Transcript Customer Quality Features

Some Thoughts on
Understanding Customer Values
Sam Tomas
Customer Quality Features
 David Garvin (Managing Quality: The Strategic and
Competitive Edge, 1988) described product quality in terms
of seven quality features that customers look for:
 Performance – primary operating characteristics
 Reliability – probability of a malfunction or failure
 Conformance – the degree established standards are met
 Durability – a measure of product life
 Serviceability – ease, speed, courtesy, and competence of
repairs
 Aesthetics – how a product looks, feels, sounds, smells,
tastes…
 Perceived Quality – a person’s perception of quality
2
How Do Customers Determine Value?
1) They review products to identify CTQ (critical to quality)
features such as style and technology.
2) They select those features they feel will provide personal
benefits.
3) They estimate the value of those benefits by comparing
them to the price of the product.
4) They then decide if the features are worth the price?
NOTE: A properly designed product will have taken all of
these into consideration when developing the product
concept.
3
Customer Value Example
Desired Product:
Used Automobile
Quality Features:
Performance – primary operating characteristics
Reliability – probability of a malfunction or failure
Conformance – the degree established standards are met
Durability – a measure of product life
Serviceability – ease, speed, courtesy, of repairs
Aesthetics – how a product looks, feels, sounds, smells, etc.
Style, technology and performance (STP)
Car mileage – how many miles on the car
Miles per gallon – economy
Other “bells and whistles”
Benefits:
Selected quality features
Determine Price:
Sales price of the car
Sales tax, insurance, etc.
Operating costs
Tires replacement?
Determine Value
Benefits Selected
Price
4
Identifying Customer Desired
Values Is Not Always Easy!
 Listening to the VOC (Voice of the Customer) is a
starting point, but is that enough?
 How will you know when you are satisfying those key
customer values?
 How do you measure what customers think it received
in the way of value?
 How do you measure what customers think it cost
them?
 If companies can answer those questions they’re
probably way ahead of they’re competitors.
5
To Complicate Matters, Not All Customer
Stated Benefits Are Of Equal Importance!
 Customers themselves rate their selected benefits three
ways:
 Some are: Must have
 Must have a car with a GPS navigation system
 Some are: Would like to have, if they can afford it
 Would like to have a Bose sound system in the car with a 6disk changer, 12 speakers, and 500 W of audio power but
can’t afford the $3,000 cost.
 The rest are: Nice to have if they can get them cheap
 Don’t much care for a car’s moon roof but I’ll take one if it
doesn’t cost much.
6
Should Customer Requested New Products
Always be Developed?
 Because a customer says he wants a new product doesn’t
mean a company should develop it.
 The starting point for new product development is new
product position analysis which includes:
 What the estimated market demand and profitability for the
new product is, and at what selling price?
 How well the new product fits in with the company’s current
products and can be promoted.
 How the new product can be differentiated from competitor
products?, etc.
 If it’s determined that the product won’t be popular with
other customers, it should not be developed.
7
How Do You Provide Customer Desired
Values?
(Where Does Lean Fit In?)
 For Garvin’s list of product quality features:
 Use Product Design & Development tools mostly to
design the values in.
 For low prices and reduced lead times:
 Design it in for new products.
 For existing products, use Lean to eliminate or reduce
process wastes and improve process efficiencies.
 For quality improvement– minimum defects:
– Use Six Sigma’s variability reduction DMAIC process to
reduce out-of-spec defects.
8