Understanding Customer Requirements

AME 4163University of Oklahoma

Understanding Customer Requirements

Principles of DesignZahed Siddique

Assistant ProfessorSchool of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

University Of Oklahoma

[email protected]


Need to focus

Moving in the wrong direction at a fast pace is still moving in the wrong direction.

Wrong

Right


Information on QFD….

Developed in Japan in the mid 1970s Introduced in USA in the late 1980s Toyota was able to reduce 60% of cost

to bring a new car model to market Toyota decreased 1/3 of its

development time Used in cross functional teams Companies feel it increased customer

satisfaction


Why….?

Product should be designed to reflect customers’ desires and tastes.

House of Quality is a kind of a conceptual map that provides the means for interfunctional planning and communications

To understand what customers mean by quality and how to achieve it from an engineering perspective.

HQ is a tool to focus the product development process


QFD Target


Important points Should be employed at the beginning of every

project (original or redesign) Customer requirements should be translated

into measurable design targets It can be applied to the entire problem or any

subproblem First worry about what needs to be designed

then how It takes time to complete


Components of House of Quality

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Wh

o

Whats

Wh

o v

s.

Wh

ats

Hows vs Hows

Hows

Whats vs Hows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

How Muches


Extensions to House of Quality

Customer Evaluation

Technical Difficulty

Units

Targets

Weighted Importance

Importance %

This Product

Th

is P

rod

uc

t

Use

ful D

ata

Tar

get

Rat

io o

f Im

pro

vem

ent


Step 1: Who are the customers?

To “Listen to the voice of the customer” first need to identify the customer

In most cases there are more than one customer consumer regulatory agencies manufacturing marketing/Sales

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Who

vs.

Wha

ts

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wha

t

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches

Customers drive the development of the

product, not the designer

Customers drive the development of the

product, not the designer


Step 2: Determine the customers’ requirements

Need to determine what is to be designed

Consumer product works as it should lasts a long time is easy to maintain looks attractive incorporated latest technology has many features

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Who

vs.

Wha

ts

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wha

t

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches

List all the demanded qualities at the same level of

abstraction


Step 2: cont... Manufacturing

easy to produce uses available resources uses standard components and methods minimum waste

Marketing/Sales Meets customer requirements Easy to package, store, and transport is suitable for display


Kano Model

Excitement

SatisfiersBasic

Perfo

rman

ce

Fullyimplemented

Absent

Customer Satisfaction

-

+

Disgusted

Delighted

Basic Quality: These requirements are not usually mentioned by customers. These are mentioned only when they are absent from the product. Performance Quality: provides an increase in satisfaction as performance improves

Excitement Quality or “wow requirements”: are often unspoken, possibly because we are seldom asked to express our dreams. Creation of some excitement features in a design differentiates the product from competition.


Types of customer requirements

Functional requirements describe the product’s desired behavior

Human factors Physical requirements Reliability Life-cycle concerns Resource concerns Manufacturing requirements


How to determine the Whats?

Customer survey (have to formulate the questions very carefully)

If redesign, observe customers using existing products

Combine both or one of the approaches with designer knowledge/experience to determine “the customers’ voice”


Affinity Diagram Provides structure for verbal data

by creating natural clusters or groups

Ensures that the list of demanded qualities are complete and expressed at the same level of detail


Constructing Affinity Diagram

Set a brainstorming session to list all possible requirements Record each element of the list on small cards Place all cards on a table randomly Silent mode Spend time reading all demanded qualities Start at the same time, once everyone is ready - everyone

quickly and without thought find two demanded qualities that have something in common

If you find a demanded quality is not where you think it belongs, move it. If it is moved again, make a duplicate and talk about it later.

The process continues until all demanded qualities are in a group.


Constructing Affinity Diagram

Discussion Mode Begin discussion after group composition for the demanded

qualities becomes stable First review the demanded qualities that seemed to have more

than one home Select a descriptive name for the groups. Group names must

also be demanded qualities, but at a higher level of abstraction Look at each group and judge if all elements are at the same

level of abstraction Check each group by asking “If this is the name of the group,

what elements should be included but are missing?” Next test for missing groups. Check with the types of customer requirements list


Step 3: Determine Relative Importance of the Requirements: Who vs. What

Need to evaluate the importance of each of the customer’s requirements. Generate weighing factor for each

requirement by rank ordering or other methods

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Wh

o v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches


Rank Ordering Order the identified customer requirements Assign “1” to the requirement with the lowest

priority and then increase as the requirements have higher priority.

Sum all the numbers The normalized weight

Rank/Sum The percent weight is: Rank*100/Sum


Step 4: Identify and Evaluate the Competition: How satisfied is the customer now?

The goal is to determine how the customer perceives the competition’s ability to meet each of the requirements

it creates an awareness of what already exists it reveals opportunities to improve on what already exists

The design:1. does not meet the requirement at all2. meets the requirement slightly3. meets the requirement somewhat4. meets the requirement mostly5. fulfills the requirement completely

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Wh

o v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches


Step 5: Generate Engineering Specifications: How will the customers’ requirements be met?

The goal is to develop a set of engineering specifications from the customers’ requirements.

Restatement of the design problem and customer requirements in terms of parameters that can be measured.

Each customer requirement should have at least one engineering parameter.

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Wh

o v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches


Step 6: Relate Customers’ requirements to Engineering Specifications: Hows measure Whats?

This is the center portion of the house. Each cell represents how an engineering parameter relates to a customers’ requirements.

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Wh

o v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches

9 = Strong Relationship3 = Medium Relationship1 = Weak RelationshipBlank = No Relationship at all


Step 7: Identify Relationships Between Engineering Requirements: How are the Hows Dependent on each other?

Engineering specifications maybe dependent on each other.

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Wh

o v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches

9 = Strong Relationship3 = Medium Relationship1 = Weak Relationship-1 = Weak Negative Relationship-3 = Medium Negative Relationship-9 = Strong Negative RelationshipBlank = No Relationship at all


Step 8: Set Engineering Targets: How much is good enough?

Determine target value for each engineering requirement. Evaluate competition products

to engineering requirements Look at set customer targets Use the above two

information to set targets

Customer Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Who

Whats

Wh

o v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

Wh

at

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches


Customer Evaluation

Technical DifficultyImportance

Units

Targets

Customer Attributes

The first step is to list all the demanded qualities at the same level of abstraction

Relative Importance

Importance for each demanded quality needs to be determined

Customer Evaluation

Customer Evaluation

Record customer performance ratings for your Similar product and competitors’ products

Engineering Characteristics

Record Performance measures for each customer demanded quality

Engineering Influence Customer Qualities

Relationship between demanded customer qualities and Engineering Performance

Objective Measures

Units

Technical benchmarking

Relationships Among Engineering Characteristics

Identifying performance measure conflicts

Targets

Targets

Setting Technical TargetsDetermining

Important Characteristics

Technical DifficultyImportance

Technical Difficulty associated with achieving Targets/improvements and importance of

technical characteristics


Components of House of Quality Customer

Evaluation

Units

Targets

Th

is P

rod

uct

This Product

Targets

Wh

o

Whats

Who v

s.W

hats

Hows vsHows

Hows

Whats vsHows

Now

Now

vs

What

How MuchesHows vs

HowMuches

Weighted Importance

Importance %

Rank

Technical Difficulty

Selected

Addition to the House of Quality presented in text book


Creating the Requirement List

Contents of Requirement List Specify if the individual items are demands or wishes

in the clearest possible terms Tabulate Quantitative and Qualitative aspects Collect further information If possible rank wishes as being of major, medium or

minor importance Living document

Arrange the requirements in clear order Define the main objective and the main characteristics Split into identifiable groups

Enter the Requirement list on standard forms and circulate

Examine Objections


Requirement List

for

Requirements list

Project, product

ChangesDW

Requirements Responsible

Dat

e of

Cha

nge

Spe

cify

wet

her

item

is D

or

W

Des

ign

Gro

up R

espo

sibl

e

Replaces Issues of:

User

Objective or property with qualitative and quantitative data

IdentificationClassification

Page


Name 1Name 2Name 3Requirement

List Example

Use information from House of Quality as an starting point for creating the requirement list.

Need to identify requirements for the product that are basic and necessary but are not specified by the customers.


Example House of Quality

Design a device to toast breads and other similar types of food

Documents

Understanding Customer Requirements