Using the QFD concept to resolve customer satisfaction strategy decisions

Abstract

To achieve higher operating performance, many enterprises have implemented customer satisfaction (CS) activities. However, after collecting massive amounts of data, most enterprises still cannot make effective CS decisions. There are two factors involved in the difficulty in CS decisions. When collecting data, enterprises have trouble covering the wide scope of customer demands. Furthermore, it is difficult to prioritize the collected elements. The purpose of this article is therefore to modify the traditional quality function deployment (QFD) methodology and propose using “strategy value” as an effective decision basis for CS activities. The use of “strategy value” can strongly supplement the lack of “importance” and “performance” in the traditional analysis. A case study involving an enterprise's strategy decisions is used to analyze the proposed concepts and methodology. The results from this study will facilitate enterprises achieving more effective CS strategy decisions and generally increase the probability for CS success rates among enterprises.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD): Definitions, History and Models

“…• helps in reaching compromises between customer requirements and what the company (organisation) is able to produce; it can also help in finding new opportunities and in defining strategies to increase profits and market share (Chien and Su 2003); • identifies the check points for gemba, a Japanese word that refers to the place where source information can be learned (Akao and Mazur 2003); you will learn much more about gemba in the next chapter; • facilitates or, rather, requires a strong inter-functional involvement between different offices, for example the sales department, technical department, engineering department, quality control and production department; • allows for a reduction in start up problems;…”

A hybrid of Kano and QFD for ranking customers’ preferences: A case study of bank Melli Iran

“…The process of QFD in the field of production includes the following phases: product planning (building the house of quality); product design (the necessities of design); process planning; and process control. The phases of QFD change to the following for services: planning the service; planning the features; and planning the operations (Chien & Su, 2003).…”

Benchmarking practices of quality function deployment: results from a field study

“…The complexity of the method is one of the difficulties in using QFD cited in the literature (Han et al, 2001;Chien and Su, 2003;Ginn and Zairi, 2005).…”