays for product, installation, maintenance, or operation

• Auditor: Prevents misuse of product

• Installer: Integrates product into its environment

• Maintainer: Repairs the product

• Operator: works with product

• User 1: directly benefits from using product but may not be

• Determine the Voice of the Customer:

Kano Model

Physically fulfilled condition Satisfied Feeling

Basic level

of Quality Exciting level

of Quality

• Determine the Voice of the Customer:

Capturing Customer information

– Determine people to talk to

• Determine the target market

• Determine whether or not to survey with or without samples of the current product

• Determine whether or not to use an outside organization to conduct the surveys

• Determine the Voice of the Customer:

Capturing Customer information

– Determine people to talk to

• Determine how to contact the customers

– Focus groups – Interviews (telephone, one-on-one, web/email) – Questionnaires

– Product clinics – Observations

• Ask for Examples

• Determine the Voice of the Customer

– Be sure to ask: What questions didn’t we ask

that we should have?

– Be sure to capture the verbatims

• How did the customer say what they said?

• Step 1: Determine the Voice of the

Customer

– What does the customer want?

– Organize the Voice of the Customer

• Using one ‘voice’ per post-it note, write down all information

• Sort/organize the information (including verbatims) that you have gathered

• Step 2: Have the customer rank the relative

importance of his/her wants

• Rank them all (Ten is highest rank One is lowest.)

• Figure 11.4

• Step 3: Have the customer evaluate your

company against competitors

• Chose two competitors

• Have customer rank first, second, third

• The organization with the most firsts is ranked first

• Step 4: Determine how the wants will be

met

– How will the company provide for the wants?

• Translate the Voice of the Customer

• Turn verbatims into technical requirements

• Figure 11.6

Customer Verbatim -> Technical Requirement

Cup stays cool -> Temperature at hand

Won’t spill or tip: -> Tip force at top, fluid loss vertical/horizontal impact

• Step 5: Determine the direction of

improvement for the technical

requirements

• Figure 11.7

– A downward arrow means that improvement would happen if we reduced the technical requirements value – An upward arrow means that improvement would

happen if we increased the technical requirements value – A circle means it should not be changed.

• Step 6: Determine the operational goals for the

technical requirements

• Figure 11.8

• Step 7: Determine the relationship between each

of the customer wants and the technical

• Step 9: Compare the technical

performance with that of competitors

• Step 10: Determine the column weights

• Multiply rankings by correlation values

• Figure 11.12

• Step 11: Add regulatory and/or internal

requirements

• Figure 11.12

• Step 12: Analyze the QFD matrix

• What did the customer want?

• How is this supported by customer rankings and competitive comparisons?

• How well is the competition doing?

• How does our company compare?

• Where will our emphasis need to be?