Page 44 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

26 Chapter Two

(Cohen, 1988, 1995), the Kano model, and the KJ method. Quality function
deployment is a work template that can be used to derive product design
parameters and specifications from the voices of customers. The voices of
customers are usually obtained from customer surveys, customer focus
groups, or other means.

However, the mere knowledge of “what customers want our product or
service to do for them” is not enough to create successful products or
services that generate high sale volumes, premium prices, and an excellent
reputation, because customers’opinions on products or services not only are
influenced by products and services’ functionalities, but also by many psy-
chological factors, as well as convenience factors. The customer value
concept that we discussed in Chap. 1 (Gale 1994, Sheridan 1994) is an
excellent model that relates customer opinions to product and service
values. Brand identity and brand reputation (Chap. 8) is an important part of
the product and service values. Therefore, the design of the product or
service should be coordinated with brand development.

For service industries, the relationship between customers and service
providers is even closer than that of manufacturing industries; customer-
oriented design should be even more important for the success of service
organizations.

2.1.2 System Design and Creative Design
After we fully understand the voices of customers, we need to create the
designs that can make the voices of customers into realities, that is, products
and services. We also need to be able to produce these products and services
efficiently and at low cost. This design generation task could be very chal-
lenging, especially if we deal with high technologies. The important
theories in this area include axiomatic design (Suh 1990) and the theory of
inventive problem solving (TRIZ) (Altshuller 1984). Axiomatic design
theory tries to develop several generic design principles that can be used to
evaluate designs and discover design vulnerabilities. TRIZ is based on
thorough studies of patents and discoveries and has developed a rich pool of
principles, methods, and knowledge base to generate creative designs.
Again, axiomatic design and TRIZ were developed in manufacturing-
related areas; however, many researchers (Mann 2004) are extending TRIZ
into nontechnical areas.
For service industries, creativity is also very important for business success.
The creative business operation models, such as those of Amazon.com and