Reading List No. 4
This week's reading is interesting as I learned all about a total quality management
measurement which was QFD or Quality Function Development. It is a graphical analysis
technique that seems to help companies understand their customers and pick which needs and
expectations would be best prioritized along with its accompanying tradeoffs.
I never thought about how detailed one must be when analyzing a service or product, as a
consumer myself there are some expectations that are not so obvious to me. An example given in
the text was how customers are not necessarily explicit about it but they expect a boat or ship
that doesn't leak. This expectation is so basic that it doesn't even come to a person's mind, but
this doesn't make it any less important. These “unspoken requirements” as well as “quality
surprises” are a few concepts that are new to me. Quality surprises are those features that
customers are not vocal about but are a welcome addition to their experience.
QFD also serves as a bridge between different departments of a business. Since the
customer-centricity needs a realistic foothold, insights from all departments are needed to see if
any expectation can be met feasibly. By integrating the insights of the front end to back end of
the development process the organization is able to cut on costs for any redesigns.
Finally, the most important application of this analysis is the use of a matrix called house
of quality. There are two inputs needed called the WHATs and the HOWs. The WHATs are the
customer needs and the HOWs are the ways to achieve the WHATs. It measures the correlation
between these two inputs. This way organizations are able to visualize the customer needs that
are most impacted by certain actions and can strategize more efficiently.