Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

An Integrated Strategic Technology Planningand Development Environment NewConceptIdeation TechnologyRoadmapping Voiceof theCustomer IntellectualPropertyGeneration Scenario Planning Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

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

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

Quality Function Deployment • Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is acommon general method invented in Japanin the late sixties initially to support the shipbuilding product design process. • QFD has been adapted and expanded to apply toany 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

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 ended up calling this “Quality Function Deployment”, • But it just as well could have been “Attributes Mechanization Evolution”. Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

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

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

Purpose of QFD • Find out what your customer’s specific needs are (WHATs), • Determine the things you need to work on(HOWs), • Determine priorities of what you should work on (WHYS). Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Example QFD • The following is an example of QFD applied to the“Perfect Mousetrap”, from QFD Designer. Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos. : med. pos. : wk. pos.+ : med. neg.# : str. neg. The Whole Nine Yards Please remain calm, it’s not that bad! Whys Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

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

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

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

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

Phase 1 • Quantify Importances of WHATsRated by customer, not by you. Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos. : med. pos. : wk. pos.+ : med. neg.# : str. neg. 3. Identify WHAT-WHAT Correlations - How do the WHATs affect each other? Phase 1 Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos. : med. pos. : wk. pos.+ : med. neg.# : str. neg. Phase 1 A trap that kills quickly isnot easy to set, so this is a strong negative correlation. 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. Phase 1 Controls customer expectations! Customer may choose tore-prioritize items with strong negative interactions. Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

: str. pos. : med. pos. : wk. pos.+ : med. neg.# : str. neg. Sneak Preview Negative correlations are prime targets for “ideation” processes. “How can we make a trap that kills quickly and is easy to set?” Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

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

Gather Competitor RatingsYour customer’s assessment of your current offering vs. your competitors. Phase 1 Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Phase 1 5. Determine Required Improvement - Which really needs improvement? . Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Phase 1 What will your strategy be? What will your strategy be? Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Thus Ends Phase 1 - Whats Phase 1 Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

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

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

QFD Phase 2 – HOWsPhase 1: WhatsPhase 2: HowsPhase 3: Whys Next lecture… Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1

Voice of the Customer - Lecture 1 Quality Function Deployment (QFD)