Page 52 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

34 Chapter Two

Table 2.2 Three-Level Preliminary CTS Tree for Restaurant Service (Continued)

First Level Second Level Third Level
Accurate Get the correct bill
billing Billed as soon as meal is over
Problems and Errors and problems quickly resolved
complaints Errors and problems satisfactorily
addressed resolved
effectivelySo
Source: Ramaswamy (1996).

competitor benchmarking, or the “mysterious customer” approach. The mysterious
customer approach is to hire either employees or temporary helpers as mys-
terious customers. These mysterious customers are paid to visit competitors’
facilities, as well as your own facility, and fill out a number of specially
designed questionnaires after each visit. Some stopwatch activities may also
be included to time such measures as the service waiting time and the time
needed to deliver the meal. With the help of mysterious customers, clear, quan-
titative measures can be developed. For example, if in the best competitor’s
place, the waiting time is no longer than 5 minutes, and if waiting time is
really important in customers’ eyes, then you need to set the goal to have the
waiting time be less than 5 minutes. If mysterious customers found that your
competitor offers better tasting food, then you need to work on how to make
your food taste better. Many times, these kinds of activities are carried out in
the second phase of DFSS, the measure phase.

2.3.2 Phase 2: Measure
The goal of this phase is to measure and determine customer needs and
specifications. This phase has the following steps.

Step 1: Identify, Quantify, and Prioritize Customer Needs in Order of
Importance
Specifically, we need to establish the measurable metric for each CTS and
establish the ranking or priority score of each CTS.

Step 2: Identify the Performance Metrics Required by the Service That
Meet These Customer Needs
If a customer need is only a fuzzy description, for example, in the restaurant
service case, “short wait for table” is a customer need, but what is it,