Freedom Within a Framework Hearing the Voice of the Customer on the Factory Floor

Freedom Within a Framework: Hearing the Voice of the Customer on the Factory Floor (978-0-367-08577-3, K406714) Shelving Guide: Business and Management/Customer Satisfaction/Quality This book shows you how to harmonize three business functions to address customer needs by using a novel approach that combines Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Continuous Improvement tools. The DFSS tool used is the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process, which is also known as the House of Quality (HOQ). Although these are techniques reserved for the design of new products, the book illustrates how the HOQ helps translate exactly what customers specifically find important about your products. In addition, if customers are experiencing issues with that product, it helps map those issues and prioritizes the Critical to Quality (CTQ) parameters. Because the HOQs tie the Voice of the Customer to CTQs, it continues to connect to the product design and ends with manufacturing process variables. This linkage makes this idea and approach unique. Stopping there may show that there is linkage between the customer and manufacturing process variables, but moving ahead, we must also connect the functions within the business that provides the product. The book helps define the key business function as three large business functions that must work as one cohesive and unified team. These functions are: commercial (sales and marketing), R&D (product properties and services), and operations (product quality). Connecting these functions involves many colleagues, and a very effective communication process among the three is vital for the success of the product and customer satisfaction. Understanding the voice of the customer is paramount—not doing so could lead to product performance issues and loss of market share. In addition, repeated customer dissatisfaction permeates internal workplace culture—employees begin to feel that they are producing products disconnected from end users’ needs and wants.

Author. Introduction. Part 1: Commercial viewpoint. Chapter 1 Understand the Voice of the Customer. Chapter 2 Kano Model: Explanation of Success (Our Business Perspective). Chapter 3 Gather Metrics for Success (Our Customer’s Perspective). Chapter 4 Critical to Quality Metrics. Chapter 5 Create House of Quality 1, the Customer House. Part 2: Design and R&D Viewpoint. Chapter 6 What are the Product’s Characteristics? Chapter 7 Create House of Quality 2, the Translation House. Part 3: Operations Viewpoint. Chapter 8 Process Variables that Define Success on the Factory Floor. Chapter 9 Create House of Quality 3, the Manufacturing House. Chapter 10 Create the Control Plan. Part 4: All Together Now, Threading the Needle. Chapter 11 Freedom within a Framework. Chapter 12 The Complexity of the Product and HOQs. Chapter 13 Conclusion. References. Index.

Paul is the Global R&D Director of Strategic Continuous Improvement for The Sherwin-Williams Company. He is responsible for achieving world class Innovation Excellence by bridging the commercial needs of the business and customer’s end use. Prior to joining Sherwin-Williams, Paul held several operations and leadership positions with increasing responsibility for Dow Chemical and Tyco International. Paul earned his Chemical Engineering Degree from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL, and has completed post graduate studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additionally, Paul is a Certified Master Black Belt, and has been invited to speak at several international conferences and manufacturing summits.