One of the most frequently asked questions about customer gemba visits is what questions to prepare in advance.
Gemba preparations depend greatly on the type of QFD project. Is it an improvement, a refresh, an upgrade, a new technology, a next generation, or totally new to the world?
The new ISO 16355 for QFD explains the process in Part 2 (ISO/DIS 16355-2). Modern QFD offers specific tools for this, including the customer process model and gemba visit table, and this critical part of QFD is taught in detail in the QFD Green Belt®.
The most important thing to remember during a Gemba visit is to encourage your customer to speak openly about what frustrates them, not just product complaints. Use the gemba visit to discover what you don't know you don't know. A January 2, 2016 article in The New York Times by Pagan Kennedy "How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity" calls this wonderfully, "the art of finding what we're not seeking."
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| illustration of the Persian tale source: wikipedia {PD-US} |
- Non-encounterers who stick to a preferred list;
- Occasional encounterers who have moments of serendipity;
- Super-encounterers who have happy surprises wherever they look.
- Open to ideas that evolve on an unrelated project.
- Transform mistakes into a breakthrough.
- See patterns that others don't see.
- Gemba visits should be conducted by...
- ....
- ... Read the full article at www.qfdi.org
