Page 140 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Quality Function Deployment 115

• Study all available information about the service including marketing
plans
• Create innovative ideas, delights, and new wants by investigating
improved functions and cost of ownership and matching service
functions with needs, experience, and customer beliefs
• Innovate to avoid compromising for bottlenecks, conflicts, and constraints
• Benchmark the competition to improve weak areas

The following Whats are used.

Direction of improvement
Available products
Professional staff
Flexible processes
Knowledgeable staff
Easy-to-use products
Speedy processes
Cost-effective products
Accuracy

Step 2: Identify the Hows and Relationship Matrix

The purpose of this step is to define a “good” product or process in terms of
customer expectations, benchmark projections, institutional knowledge,
and interface requirements, and to translate this information into CTS
requirements. These will then be used to plan an effective and efficient
DFSS project.

One of the major reasons for customer dissatisfaction and warranty costs is
that the design specifications do not adequately reflect customer use of the
product or process. Too many times the specification is written after the design
is completed, or it is simply a reflection of an old specification that was also
inadequate. In addition, a poorly planned design commonly does not allocate
activities or resources in areas of importance to customers and wastes engi-
neering resources by spending too much time in activities that provide
marginal value. Because missed customer requirements are not targeted or
checked in the design process, procedures to handle field complaints for these
items are likely to be incomplete. Spending time on overdesigning and
overtesting items, not important to customers, is wasteful. Similarly, not
spending development time in areas important to customers is not only a
missed opportunity, but significant warranty costs are sure to follow.