Tài liệu Customer Satisfaction Monitoring doc

If you would like more information on customer satisfaction monitoring, or any of MMTC’s other outstanding management activities, such as Activity-Based Costing or Quality Systems, plea

Published for Michigan’s Small and

Midsize Manufacturers

Volume 4, Issue 2, Spring 1998

Dear

Manufacturers ,

The most

valuable

customer is

one who

has

already

been served A study

commissioned by the US

Department of Commerce

pointed out that for small

and midsize

manufacturing firms it

costs five times as much to

get a customer as it does to

keep one The study also

showed that seven out of

ten customers never

complain when they have a

problem Those two facts

alone are reason enough for

manufacturers to get out

and talk to customers,

listen to what they say, and

make some changes to keep

them coming back.

Customer loyalty works!

In this issue of

Manufact-line, we focus on how to

listen to customers You

may want to spot little

problems before they

become big problems, or

you may see the chance to

build more business with

current customers In any

case, knowing your

customers has become a key

issue in the late 1990s.

If you would like more

information on customer

satisfaction monitoring, or

any of MMTC’s other

outstanding management

activities, such as

Activity-Based Costing or Quality

Systems, please give us a

call.

Sincerely,

Michael Coast

MMTC Executive Director

Customer Satisfaction Monitoring

10 Steps to Getting the Impact You Want

Listen to your customers! It seems every business journal, magazine, and best selling business guru are telling management to be customer focused and really listen to customers So, when a company decides to begin monitoring customers’

satisfaction through a survey, the expectations are high

The company announces the process, develops a question-naire, sends it out, and then awaits the results The results trickle in, are tabu-lated, and a presentation is made to management Many times the survey finds no surprises, offers few, if any insights into customer’s attitudes, and after a couple

of weeks the whole process is forgotten The experience is disappointing How can you use customer satisfaction monitoring as an opportunity

to increase your customers’

loyalty, and have a positive impact on your business?

Surveying customers seems simple on the surface, espe-cially when there are few customers, but in reality customer satisfaction moni-toring is complex It is not easy to get solid, actionable answers from customers that can help you improve your company and increase customer loyalty, but it can be done

To help you develop a winning customer satisfaction program, I’d like to share some common issues our business services team have discovered while helping many small and midsize manufacturers develop their customer satisfaction surveys, select who to survey, execute the interviews, and act on the results They are not in any priority, but fall into three categories: designing the pro-cess, executing the survey, and analyzing and acting on the results

1 Decide the Purpose for

Customer Satisfaction Monitoring

There are many reasons to survey customers First, decide what you are trying to accom-plish Some people want to know how competitive their company is Others want questions that relate to their mission statement and strategic plan Still others will relate the questions to their continuous improvement program All these reasons are valid, how-ever, pick just one When they are mixed together, the results are less than satisfactory

what to do but usually the questions are so vague no one knows what to do, or has the budget to solve the problem, so the issues also soon disappear

The solution is to ask most of the questions about actionable items The quick way to find out if an item is actionable is to ask your managers, if this question comes back “dissatis-fied” what can we do to change

it to “very satisfied”?

Examples of changing vague questions to actionable ques-tions:

n (vague) How happy are you with our parts selection?

n (actionable) How many times have you called for a welding accessory and been told that we don’t carry that part?

n (vague) How satisfied are you with our product quality?

n (actionable) How many times have you found scratches on the coatings of our parts?

The actionable questions tell a company several important things: 1) a quantifiable volume

of lost sales — what this problem is costing the company

in dollars; 2) the number of times a customer is aggravated;

and 3) it gives a specific, finite set of parts or services to focus attention on Management can take action on these questions

The narrow focus of the actionable questions may steer some companies away from this type of question, however, with proper planning manage-ment should be able to provide input on which areas are the important ones for customers

3 Understand What You Mean

by Satisfaction

For many companies, satisfac-tion merely means you are allowed to continue bidding for jobs Generally, customer satisfaction is composed of three areas:

n Importance—How relatively important is this issue to the customer?

n Expectation—What are the customer’s expectations on this issue? How do excel-lent companies perform on this issue?

n Performance—How do we stack up on this issue? This

is the last part of the satis-faction equation

Michael Porter, a well known business author, has stated that companies that are in transi-tion markets from growth to maturity, or have aging prod-ucts, many times have inaccu-rate self-perceptions of their market position or capabilities

A statement such as “we are the quality leader” may once have been true, but due to priority changes with buyers or com-petitors, it many times is no longer valid An exceptional quality part may once have gotten you a big job but those standards move up Previous quality levels may now be the expectation of the buyer

4 Keep the Entire Process

Concise and On Time

If the customer satisfaction project is dragged out manage-ment will forget about it, and forget the importance and original purpose Keep the process moving forward with periodic updates for those with interest in the results Cus-tomer satisfaction monitoring often takes a backseat to more urgent issues, and can have the plug pulled on it if something crucial occurs Delivering the results in a timely fashion is as important as commitment to the process

2 Writing the Questions –

Focus On Things You Can Change

I have read many surveys, and some of them fall into the category of “popularity con-test” The questions focus on whether the customer enjoys doing business with the supplier or not “How We Doin’?” was the title of one questionnaire This question is asked in many ways: “How’s our quality?” “How’s our selection?” “How’s our on-time delivery?” Managers ask these questions because they think 1) ultimately that is what they need to know, and 2) by directly asking the question they save the respondent time and reduce the risk of aggravat-ing them Nine times out of ten the customer will answer

“great” because it takes less time than to answer the ques-tion meaningfully These kinds

of questions do not give you information that you can use to make changes in your com-pany

When companies get positive responses to questions such as the above, the managers usually have a brief celebration, don’t gain any valuable

information, and go back to business as usual If the answers come back negative, there are discussions about

5 Keep the Analysis on a Level

Managers Can Understand

Although you may understand

the results of the conjoint

analysis, if you spend most of

your time explaining the

technique to management

before giving them the survey

results, you may end up talking

to an audience of blank stares

Results of customer satisfaction

surveys are often used for

employee performance reviews

If you are going to judge an

employee’s performance by

your client’s happiness, be very

certain you understand what

the results are saying and that

the person being judged will

understand them as well Most

people without statistics

coursework have an intuitive

understanding of descriptive

statistics (minimum, maximum,

mean, mode, median, and

standard deviation)

Correla-tion and covariance are

under-standable but give people much

more than they need, and they

will not believe what you are

telling them, especially if the

news is bad If you are

address-ing results to other managers,

give them suggestions on what

to do about problems, or at least

a sense of direction on how to

address the issue It is not

enough to simply point out the

problem Remember, the best

programs have addressed the

question “What will we do if

the answer is negative?” in the

design phase of the survey

6 Involve

Others

You need full support of

company management or you

will never get your customer

satisfaction program off the

ground Either the results will

be ignored or discounted, or

even worse, sales and

market-ing personnel may claim you

are pestering customers with

unwanted interviews

Cus-tomer satisfaction monitoring

must be a fully above board

effort

While it’s important to involve

employees and get them excited

about the process, you do not

have to involve them by

inviting them to develop questions If you do seek input from others in the survey development process, be certain that they clearly understand the purpose of the customer satisfaction monitoring activity

A couple of questions in a lot of different directions may satisfy your employees, but will not give you a great survey tool

It’s also important to share your company’s commitment to customer satisfaction with customers so they realize the importance of their participa-tion This is best done with an introductory letter, signed by the president of the company

The letter shows the impor-tance the process has for the company, and serves to intro-duce the interviewer to the respondent in a positive light

7 Don’t Be Afraid to Push

Customers a Bit

Many companies are so afraid

of aggravating customers that it inhibits them from communi-cating with them and develop-ing insights about their satis-faction They try to develop survey instruments that can be done in thirty seconds with

“yes or no” answers This provides meaningless answers

in which the respondent does not take time to consider his feelings and many times circles all “yes’s” It makes the com-pany administering the survey feel good for about a day, then the whole process is discarded

Most experts seem to feel that a survey should not exceed two pages or you do risk aggravat-ing customers, but within those two pages you can do a lot more to coax insights that can address problems or add value

to your products or services

Ask customers about problem areas, but also consider what experiences they have had that were positive

If you are trying to learn what customers think about a product, consider open ended survey questions in which you prompt them to tell the story of their experiences

Continued on page 9

8 Prepare Your Customers and

Involve Them

The best way to ensure you are touching on issues that matter

to your customers is to ask them

— What matters to you? It may sound foolish but it works By asking them in the design phase of the survey, you can pinpoint their priorities and get directly to the issues that mean the most and produce the most loyalty The best method for doing this is to work with a customer who is friendly enough to go out for a coffee or

a beer In a relaxed atmosphere, run a list of issues by the customer and ask them to rank ten issues by their importance

to them Once you know the important issues then ask additional questions to try and understand some of the subtle-ties that make that issue a sore spot for the customer From that encounter you can begin building your questions for the survey When the questionnaire

is completed, run it by the same customer for feed back and to ensure that you have captured the issue that they described

Doing all the upfront work really pays off since you are dealing with issues that truly affect your customers

9 For Your First Questionnaire,

Keep Things Simple and In Control

For the first attempt, select customers that really matter to your company Identify the best twenty-five and set a goal to interview all of them (a census, not a survey) As you gain experience and confidence, you might consider expanding the scope of your survey For example, the first expansion should stay with customers

This way, the person conduct-ing the survey does not have to deal with interview subjects who may have never heard of your company Staying with customers, one might compare big buyers to so-so customers and find out why they differ

Some managers think that since they are going through all the trouble of developing a ques-tionnaire and conducting the survey, they might as well get the most they can from the

About the Author: Bill Loomis

is Director of the Industrial Technology Institute’s Small Business Develop-ment Center (SBDC)

Mr Looms has assisted hundreds

of small and midsize manufac-turers in the areas

of customer satisfaction, strategic planning, organizational development, market develop-ment, and market research He has authored numerous articles for industry trade journals, as well as national publica-tions such as the New York Times

Susan P Cook Challenges Companies to Think and Act Differently

Author of Turned On: Eight Vital Insights to Energize Your People Customers, and Profits.

When asked about her philoso-phy, Sue Cook waxes about

“timeless wisdom” and

“tapping the heart,” and declares that “all of us are born loving, caring human beings.”

As children we love to inno-vate, collaborate and please others How can we regain the wisdom of our youth?”

No, Cook isn’t a New Age guru, and she won’t be running retreats in the woods to wor-ship Mother Earth She’s a business coach who spent 25 years in the corporate trenches, including a stint as vice president of Macy’s California and partners with Tom Peters….long enough to learn that the current boardroom mania for short term profits is stifling long-term innovation and customer satisfaction

In it’s place, Cook challenges companies to think and act differently to create value for a firm’s clients and employees while hoisting the bottom line

Cook posits this holistic managerial mantra of

“custom-ers, people and profits” as the

key to long-term vitality

Cook was given a golden opportunity to test her

long-stewing hypothesis in 1990, when, as founder of a consult-ing firm called Think Customer, she responded to a distress call from Marriott’s Roger Dow, General Sales Manager

“Marriott was facing a serious fiscal crisis,” Cook recalls She suggested to Dow that they bring together a select group of CEOs and execs from thriving, cutting-edge companies (among them Intel, Mary Kay Cosmetics and Charles Schwab) to informally share ideas that might help rescue them

The meeting, marked by a candid discussion of corporate change, redirected its members’

attention from 10 year plans on spreadsheets to humanistic values Bill Marriott, who had been skeptical of the meeting, left inspired to “get back to the roots of Marriott’s culture, and get closer than ever to their customers and people.”

Buoyed by the success of this first summit, Cook decided to make it an ongoing leadership forum Every 6 months, she and Dow, who had become her partner in the enterprise, examined companies that in Cook’s words, “really care about their customers, their

people and their shareholders.”

To their amazement, they were inspired by the five year results

of the publicly traded compa-nies that they visited…sales were up 300% and profits 600%!

Cook and Dow published these

startling results in Turned On

(HarperBusiness 1996), a chronicle of their corporate anthropology that serves in the words of Tom Peters, as “a full-blown business plan” for every type of enterprise

That design is based on Cook and Dow’s “Eight Insights,”

the first of which is to “build a strong foundation.” Cook defines that by quoting Jim Cleamons, ex-assistant coach of the Chicago Bulls, who when asked the secret of their five championships, replied “we constantly work on the funda-mentals.”

One fundamental element to business success is customer loyalty “65% of your current customers will buy 85% of your future products Therefore, it makes sense to take good care

of your existing customers,” Cook says

USAA, a $40 billion insurance company in San Antonio, Texas, is a master at this Cook explained that they have 2.6 million customers who are in the military During the Gulf War, USAA sent letters to active duty customers indicating that their auto insurance payments were being prorated because most of them couldn’t have used their cars during the war That’s what Cook says is

“really knowing your custom-ers.” She asks “how well do you know the top 20% of your customers?”

Cook exhorts companies to “be brilliant on the basics” and suggests that they ask custom-ers to pinpoint the five factors most necessary to keep them happy For example, at Marriott Hotels, customer retention and satisfaction is clearly linked to (1) Everything is clean and works (2) Check-in is hassle-free (3) Staff is friendly and hospitable (4) Problems are resolved quickly (5) Breakfast is served on time Bill Marriott reinforces the message that the basics mean “serving hot food hot, and cold food cold.”

Addressing such basic con-cerns will make each customer feel special, another of Cook’s

main convictions To illustrate

this, Cook summons the spirit

not of some Gatesian visionary

but of Bob the Bagel Man “For

three years, whenever I visit

New York, I stay at a hotel that

is trying to be “the number-one

business person’s hotel.” Oh,

they spend millions of dollars

renovating the lobby and each

hotel room…even have cherry

wood wall units built into each

room and three telephones

However, check-in is always a

nightmare, and there is no desk

in the room so I end up working

on the bed Meanwhile, every

morning I stop to see Bob the

Bagel Man on the corner of 44th

and 6th Ave Bob has no

com-puter system, but he knows me

by name and how I like my

bagel and coffee I told this New

York hotel to hire Bob to run

their front desk.”

Although that suggeston may

sound far-fetched, it is such

bold goals that Cook feels are

most needed in a time of

warp-speed technological

change…goals that spark

innovation “A decade ago, Intel

was number ten in the world in

manufacturing semiconductors,

and it was losing competitive

advantage Bob Noyce, one of

the co-founders of Intel, said

“Let’s get competitors to

collaborate on new ways of

manufacturing

semiconduc-tors.” He convinced the

govern-ment and private industry to

put up $100 million each to

start SEMATECH (the

consortium’s name) and

guaranteed a certain return on

investment Ten years later, Intel

is No 1 in the world in

semi-conductor sales and

SEMATECH is now privately

funded.” She notes similar

successes in ventures ranging

from state welfare programs to

the Mars Sojourner

Although most firms couldn’t

build an interplanetary

space-craft (and would have a rough

time selling it to their boards),

what anybody can…and

should…do is simplify things,

for both customers and

employ-ees Cook is adamant about

“removing the

crazymakers”…those

bureau-cratic roadblocks that sap the

morale and innovative ideas of

an entire team “How are you making it easier for your customers and employees to do business with you?” she exhorts

Marriott Hotels provided her with a perfect example of making customers jump through hoops “They used to charge guests a dollar connec-tion fee to use their credit card

to make phone calls Of course, Marriott made millions in additional revenue, but Bill Marriott insisted that if they were going to be a customer-driven company, his managers had better find another source for that income.”

Such decrees can be spurs to creative thinking One of Cook’s most surprising find-ings was that the most innova-tive uses of technology to improve customer satisfaction were not found in Silicon Valley but at firms such as office furniture innovator, Herman Miller, Harbor Hospi-tal, and USAA

In the middle of the recession, Herman Miller listened to it’s customers and created a subsidiary called Miller SQA…simple, quick and affordable…the very mandate they received from customers

Miller SQA reduced delivery time for new furniture from 12

to 2 weeks, gave each dealer computers and easy-to-learn software that allowed custom-ers to, in effect, become their own interior designers This is

a perfect demonstration of how technology can be your servant and enhance customer and staff satisfaction and profitabil-ity (By the way, Miller SQA continues to enjoy 35% com-pounded growth in sales and profit.)

“We all know that if you don’t keep score, you don’t know how you’re doing,” asserts Cook Yet most organizations she visits are inundated with market research data, customer satisfaction data and morale studies Of the 85% of the organizations that talk about customer satisfaction and loyalty as their number-one

priority, only 30% are getting dramatic results According to Cook, these firms keep mea-sures simple and take action on those vital few things that customers and staff care about

Do your customers and staff receive a monthly scoreboard?

Cook talks a lot about unleash-ing the power of people and explains this in pragmatic terms Some companies think

“all we have to do to maximize profitability is to develop great products and services.” But the catch-22 is: You won’t be able

to innovate without great people Continual innovation demands great people and great people demand a great place to work.” Toward this end Cook suggests that firms

“design learning around what individuals need to be

great…on and off the job…and

“hire people who match your values You can’t teach nice.”

Finally, managers should lead with care According to Cook, leadership isn’t earned by title, but by compassion “People don’t care how much you know, until you show how much you care Customers and employees are boss watchers and they are individual people with feelings When treated as human beings, they tend to act that way.”

Excerpted with permission from

Capturing Hearts, Minds and the Bottom Line, By Jim Gerard,

freelance writer, New York, NY.

American Seating is one of several major, highly respected office furniture manufacturers in Michigan, and more specifically in Grand Rapids American Seating was founded over 100 years ago and has been a leader and innovator in products, marketing, and management in the state for many decades

A key element to prosperity at American Seating has been its ability to communicate with customers About seven years ago American Seating wanted to

be certain that the importance of that notion was understood by employees, customers, and suppliers, so they included it as one of three key elements of their mission statement That mission statement is printed on every employee’s business card and it reads:

American Seating is committed to being:

• Customer Driven

• Profitable

• A Great Place to Work Douglas B Spooner was ap-pointed vice president of sales support a year and a half ago He

is totally committed to that mission He sees the idea of measuring customer satisfaction

as an important tool to ensure that the mission of American Seating is lived Bill Loomis, program manager for strategic planning and market research at the Industrial Technology Institute visited Doug at American Seating

to try and understand how he is working to ensure that American Seating continues to enjoy success

in the face of overseas imports, cheaper labor, and changing tastes

in American and international offices

The following interview was conducted in Doug Spooner’s office at American Seating.

Q What motivated you in the beginning to measure customer satisfaction and what did you want to happen?

A We have a few general drivers for measuring customer satisfaction First, we wanted

it to remain simple and focused on knowing how satisfied customers are when interacting with American Seating We also wanted to ask questions that focused on

“actionable” items: issues that American Seating could take corrective actions and see measurable improvements the next time the survey was conducted Our approach to customer satisfaction is not complicated We did not want

to get involved in competitive issues This is not a process to gain competitive advantage

Q How did you begin your customer satisfaction program

at American Seating?

A The process really began seven years ago with changes made internally at American Seating and with the eventual adop-tion of our new mission statement

I began by researching a number of companies that I knew were committed to customer satisfaction Xerox

and Roadway Express were two companies we reviewed Once we saw what others were doing, we began designing our own process

We had complete commit-ment from Executive manage-ment at American Seating to this initiative

Q American Seating serves a broad base of customers in North America Who did you decide to measure?

A We focused our efforts on our American Seating office product dealers in the United States This constitutes well over 300 offices in three regions: eastern, central, and western The dealership network is crucial to Ameri-can Seating and knowing how satisfied dealers are with us is very close to knowing how satisfied the end purchasers are Ninety percent of American Seating sales go through our dealers so it is very important we know how they feel about our products and services Eventually, we may expand it to the end customer, but we were novices to this process so we wanted to keep it simple and understandable to all

Q How did you develop your questionnaire and how do you execute your survey?

A The survey was designed around dealer issues extracted from extensive interviews I did when first taking this position American Seating is

Q&A with Douglas B Spooner

Vice President of Sales Support at American Seating

Measuring Customer Satisfaction at American Seating

Our approach

to customer

satisfaction

is not

complicated.

a company of both products

and services, so the

question-naire had to capture both of

these areas The questionnaire

is two pages long and I wanted

it to remain short and easy to

complete, so all the questions

are closed and easy to answer

You can complete the survey

in five minutes without

rushing

Q That has paid off, hasn’t it?

A Yes, very much The

question-naire was mailed to our

dealers with no follow up

telephone calls We received a

68 percent response rate on

the first iteration and 64

percent on the second We

began our first mailing in

March of 1997 and followed up

with a second in October of

1997 We plan to continue

these twice a year Any more

than twice I feel is intrusive

and won’t tell us any more

about our customers’ feelings

Q How is your questionnaire

designed?

A First, it is kept short and easy

to complete Second, it is

intended to show change over

time so I went with a ten-point

scale for each question This

gives us flexibility for several

years We use numbers so we

can tabulate responses and

show arithmetic changes, as

opposed to open questions or

yes-no responses

I also did not want a “feel

good” questionnaire in which

people answer that they like

us or they don’t like us I

wanted issues that American

Seating could do something about If a dealer raised an issue, I wanted to be certain that was addressed This is a total and completely closed

system: we ask, we analyze, we implement change, and we measure again.

Questions are grouped into major areas of interaction

These include:

· Customer Service

· Product Literature

· Production Lead Time

· Product Delivery

· Product Receipt

· Quality

· Sales Support

· Product Management

· Overall [Satisfaction]

· Comments [added for the second survey]

Individual questions are grouped by these areas When

we analyze the completed surveys, we total scores on individual questions by major group This provides the appropriate manager with knowledge on how his/her domain of responsibility is perceived by the customer It makes taking action easier and more cost effective

Q How do you then take the results of your survey back to managers at American Seating?

A A memo-report is drafted to relevant managers and vice presidents Included within this memo is a bar chart that gives an immediate visual to indicate improvement or slippage We work with the

Excerpt from American Seating Questionnaire:

Product Literature: The product literature (price lists and

catalogs) is:

Easy to use and understand?

unsatisfactory satisfactory excellent

Able to be used for easy specification of our products?

unsatisfactory satisfactory excellent

Constructed in a manner that represents our product well?

unsatisfactory satisfactory excellent

managers responsible to determine why an area might have changed in the eyes of customers We also print the results in an internal newslet-ter so all employees can take some ownership of the results

Our survey is designed to allow for general comments at the end Fewer than 10 percent of the respondents provide comments I insist that American Seating re-sponds to every person who took the time to comment, either positively or negatively

The comments are forwarded

to the Executive Committee at American Seating and a vice president contacts the respon-dent to address their com-ment I feel this makes a big impression on our dealers and reinforces our mission of being customer driven From the other point of view, I think

it begins to develop lines of communication between internal people at American Seating and customers

Q Have you made any changes based on results of the survey?

A We most definitely have

Initially, we have made changes in customer service representation structure and

to our telephone system

Other changes will follow

Q How long does the entire process take?

A Roughly eight weeks: four weeks to mailing cut off, two weeks to analyze and another two weeks to present the findings to the Executive Committee

Q If you have any advice for a company considering surveying customers for satisfaction and problems, what might that be?

A First, make sure you are committed to the entire program, especially the follow

up Second, only focus on things you can measure and change: ask/analyze/imple-ment change/re-measure It is

an endless circle Third, get the organization behind you and eager for results Have the support of the entire organization This is a must

I wanted issues that American Seating could

do something about If a dealer raised

an issue, I wanted to be certain that it was

addressed.

[Companies should] only focus on things you can measure and change: ask/analyze/ implement change/

re-measure.

Gearing Manufacturing for Tomorrow

Michigan Manufacturing Week, May 11-15

Michigan Manufacturing Week was established in 1996 by the Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA), through a proclamation from Governor John Engler, to celebrate the tremendous impact that manufacturing has had on our state, the nation, and the world

This year’s theme “Gearing Manufacturing for Tomorrow”,

is intended to make the public, especially young people, aware

of the high-skilled, well-paying career opportunities that exist

in the manufacturing sector

The weeklong celebration focuses on the accomplish-ments and contributions of manufacturing by recognizing individuals whose efforts further the industry, and raising the awareness of the essential role manufacturing plays in the economic well being of our state

The Michigan Manufacturing Association suggests a number

of ways to get involved in Manufacturing Week

· MMA has posters available that you can display at your company Call Cindy Zuker

at 517-487-8542

· Showcase your products for legislators, media and the public by setting up a

display at the Manufacturing

Showcase at the Capitol on

May 12 For more informa-tion call MMA at 517-487-8551

· Show appreciation for your workforce by having a special luncheon or hosting

an open house for employ-ees and families

· Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about Michigan Manufacturing Week, noting the contribu-tions manufacturing makes

to the local and state economy

· Conduct a plant tour For information on how to host

a tour, call MMA at 517-487-8551

· Sponsor an educational seminar about jobs in manufacturing at a local school or vocational center

· Be a guest speaker at a community organization

· Attend the MMA Legislative

& Executive Reception, May

13, 1998 The 1998 “Manu-facturer of the Year” will be announced For more information call 517-487-8513

process by including non-active customers, former customers, competitor’s customers and potential customers in new markets They see some advan-tages in comparing the attitudes

of these groups and seeing how they differ It’s a good idea, however, it vastly complicates the process In some cases, it may require more than one version of the survey Without computer aided survey develop-ment software, it can become tricky keeping track of who gets what It also may require developing random samples from potential markets With-out a background in statistics and some practical experience, this process is not usually successful

10 Make Sure the Person

Conducting the Survey Enjoys the Work.

Many customer satisfaction-tracking plans fail because the person who does the work is dragged into the process unwillingly In addition, the standard view is that this person will conduct the inter-views, record the information, and report the results when he

or she has free time In the end, this process doesn’t work because many people do not feel comfortable talking to customers Consequently, the person never gets to the task, and the process drags on endlessly with many responses getting lost Nothing aggra-vates a customer more than completing a survey, and then getting the same request, which does happen Crucial to a good survey program is giving one person responsibility for the survey and develop a process to ensure that data is not lost or misplaced

Enthusiasm sells the customer satisfaction monitoring process

If you are excited about the prospect of really learning what your customers think of you and how you can use that information as an opportunity

to increase your customer’s loyalty, then you will win over others both inside and outside the company

Facts about Michigan Manufacturing Michigan is respected throughout the world as a leader in manufacturing processes and technology

• There are approximately 17,200 manufacturing facilities in Michigan

• Approximately 958,000 (22%) of the state’s workers are employed in manufacturing activities

• Last year, the total payroll among manufacturing companies in Michigan approached $45 billion

• Men and women in manufacturing consistently earn 50 percent more than those employed in non-manufacturing and service sector jobs

Customer Satisfaction Monitoring

Continued on page 9

Joe Day of Freudenberg-NOK Shares

Lean Manufacturing Success

On Thursday, February 19,1998 the Industrial Technology

Insti-tute sponsored a seminar attended by over 125 Southeast

Michi-gan manufacturers interested in Lean Manufacturing Joe Day,

President and CEO of Freudenberg-NOK shared the dramatic

results achieved by their current Kaizen Blitz! program of process

improvement

In 1991 Freudenberg-NOK launched their very successful

GROWTTH (Getting Rid of Waste through Team Harmony)

program The goal of the program was to reduce costs, improve

quality and reduce manufacturing lead time by identifying and

eliminating waste through team suggestions and team

implemen-tation The GROWTTH program has become an integral part of

Freudenberg-NOK’s success in being able to meet all of their

customer cost-down obligations and cover all of their labor and

material cost increases, while improving their total profit margin

Last year, the GROWTTH program of Kaizen events was

ex-panded to a series of 10 straight weeks of Kaizens events or a

“Blitz!” to accelerate an already impressive rate of improvement

It was also announced that the Industrial Technology Institute

(ITI) has developed a lean manufacturing implementation user

group program based on Freudenberg NOK’s successful program

The lean manufacturing user group offers smaller manufacturers

the opportunity for hands-on experience, to implement lean

systems in their own operations Each user group will consist of

4-6 manufacturers who meet every other week over a nine-month

period Each group includes 8-10 half-day training sessions, six

half-day sessions at each company site, an on-site Kaizen event for

each company, and the opportunity to participate in a

Freudenberg-NOK Blitz! For more information on lean

manufac-turing user groups contact Michele McLaughlin at 800.292.4484

ext 4513, or e-mail at mmc@iti.org

Participants Comments

Our three production managers attended the Freudenberg-NOK session with

me The company’s gradual transition from batch to one-piece flow provided

us some good food for thought As a result of attending this session, my

team was able to apply some Lean Manufacturing practices immediately The

result was a 13% increase in production on a new job by reorganizing it from

a linear setup to a U-shaped cell.

- John Hubbard, General Manager

Growth & Opportunity, Lapeer, Michigan

It is always helpful to hear from companies that are successfully

implementing change and winning new work as a result We got a lot out of

Joe Day’s presentation, including the motivation to go back to the plant and

try harder and not give up.

I particularly liked the Process Storyboards used at Freudenberg-NOK We

have begun to document our processes using this approach to support our

continued progress toward QS & ISO certification.

- Laurie Moncreff, Owner

Schmald Too & Die, Burton, Michigan

User Groups Help Smaller Manufacturers Deal with Hot Issues

MMTC user groups are a proven, cost-effective way to help your company increase productivity, improve quality, cut time-to-market, and find new customers

User Groups consist of 4-10 companies working on a common issue, and run from 4

to 12 sessions depending on the topic

User Groups are forming now

on the following topics:

● ISO 9000

● QS-9000

● TE Supplement

● Activity-Based Costing

● Lean Manufacturing

● Customer Satisfaction Monitoring

● Strategic Planning

● Year 2000 Compliance

● Environmental Management For details on user groups in your area call the MMTC regional office nearest you (list of offices can be found on page 11)

Our Award Winning User Groups Can Open Doors

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) User Group Kickoff

Wednesday, May 27th / 8:30am - 11am / Industrial Technology Institute

The Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) is sponsoring its first annual Integrated Manufacturing Software Solutions Show This event is designed exclusively for small and midsize manufacturers who need answers to current information management issues.

Find out how your company can:

n Computerize existing manual systems

n Integrate existing legacy applications and databases

n Solve Year 2000 information system problems

n Meet the automotive industry EDI requirements See the latest software all in one place on one day Knowledgeable representatives from leading software vendors will give presentations and meet with you to answer your questions.

Participating vendors include:

4 Real Trac (job shop software) 4 Symix Syteline 4 Spreadsheet MRP (low cost software)

4 CMS/400 4 Dataworks Vantage (previously DCD) 4 JBA System 21

4 Monitor (automotive based system) 4 Macola 4 Navision

$75 per person - includes lunch

To register, or for more information call Barbara Bartolatz at 800.292.4484 ext 4165, or e-mail brb@iti.org

Thursday, May 14, 1998 / 8:00am - 4:30pm

Holiday Inn, Southfield, MI

is no cost to attend the informa-tion meeting, but reservainforma-tions are required Please contact Colleen Durocher at

(800)292-4484 X 4087 or cad@iti.org to register for the kickoff meeting

Environment Management Seminars

Half-day Seminar

Introduction to Environmental Management Systems (EMS)

May 12th & 27 / 8:30am - Noon Industrial Technology Institute Cost: $25

Two-day Workshop

Building an ISO 14001 / Environmental Management System (EMS)

May 14th & 15th / 8 am - 4 pm

Cost: $395

Attend this two-hour informa-tional kickoff to learn about the pilot EMS User Group starting

in June, 1998 The

Environ-mental Management System User Group is a new training program designed to help Michigan organizations develop and integrate their environmental management system (EMS) and pollution prevention (P2) programs

These programs are two of the three elements required for those organizations wishing to pursue the Michigan Clean Corporate Citizen (C3) designa-tion; the third element of C3 is demonstrated compliance with applicable environmental regulations The first 10 Michigan companies who sign

up will be able to participate in this pilot EMS User Group The EMS model used is based on Michigan’s Clean Corporate Citizen Program rules [R336.2405], which are closely aligned with the ISO 14001 standard

The EMS User Group will be an interactive training program with sessions meeting twice per month over a 6-month time frame Additional information about the EMS User Group, including costs to participate is available at our web site,