WUT - Spring, 2007Voice-of-the-Customer Process - Part 11 Voice-Of-The-Customer Process Part 1 Using Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

WUT - Spring, 2007 Voice-of-the-Customer Process - Part 1 1

Voice-Of-The-Customer Process

Part 1

Using Quality Function Deployment (QFD)


Stage GateTechnology Developmentand Review

IntellectualProperty

Generation

TechnologyRoadmappi

ng

Voiceof the

Customer

NewConceptIdeation

An Integrated Strategic Technology Planningand Development Environment


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 that provides

detailed explanations on how to do a QFD.

• Another good reference is: Quality Function Deployment,

by Lou Cohen.

http://www.ideacore.com/


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.


HKT QFD

Origin of the term Quality Function Deployment:

• Hinshitsu quality; qualities; features; attributes

• Kino function; mechanization

• Tenkai deployment; diffusion; development; evolution

So, somehow, we call this Quality Function Deployment,

Not Attributes Mechanization Evolution


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?

• 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?


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 if QFD (or some equivalent)is not used.

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


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).


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

Example QFD


: str. pos. : med. pos. : wk. pos.+ : med. neg.# : str. neg.

The Whole

Nine Yards

Please remain calm, it’s

not that bad!

Whys


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…


QFD Phase 1: Whats

Phase 1: Whats

Phase 2: Hows

Phase 3: Whys


1. Gather WHATs -

These are the desired

effects you are trying

to bring about.

2. Quantify WHAT

Importances -

Rated by

customer.

3. Identify WHAT-WHAT

Correlations -

How do the WHATs

affect each other?

Controls

expectations!

Phase 1



Comments:

1. Gather WHATS – These are effects you are trying to bring about,not problems and not solutions (that comes later).

2. Quantify WHAT Importances – Rated by the customer, not by you.

3. Identify WHAT-WHAT Correlations – Do with customers to control expectations. This explicitly highlights conflicting needs, which increases time and money needed to create solutions, and cancause compromises in product design.

4. After identifying negative correlations, the customer may want to revise the Importances, i.e., “Which of these two conflicting needs is really more important to you?”


Details of WHATs section

Logical grouping of WHATs…

A lecture later in the semester will address techniques for generating and grouping topics:

- Affinity Diagram

- Tree Diagram

Eliminates Mice Luring Effective LuringGood Camouflage

Effectiveness ReliableSmallKills Quicklyetc…

Easy to Use Esy to BaitEasy to SetEasy to Emptyetc…

Safety Safe to SetSafe from Kidsetc…

Controls Government EPAetc…


5. Determine Required

Improvement -

Which really needs

improvement?

.

4. Gather

Competitor Ratings -

Your customer’s

assessment of your

current offering

vs. your competitors’.

Phase 1


Comments:

4. Gather Competitor Ratings – Again, this is your customer’s perspective of how you line up against your competitors on a need-by-need basis. - If you don’t have direct competitors, then this would be compared to the customer’s current approach, whatever it is. - If this need is not being met by anyone, note this.

5. Determine Required Improvement – Which important needs does the customer feel are not being adequately met?- Need may be high, but it may be that you and/or competitors are meeting the need, so customer is satisfied.- Need may not be satisfied, but need is low, so improvements would not be highly valued by the customer.

We’ll discuss this element of QFD in greater detail later…


Thus Ends Phase 1 - Whats Phase 1


• 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!

Hints on Identifying WHATs


QFD Phase 2 – HOWs

Phase 1: WhatsPhase 2: HowsPhase 3: Whys


6. Generate HOWs -

measurable objectives

that cause the desired

effect – not solutions!

7. Determine CUSTOMER

performance targets -

How does your

customer want the

products to perform?

Phase 2


Comments:

6. Generate HOWS – These are measurable objectives (measured in Step 7 below) that cause the desired effect, not solutions.

- Generate HOWS by systematically going through each WHAT to find the measurable objectives (more on this later).

7. Determine CUSTOMER performance targets – This is how your customer wants the product to perform, not what you think is possible to do.

- If your customer asks for the impossible, write it down!

- Quantitative assessment is very important to controlling customer expectations!


Details on Product Characteristics

Can be characterized as:

- Performance Measurements

- Product Functions

- Process Steps

Examine examples of each


Using Performance Measurements to Identify “Whats”

For each customer need, define one or a few“technical performance measurements”, e.g.:

How would I actually measure the ability to meet this need?

Set

ting

For

ce

Easy to Set

etc…(O

the

rs?

)

For each customer need…

Identify technical performance

measure


Using Product/Process Functions to Identify “Whats”.

You can use Product/Process Functions instead of Performance Measurements if the product/service concept already exists, e.g., upgrade to an existing product in the field.

Here’s an example…

Functional groups

The QFD row is “File Handling”.

Functions

These become the columns on the QFD matrix

Defining Customer Performance Targets can be more challenging


Process QFD

For process QFDs, the columns in the QFD can be process

steps.

Performance targets can be quantified by factors such as:

~ Average process step cycle time,

~ Average processing cost per cycle,

~ Average defect rate.


8. Determine HOW-HOW

Correlations -

How do the HOWs

affect each other?

9. Determine Technical

Difficulty -

Where do we

anticipate major

hurdles?


Phase 2

Controls expectations!Controls expectations

(Internal and External)


Comments:

8. Determine HOW-HOW Correlations – Understanding how

product characteristics reinforce and contradict one another is

essential in assessing the technical difficulty in Step 9.

9. Determine Technical Difficulty – Technical difficulty is a relative

“intuition” assessment involving:

- Performance targets relative to current capabilities,

- Positive and negative correlations among product

characteristics,

- Past experience.

If your customer asked for the impossible in Step 7, note it here!


Here Ends Phase 2 –Hows

Phase 2


QFQ Phase 3 – WHYs

Phase 1: WhatsPhase 2: HowsPhase 3: Whys


10. Determine WHAT-HOW

Relationships -

Rate how strongly

each factor leads to

each goal.

11. Calculate Relative

Importance -

Which HOWs should we

work on?


Phase 3


Comments:

8. Determine WHAT-HOW Correlations – This step allows the

relative importance of product characteristics to be calculated by

tying together the information from Phases 1 and 2.

9. Calculate Relative Importance – For the QualiSoft product,

these numbers are automatically calculated based on all the

ratings and weightings entered in the previous steps.


What-to-How Relationships - Detail

If we defined the columns of the QFD as Performance Measures,and identify the performance measures based on each customer need,then we automatically identify the primary What-to-How relationships…

Set

ting

For

ce

etc…

Easy to Set

etc…


A major benefit of the QFD is the

ability to clearly identify

secondary interactions : str. pos. : med. pos. : wk. pos.+ : med. neg.# : str. neg.

Phase 3


End of Phase 3 –Whys

Phase 3


Started by finding out exactly what your

customer’s needs are...

…and ended up knowing exactly what to work on

first, next, etc…


Some extensions of QFD

• QFD Nesting

• Technical Benchmarking


QFD Nesting

First Level QFD

SecondLevelQFD


Possible Application of QFD Nesting

We just did this QFD


QFD Extensions:

Technical Benchmarking

You can add aTechnical Benchmarking

row here


Luring RadiusDead Mouse

Ratio MTBF

Customer Performance Targets 20 feet 95% 50 actuations

Current Performance 15 feet 90% 40 actuationsCompetitor Performance 15 feet 95% 30 actuationsTechnical Difficulty 3 3 2Relative Importance 2 1 3

Adding Technical Benchmark Impacts Relative Importance


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 and unbuildable designs - ~ Dn’t know what we are committing to.

• Overreliance on formal specifications - ~ Spec often misses “contextual cues”,

e.g., why are we building this?

• 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 Input Process:• Purpose ~ Validate our perceptions and plans - what we do know. ~ Reveal unrecognized customer needs - what we don’t 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.

Documents

WUT - Spring, 2007Voice-of-the-Customer Process - Part 11 Voice-Of-The-Customer Process Part 1 Using Quality Function Deployment (QFD)