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Javier Santa-Cruz, Francisco Tamayo-Enríquez and Verónica González-Bosch

Weighted Average Score of Customer Needs as Critical Input for QFD

Track: B2

Keywords: QFD, Weighted Averages, Balanced Score Cards

Abstract:
The starting point for QFD, conceived as a system to improve customer satisfaction since the design of products and services, is listening to the Voice of Customer (VOC). Two important questions arise at this critical stage: 1) Who really is the customer? and 2) What is the relative importance that the needs extracted from the VOC of different customers may have?

Let us assume that a regional high school decides to listen to the VOC in order to redesign some of its internal processes. In this case, who is the customer? Students? Parents? Teachers? Society? None of the above? From a true systemic view, all of them are customers! All of them have interesting and useful information to provide. But, which customer is more important then? What shall be done in the case that different or even contradictory data is identified? Of course all data is important and shall be considered, so the question is how much weight shall be assigned to the data.

The percentage for each level represents the contribution of each sector to the high school mission accomplishment, as it is later explained. Axis from this chart come from the Six Sigma concept that states that quality occurs when there is a balance between value generated to customer and value generated to supplier

The Weighted Average Score of needed attributes provides a mean for balancing the customer needs, providing a more balanced structure of needs to be considered.

The following steps are as suggested:

1. Construct a Supplier-to-Customer Positioning Map. For example, let us consider the marketing channel for consumer goods. Mauser points out that the distribution channel varies greatly depending on the nature of the product, the financial strength of the manufacturer, the number and kind of consumers and the market experience of the manufacturer.
2. Interview a representative sample of each level (or customer segment).
3. Identify the contribution of each level to the Company Mission, which may be measured as the average impact of the supplier in the business performance, according to the four perspectives developed by Kaplan and Norton .
4. Calculate the matrix for each result
5. Consider this scores for providing the input to complete the House of Quality.

To validate our Model, we will be working with an important World-wide Company of the Beverage Industry. Besides, we ran a mathematical simulation to represent what would have happened if we have not use this Model in order to have a complete scenario, and analyze the improvement ratio.

Conclusion
This five-step process of pondering the customer needs evaluated by different customers provides an objective balance, which can provide focus when the same product or service is to be shared among different users. It also prevents the risk of giving excessive power to a certain group, risking the satisfaction of other customers.

Author(s):
Javier Santa-Cruz is currently an independent Quality Consultant. He is a Mechanical Engineer from the National Polytechnical Institute (IPN) in Mexico. He has post-graduate studies in Business Administration at the University of Wisconsin and a post-degree in Marketing from ITAM, Mexico. He has 20 years of professional experience in the automotive and lighting fields and 12 years as a Consultant in the Quality area. He lectures at Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) in Executive Programs.

Francisco Tamayo-Enríquez is Total Quality Manager of Arnecom, international automotive supplier. He has 10 years of experience in quality-related areas. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Industrial Engineering (1994), a Master in Science in Industrial Statistics (1998) and a Master in Science in Manufacturing Systems (2002), at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), where he also lectures in Executive Programs. He is member of the Board of the Latin American QFD Association.

Verónica González-Bosch is a Researcher of the Center of Design and Innovation of Products at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). She has 8 years of experience in marketing fields and in customer service. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Marketing (1996), and a Master in Science in Service Quality (2001). She lectures at Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). She is member of the Board of the Latin American QFD Association.

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