Showing posts with label AHP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AHP. Show all posts

16 June 2023

Invitation to Online QFD Training - July 2023

QFD Green Belt® Training

July 19–21, 2023

@ 09:00–13:00 Tokyo (UTC+9:00)

Online Brochure   |   PDF Brochure

  • Internationally acclaimed introduction to Modern Blitz QFD® and ISO 16355;
  • Live online training consisting of 4 hours per day x 3 days (total 12 hours);
  • Includes case studies and templates for modern QFD, AHP, customer voice table, maximum value table;
  • No prerequisites.

Learn how to apply the latest advancements in quality, design, and project management in your work:


This training is compatible with ISO-9001, Six Sigma, DFSS, Stage Gate, EFQM, TQM, Baldrige, and other quality initiatives. The attendees of this course are eligible to enroll in the 2023 QFD Black Belt® training if they so wish. Here is a partial list of the companies who have sent their employees to this training in the past.

For questions, please contact the QFD Institute.

 

 

14 July 2019

Tutorial "QFD for Business Transformation"

click for this youtube
click here for Autoline youtube

Back in 2016 we sensed General Motors was onto something when we saw one of their VPs on the Autoline THIS WEEK. In that TV interview, she emphasized "mobility" as the company's new business strategy into the future, responding to the shift in the customer needs from being a car owner to a mobility user.

In fact, GM had filed for the trademark "General Mobility" around the same time, we hear, suggesting that top management had been working out the strategic transformation for some time, in order to stay sustainable in the face of recent car-sharing and on-demand transportation business models as well as consumer preference for convenience and economic efficiency over the traditional ownership prestige, and anticipation of new technologies such as autonomous vehicles.

It was not until 2018 when their number one Japanese competitor caught the wind of this. At the 2018 CES trade show, the president of Toyota Motor Company announced that his company, too, aims to become a "mobility service company," in spite of their long standing position as a manufacturer of "cars that give you pleasure in owning" as emphasized by frequent commercial campaigns "Let's Go Places" by driving their cars.

While we root for both companies to succeed, one wonders,
  • How do you go about making such business transformation?
  • What actions are required of an organization to bring out fundamental changes in the way they conduct business?
  • Are there ways to effect transformation systematically and effectively?

Are there tools that QFD can offer?

The September 2019 International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) will include a tutorial precisely on this subject.

To remain sustainable in the long term, an organization needs to be able to systematically and rapidly adapt/transform its products, services, business models, resources and enterprise infrastructure in response to the changing business environment. To accomplish this in a coordinated manner, the business needs to be considered as a socio-technical system operating within a very complex and highly dynamic environment.

More often than not, the changes in market expectations and technological capabilities demand transformation across multiple organizations in integrated supply chains, where some businesses will be software intensive businesses, while others focus on physical offerings. These changes are being accelerated with the emergence of Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 developments and capabilities.

The tutorial "QFD for Business Transformation" will introduce the principles and relationships between Modern QFD and business transformation planning and development for businesses. The tutorial will reference relevant sections in the new ISO 16355 standard for QFD, and give attendees exercises to connect the principles and key methods, particularly Hoshin Kanri, the initial analytic stages of QFD, and prioritization and methods like analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

The tutorial will consist of approximately 1 hour of lecturing and 1 hour of exercises using a case study from 'Space logistics systems' scenario.

This tutorial was developed by three QFD Black Belts®: Dr. Kim Stansfield, Steve Dimelow, and John Fraser and has been successfully taught in UK at INCOSE (systems engineering) conferences.

This September, please join us to gain new knowledge and skill-set on this important subject.

The 2-day ISQFD including this tutorial is complimentary to those who sign up for the QFD courses.



About the Tutorial Instructors

The ISQFD tutorial "QFD for Business Transformation" will be taught by Dr. Kim Stansfield and Mr. Steve Dimelow.

Dr. Kim Stansfield is a QFD Black Belt® and 2016 Akao Prize recipient. He is currently Associate Professor of Transformational Systems Engineering WMG, at University of Warwick, UK. He has over 20 years of experience in automotive and aerospace control systems and also in applying QFD and DFSS to large Enterprise IT Systems development. 

Dr. Stansfield started his career in the Composites Group of the UK's Royal Aerospace Establishment, and then moved to Lucas Engineering and Systems and Energy Technologies Institute. He has been the UK representative for the development of the ISO 16355 standard for QFD since 2010.  


Mr. Steve Dimelow is a QFD Black Belt® and known in industry for his ability to solve complex engineering problems so that Projects can be brought in on time, cost and quality. His professional career includes British based Heavy Haulage company (ALE Ltd) in Abu-Dhabi, Hydratight Hevilifts in Walsall where he was involved in the design and commissioning of computer controlled Hydraulic Jacking Systems and Hydraulic Bolting Systems for the Civil, Powergen and Petro/Chem industries, followed by Smiths Aerospace in Wolverhampton where he was a Lead designer on Primary and Secondary Flight Controls for Civil and Military Aerospace, and Rolls-Royce in Derby where he has worked on Military and Civil engine programmes as well as new technology acquisition programmes.

It was during his work in the Aerospace business where he developed interest in Systems Engineering and sought the influential Systems Engineering Specialist role. In 2016, Steve earned a QFD Blackbelt® after searching for a method to connect business to engineering. He has been successful in applying QFD / Systems Engineering principles and Systems Thinking techniques both in practice on engineering programmes and through ongoing corporate training/coaching campaigns. Steve is currently contracted to QuEST Global Engineering Services as a Consultant Systems Engineer.

To inquire about this tutorial, ISQFD, and QFD certificate courses, please contact the QFD Institute.






01 July 2019

Using QFD and AHP's Structured Analysis to Surface Market Predictions and Formulate Future Strategy

This might come across as strange but we once heard a Navy officer say their number one enemy is the Air Force. It was meant as a metaphor describing how different divisions within an organization fight for the same resources.

Similar situations can be found in the business world. One product division views another as their number one competitor to be defeated, a sales force competes for a territory or market share with another department in the same company, or a VP demands a budget for her group's project pushing back against another VP doing the same for his.

Internal completion is good generally, but when leadership is disconnected for various reasons and travels in conflicting directions, it becomes a problem. It leads to unnecessary redundancy, wasted resources, broken team spirit, and diluted market focus.

While it might not always be possible to cause leadership to change his/her mind, what if you could offer a single view of company activities, market, and competitive environment that everyone can work from? What if you could offer a versatile structured analysis that enables the leadership to see current market direction as well as help them formulate strategic responses to changing elements in the future in a systematic way?

Here is a case study that used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to surface the market predictions and AHP to discuss and decide on future events, showing the ways to achieve agreement and alignment among the leadership: "Predicting Future Health Insurance Scenarios using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)". This case study was done by Carey Helper and Glenn Mazur and was presented in 2008 (ISBN 1-889477-20-6). Here are some of the analysis used.
Mr. Carey W. Hepler is one of our QFD Black Belt® graduates and the recipient of the 2010 Akao Prize® for Excellence, a member of the US technical advisory group for the ISO 16355standard for QFD, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and an Net Promoter System Champion at UnitedHealth Group®.

He has been applying various aspects of modern QFD successfully in the healthcare and insurance fields. (See below for a list of some of Carey's papers). We are pleased to announce that Carey will be co-teaching the QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course on September 4-5, 2019 at the 25th International Symposium on QFD in Boise, Idaho USA.

Since its inception, the aim of the QFD Institute training has been to produce practitioners who are capable of applying QFD thinking and tools correctly and effectively in their profession for successful development of new products, services, and business processes, and by doing so, to foster the next generation of QFD practitioners within his/her organization.

Carey is a good example, and we are pleased to have him co-teach in Boise. His experience in the QFD Belt® training will be an added benefit for new students who might have questions on how to go about applying QFD in their work or tips for a successful outcome.

PDF Brochures:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

QFD papers/presentations by Carey W. Hepler:

"QFD and Politics - A Sure Way To Start An Argument"
Carey Hepler, QFD Black Belt®, 2010 recipient of Akao Prize, Solantic Urgent Care (USA)
First of its kind, this paper examines using QFD in a political campaign. QFD is the art and science of taking the voice of the customer (VOC), and, more specifically, the top needs of the targeted customer segments, into consideration before developing a product or service. This paper discusses the specific steps of using Modern Blitz QFD® tools for an actual election campaign by his wife for a Florida county judgeship. Specifically, how to: 1) select target segments; 2) use the voice (top needs) of the target segment customers to develop the strategy; 3) create messaging; and 4) deploy the messaging to the targeted segments. [ISBN 1-889477-24-9]

"The QFD Process at Medtronic - Creating the Next Generation of Insulin Pumps and Sensors"
Carey Hepler, QFD Black Belt®, 2010 recipient of Akao Prize, Medtronic; Cary Talbot, QFD Black Belt®, Senior Marketing Product Planner, Medtronic, USA
Changes in technology and customer expectations are creating many new opportunities for medical device organizations. As the oldest and most respected diabetic medical device organization in the world, Medtronic MiniMed strives to stay ahead of the competition by quickly responding to these changes with new and improved insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring products. Recently, we have began using QFD to discover the unspoken customer needs for targeted portions of our population. QFD has allowed us to convert their needs into new products, services, and features to delight and attract new customers as well as retain current customers. This paper will describe some of the new opportunities we are facing, and show step by step how we are addressing them by understanding the Voice of the Customer and innovating and implementing exciting solutions. [ISBN 1-889477-23-0]

Predicting Future Health Insurance Scenarios using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)
Carey Hepler, QFD Black Belt®, Innovation Director, BCBS of Florida, USA; Glenn Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, QFD Institute, USA
This project used a combination of QFD, AHP, and other forecasting tools to look at possible 2008 election and policy outcomes and what new opportunities might be created to service both traditional members of health insurnce products as well as those who are uninsured in the State of Florida. The identified scenarios can be used to map and prioritize different market segments, formulate key customer needs into value propositions, determine strengths and weaknesses in their current competencies and capabilities, and then initiate service quality projects to begin improving those areas where customers will need them most. Several quality methodologies have been used to design successful products. [ISBN 1-889477-20-6]

The Many Faces of AHP - How to use AHP with Different Audiences for Maximum Results
Carey Hepler, QFD Black Belt®, Innovation Director, BCBS of Florida, USA; Glenn Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, QFD Institute, USA
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) is the oldest and most respected health insurance organization in the State of Florida. This paper discusses the company's use of AHP in terms of audience and technology delivery, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each of the technologies when working with the company's constituent groups. [ISBN 1-889477-19-2]

Finding Customer Delights Using QFD
Carey Hepler, QFD Black Belt®, Integrated Market Intelligence, BCBS of Florida, USA; and Glenn Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, QFD Institute, USA
Changes in market demographics and the regulatory environment are creating many new opportunities for health-care and related organizations. As the oldest and most respected health insurance organization in the State of Florida, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) strives to stay ahead of the competition by using QFD to discover the unspoken customer needs for an underserved portion of our population. QFD has allowed us to convert their needs into new products, services, and features to delight and attract new customers as well as retain current customers. This paper describes some of the new opportunities we are facing, and shows step by step how we are addressing them by understanding the Voice of the Customer and innovating and implementing exciting solutions. [ISBN 1-889477-18-4]




29 August 2016

ISO QFD Training: Public Courses


Compliance with ISO standards is a critical issue in today's global marketplace. ISO compliance assures that customers and suppliers are speaking the same "language," managing expectations, and agreeing on standards of performance.

For those responsible for product development, compliance with the new ISO 16355 is highly critical. This standard includes today's state-of-art QFD best practices, which have long evolved from the familiar House of Quality made popular in the 1970s.

The impact of this standard is huge, and providers of goods and services who comply will have a tremendous advantage in the marketplace.

Quality professionals including Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, DfSS, and DfLS are uniquely qualified to implement this standard. Many of the methods and tools you use to improve your internal operations can now be re-purposed to improve your customer's operations and products. This shifts the financial impact from cost reduction to revenue creation, an almost unlimited opportunity.

ISO 16355-1:2015 was released in December 2015. Parts 2, 4, 5, and 8 are in pre-publication phase and expected by the end of 2016 or early 2017. The remaining parts should follow soon after.

Now is the time to get ahead of your competitors on ISO 16355 compliance.
 
Two public courses are coming up, taught by the convener of the ISO 16355 Working Group.  We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.


  • September 12-16, 2016
    QFD Black Belt® training
    Hampton Inn Boise Downtown in Boise, Idaho USA
    PDF Brochure      |     Registration

    Advanced training for the current and future project leaders, DFLS/DFSS champions, corporate trainers, and anyone who seek to develop advanced NPD and CRM skills. This course may be attended without prerequisites by selecting the "Facilitator's Package." Otherwise, prerequisites apply.

    Registration of this course also includes the International Symposium on QFD (Sept 9-10) at the same venue, modern QFD templates, ISO 13655 bibliography materials with case studies, and the entire set of the symposium transactions from 1989 to 2016.


14 August 2016

ISO 16355 Application Examples

Already some companies are implementing the key points of the new ISO 16355 standard.

Please join us in the upcoming 22nd International Symposium on QFD, September 9-10, 2016 to gain the first-hand knowledge on which companies are doing so, why and how they are implementing the modern tools prescribed in the new ISO rather than traditional methods, and what you need to know to stay competitive. Here are some of them:


QFD and the Systems Engineering Way of Working

image by wikipedia/Tosaka/Rolls Royce
This presentation will discuss the integration of Modern Blitz QFD® and Pathfinder, a Systems Engineering (SE) approach developed at Rolls Royce. In addition to the modern QFD tools such as Projects Goals Table, Customer Segment Table, Affinity Diagram, Hierarchy Diagram, AHP, and Maximum Value Table, the flow of Pathfinder tools such as Stakeholder Map / Context and Boundary Diagrams and Viewpoint Analysis are employed. The presentation will support the ISO 196355 standard to reference good practice and evidence of usage in industry.

Speaker: Steve Dimelow, QFD Green Belt®, Systems Engineering Specialist, Rolls-Royce plc., United Kingdom


Soft Systems Method Integration With Sustainable Energy Systems Development Using ISO 16355


Soft Systems Method Integration With Sustainable Energy Systems Development Using ISO 16355
The Soft Systems Method was developed by Peter Checkland's team at Lancaster University in the 1970s to help analyse complex situations or 'soft problems' where the problem for which a solution is sought is not clearly understood, or for which differences of opinion exist as to the precise nature of the problem. Such a 'soft problem' exists in the development of sustainable (economic and environmental) energy systems. This presentation will illustrate how modern QFD methods described in the 'ISO 16355 standard for QFD' have been used in the UK's Energy Technologies Institute to help in the analysis of the 'soft problem' of transition to low-CO2 energy systems. Illustrations will be given on how these methods can be used to establish system specifications and designs.

Speaker: Dr. Kim Stansfield, QFD Black Belt®, Senior Teaching Fellow, Warwick University WMG, United Kingdom


Using AHP In QFD - The Impact of the New ISO 16355 Standard


Traditional QFD uses ordinal weights-percentages of a total to describe priorities for customer's needs and technical solution approaches. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), on the other hand,  works with profiles-vectors of unit length one, making it mathematically possible to add, substract and compare profiles. The ratio method proposed by Dr. Saaty to calculate priority profiles in AHP has been a part of Modern QFD for some time.
In fact, the new ISO standard 16335 suggests using the ratio scales and profiles in QFD, instead of the ordinal correlation strength indicators.

Not understanding how to properly apply AHP in QFD, however, could lead to project failures, especially if you are still using the traditional House of Quality matrix.  AHP is used in many steps in QFD, but this presentation will focus primarily on the House of Quality matrix.

Speaker: Thomas Fehlmann, Ph.D., Senior Consultant, Euro Project Office AG, Switzerland


ISO 16355 - Keeping Up with Global Best Practice


This presentation will outline the structure of the eight parts of the new ISO 16355, how they build on older QFD models from the 1970s and 80s, and what you need to do to become a leader and facilitator of this Modern QFD standard.

These include not only the classical House of Quality, but also more streamlined Blitz QFD®, strategic hoshin planning, competitiveness, project management, on-site customer visits, survey design, prioritization, quality assurance, innovation, cost management, reliability, optimization, supplier management, make and build, commercialization, support, retirement, and flow to next generation products.
New Product Development professionals will want to master these global best practices so they can engage their organizations in surging ahead of their competitors in creating the truly great products their customers demand.

Speaker: Glenn Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, QFD Institute, International Academy for Quality







17 November 2014

Upcoming Public QFD Courses
— Learn today's best methods and tools

All events listed here will be held at Charleston Marriott in Charleston, South Carolina USA. The 1-day Symposium on December 5, 2014 is complimentary to the course attendees.

Registration Page.
For questions, please contact the QFD Institute.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course
December 3–4,  2014  (Wed & Thurs)

    QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course
  • Your chance to learn Modern Blitz QFD®.  
  • Learn how to do QFD analysis without the outdated 4-house matrices, without the resource-consuming House of Quality matrix.
  • Learn how to do a Gemba and VOC analysis, correctly identify and prioritize customer needs, transform them into design specifications of customer-value and innovative solutions, deploy them throughout your new product/service development process — with agility and efficiency essential to today's lean environment. 
  • Templates included (modern QFD, AHP, modern House of Quality, Maximum Value Table, and more).
  • No Prerequisites.

QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course
December 8–12,  2014  (Monday - Friday)

    QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course
  • Advanced QFD training for DFLS/DFSS black belts and master black belts, trainers, facilitators, innovation leaders, corporate training scouts, and anyone who is inspired to be a project leader.  
  • Learn the full depth and breadth of Modern Comprehensive QFD, including detailed instructions on how to correctly deploy a House of Quality matrix for its full power, with correct data input and prioritization.
  • Learn how to expertly integrate your own process and other quality and design methods such as DFLS, Hoshin, Kansei Engineering, TRIZ, Critical Chain, six sigma DMAIC, StageGates, DFMEA and more. 
  • Templates included (modern QFD, AHP, modern House of Quality, Maximum Value Table, and more), and over 1,000 pages of training manual.
  • Prerequisites: Qualified graduates of the QFD Green Belt® Courses.

If you have attended the above courses more than three years ago, now is the time to refresh your knowledge and skills in these semi-private coaching sessions:
    QFD Update Courses
  • QFD Green Belt® Update Course is the continuing education for QFD Green Belt® graduates. This half-day course is conveniently scheduled on December 7, 2014, 4 PM - 7:30 PM.
  • QFD Black Belt® Update Course is the continuing education for QFD Black Belt® graduates. Attendees of this full-day course on December 7, 2014 receive the latest copy of both QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® training manuals.
We look forward to meeting you in these Charleston QFD events.



28 April 2014

The importance of understanding what the customer really means

Dr. Tom Saaty (founder of AHP) in his 17th "Thinking Man's Jokebook" (1994), tells this story, paraphrased here.

Yggdrasil (Norse mythology tree) and rocks, painted by Oluf Olufsen Bagge 1847
Norse mythology tree and rocks,
painted by Oluf Olufsen Bagge 1847
Wikipedia Commons
Two anthropologists travel to two remote islands to study the natives. After a few months, one visits his colleague on the other island to compare notes.

"How is it going?" he asks. The other replies, "I have discovered an important fact about their language. Watch."

He points to a tree and asks "what is that?" The natives reply in unison, "umbalo-gong."  Then he points to a rock and asks "what is that?" The natives reply in unison, "umbalo-gong."

The anthropologist exclaims "You see, they use the same word for tree and for rock."

The visiting anthropologist is astonished and replies, "That is truly amazing. On the other island, the same word means 'index finger.'"

So take care to analyze the voice of the customer. Use at least two people, preferably a marketing type and a technology type, to look at the context and the words, translate into product-independent needs, and validate with the customer with the affinity diagram, hierarchy diagram, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).


22 May 2013

Can ordinal scale numbers kill you?

This May 19, 2013 article in USA Today might make you nervous. According to a study of 1400 sunscreen products by the Environmental Working Group, many continue to carry SPF ratings that some experts consider misleading and potentially dangerous. The reason, the article states is that:

(photo of sunscreens, source FDA)"SPF numbers like 100 or 150 can give users a false sense of security, leading them to stay in the sun long after the lotion has stopped protecting their skin. Many consumers assume that SPF 100 is twice as effective as SPF 50, but dermatologists say the difference between the two is actually negligible. 

"Where an SPF 50 product might protect against 97% of sunburn-­causing rays, an SPF 100 product might block 98.5% of those rays. There is a popular misconception that the SPF figure relates to a certain number of hours spent in the sun. However this is incorrect, since the level of exposure varies by geography, time of day and skin complexion."

In other words, people believe (as did I until I read this), that SPF numbers were ratio scale and that 100 provided twice the protection of 50. In fact, as this article postulates, they are ordinal and SPF 100 is only 1.5% more protection than SPF 50.

This is the problem with ordinal scales. They confuse people into interpreting numbers the wrong way.

QFD experts have known this problem for many years, and in our early days (1966-1985), we didn't have an easy solution to obtaining ratio scale values from subjective judgments. In the House of Quality (HoQ), rating customer needs or competitive performance on a 1-5 ordinal scale, or enumerating relationship weights using 1,3,5 or 1,3,9 ordinal numbers are examples of ordinal scale subjective judgments. Like SPF, you cannot meaningfully add, subtract, multiply, or divide them.

The solution to the problem came to us QFD folks in 1986 when Dr. Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) became available as a PC program, allowing us to accurately convert subjective judgments into ratio scale values. It took me a few projects to see the difference in accuracy. For example, a judgment of "4" on the ordinal scale is usually perceived to be two times a judgment of "2."  But if you convert the 1-5 to ratio using AHP, it turns out that the judgment of " 4" is 26.0% and "2" is 6.8%.  26/6.8= 3.82 meaning that the judgment of a "4" is almost four times the judgment of a "2." Imagine the impact this mistake could have on a multi-million dollar project!

So, if you are not using AHP to calculate ratio scale judgments in your QFD, switch now, before the summer sun kills you.


AHP books by Thomas Saaty, Ph.D.


24 December 2012

Why we drink beer?

As we celebrate the various holidays and new year in our own special ways, let me propose a toast – of Singha Beer!
photo - Singha beer

This week, the American Society for Quality (ASQ) posted as an "Editor's Pick" on their Knowledge Center a QFD case study done by Singha Beer of Thailand. The response has generated a lot of interest and ASQ plans to post it on their home page.

Unlike most QFD applications, this case had little to do with the product, and much to do with the marketing and branding message – not what we drink but why we drink.

Here is the link to the article "Thai Brewery Deploys QFD Tools to Tap Into Consumer Motivation" (PDF) at ASQ site.

Enjoy.


PS: The QFD Institute also has a synopsis of this case study 
      
"Why We Drink Beer?" (web view).



27 November 2012

QFD at Holiday Time

The holiday season is a great time to sharpen our QFD skills. Here are some techniques that might make the celebrations and shopping a little easier.
photo - holiday gift shopping
  • Gift shopping for someone? Instead of asking them what your should buy (a solution), try asking for what they need (what difficulties do they have at work or home, what opportunities do they wish for, how would they like others to see them)? This helps us practice the Customer Voice table where we translate VOC into true needs.
  • Hard to choose among several options for a gift, a restaurant, or a party to attend? Practice your alternative selection technique.
  1. First list your options.
  2. Write down what is attractive about each option, and what is unattractive about each option. Convert unattractive statements into positive ones. For example, this restaurant is "too far away" becomes "nearby." These are your judgment criteria.
  3. Prioritize the judgment criteria. For emotional decisions, AHP's pairwise decision making is a great way to work through them.
  4. The highest priority judgment criteria will drive your decision. Look at which option best fulfills them. Feel comfortable that you made the best choice possible given all the wonderful options.
photo - holiday party options
  1. Define your dilemma using the Engineering Parameters in Table 2 in the above link. For example, I am invited to two parties at the same time – my best friend and my in-laws. One contradiction is improve EP 26 Amount of Substance (I want to improve my pleasure for the afternoon) without the undesired result of EP 13 Stability of Object (I don't want my marriage to become unstable).
  2. Look up the pair in the Table of Contradictions to find Inventive Principles 15, 2, 17, 40. Let's see what solutions we can invent.

    IP 15. Dynamicity.
  1. Make an object or its environment automatically adjust for optimal performance at each stage of operation. Have the meal at your in-laws (so you can compliment her cooking) and dessert at your friends (so you can stay late).
  2. Divide an object into elements which can change position relative to each other. Same as above, but decide that day where to go first.
  3. If an object is immovable, make it movable or interchangeable. E-mail your suggestions to qfdi@qfdi.org

    IP 2. Extraction.
  1. Extract (remove or separate) a "disturbing" part or property from an object.
  2. Extract only the necessary part or property. Exchange gifts, have a drink at the in-laws and then see your friends.

    IP 17. Move to a new dimension.
  1. Remove problems with moving an object in a line by two-dimensional movement (i.e. along a plane). Invite in-laws and friends to your house, instead. Have one party upstairs and the other downstairs.
  2. Use a multi-layered assembly of objects instead of a single layer. Add pleasure to visiting your in-laws by inviting your friends to come with you. Or, have lunch with in-laws and dinner with friends.
  3. Incline the object or turn it on its side. E-mail your suggestions to qfdi@qfdi.org

IP 40. Composite materials.
  • Replace a homogeneous material with a composite one. Take two cars, and divide the family up so each can stay as long as they want at either party.

 

20 October 2012

Delivering crystal-clear brand identity from end-to-end

"Drunk With Power," an October 14, 2012 New York Times article by Daniel Duane, describes an on-line wine seller named Jon Rimmerman Jon, who earned  his retail cred while at Starbucks. Jon summarizes it as this:

photo of wine
 “the beauty of retail marketing … can be roughly translated as defining a crystal-clear brand identity and then ensuring that everything from the product to customer relations reinforces it."

I like his words, and would like to give them a QFD flavor.

The purpose of modern Blitz QFD® is to define and prioritize with crystal clarity, that which is most important to the customer, and then ensure that everything from the product to customer relations reinforces it.

Let me explain.

"Crystal clarity" of what matters most to customers. In QFD, this means having a customer need that truly states the value proposition to the customer. Typically, this is the benefit a customer receives from having a problem solved, an opportunity enabled, or image enhanced. It should be independent of the product, its features, and its technology. A Voice of Customer (VOC) statement such as "fits in my pocket" is not a customer need, but rather a fuzzy set of dimensions.

With the Customer Voice table, a Blitz QFD® tool, you can translate that into true customer needs such as "I can carry with me easily," "Easy to store in my pocket," "Easy to retrieve from my pocket," "Stays in my pocket when I move around," "Does not damage my pocket,"  etc. This helps us understand these true benefits and avoid later design mistakes resulting in "the product falling on floor when I lean over," "the product tearing my pocket off," "the product is too hard to remove from my pocket when I want to get it out quickly," etc.

Crystal clarity means the need statement must be at a sufficient level of detail to be actionable in design, which is typically a tertiary level on a customer needs hierarchy. Abstract expressions such as "convenient" should be deployed to more detail.

Crystal clarity also means that we have accurate priority values. The QFD community replaced the 1960s' ordinal scale weights with AHP-derived ratio scale weights in the mid-1980s, first in Japan and then later in the US. Unfortunately, most English language QFD books and articles were written before this and missed the update. Even today, new QFD texts still cite these early works, and continue the math errors resulting from using ordinal weights in both customer needs and matrix relationships, as well as misuse of matrices including using a House of Quality matrix (HOQ) when it is not needed.

click to go to International QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course
This is why the QFD Institute Green Belt® and Black Belt® courses are strongly recommended for professionals in product/service/business development, marketing, design, sigma/lean/DMAIC black belts and so forth. You will learn how to use the modern AHP approach and we provide updated Excel templates. Without AHP clarity, your limited resources risk missing what is truly important and deploying lower priority things.

"Ensuring that everything from product to customer relations reinforces it" is the QFD call for end-to-end quality assurance. Depending on your industry, product, and company, this will vary, but typically describes, end-to-end, the full development, commercialization, and retirement of the product, service, or software. In other words, we must assure that any weakness related to the most important customer needs are made robust. For example, if poor packaging compromises the sterility of a medical supply item, it becomes scrap (let's hope!), wastes money, ruins reputations, could result in injury or death, etc., no matter how well the function and performance of the item was designed.

In classical QFD, each of the design, develop, test, procure, produce, assemble, package, ship, store, sell, support, and other commercialization dimensions has its own matrix. Since the matrix only compares two dimensions at at time, anywhere from four to thirty matrices have been identified in the literature. Maybe in the 1960s-80s, we had enough time and people to analyze these, but that is difficult these days.

In Blitz QFD®, all these matrices have been replaced for the most part by a single Maximum Value table. One tool goes end-to-end through all the dimensions. How do we do it – with crystal clarity focus on what matters most to customers. This is where we apply our best efforts, first. Makes sense, doesn't it? The Maximum Value table is one of the key tools taught in the QFD Green Belt® Course and QFD Black Belt® Course.

Additional training dates will be published at QFD Training & Events Calendar as they become confirmed. Or you can e-mail to us.


13 October 2012

QFD for high-speed rail, IT projects, smartphones, education, telecom industry, and political campaign

The previous post (Election-earing: how QFD helped a candidate truly hear the Voice of the Constituent) previewed the first-of-its-kind political campaign case study. In addition, these exciting presentations are planned for The 24th Symposium on QFD, November 2, 2012 in St. Augustine, Florida.

The transactions of this symposium will become available to public in May 2013, but the most privileged content is often shared with the symposium audience only. In addition, the 2012 symposium includes a mini tutorial on Hoshin Kanri (Policy Management).

Come join us to learn and network. This will be also a good chance to get your QFD questions answered and receive tips on how to apply these tools in your project.
Registration is still open.
. . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . .  . . .

"Going to the Gemba: Number Two with a Bullet"

photo of a Chinese bullet train
The first generation of Chinese bullet trains was marred with design flaws that manifested in the catastrophic July 2011 accident which killed at least 40 people and injured more than 200 (NYTimes.com, Dec. 28, 2011). For the second generation hi-speed trains, Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company decided to try QFD to address the previous deficiencies.

The symposium presentation will share the traditional QFD approach and tools used in this project, as well as the unique gemba story in a country where the central government and Chinese Ministry of Railways believe that they speak for everyone and represent the voice of the customers.  
Speaker: Jack B. ReVelle, Ph.D., ReVelle Solutions, LLC (USA)

"Change Fix Model"

graphic - managing changes
Some of the issues that add complication to IT projects include volatility of customer requirements and assessing risks involving changes. The Change Fix Model aims to improve agility of the estimation by using lean and QFD tools, enabling assessment of the impact of a change into the entire software lifecycle, starting with a regression model for establishing the relationship between impact of change and additional effort for implementing the change.

Using a CTQ drill down tree, which is one of the mechanisms to implement QFD, the paper is the first of its kind to measure the impact of a change by using a regression model. This will be presented by using a case of a major communications player.  
Speaker: Karthik Jegannathan, Cognizant Technologies Solutions (India/USA)

"Repertory Grid – Potential for Requirements Management in the Quality Function Deployment - An Example of the German Smartphone Market"

photo - smartphone users
This research by German scholars proposes integration of cognitive psychology science, the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), into QFD. In evaluating quality/performance of a product/service, customers follow unconscious personal perceptions, besides consideration of physical properties such as size, color, functions, etc. It is these unconsciously perceived characteristics that play an important role in the decision making process.

Repertory Grid Technique is based on the Personal Construct Theory, a constructivist theory that contends that people experience, organize, and describe their environment in terms of cognitive personal concepts that can be distilled into bipolar verbal labels. From its initial application in psychological diagnosis, the method has evolved to a set of general guidelines used in a wide variety of application domains, including environmental studies, education, healthcare, business, and it can be useful in identification of customer requirements in QFD analysis. The symposium presentation will use a case of German smartphone market to introduce RGT and show how it can be used in QFD analysis.
Speaker: Philipp Tursch, Chair Quality Management, Cottbus University of Technology (Germany)


"Elementary QFD: Using QFD to Assess and Evaluate the Learning Environment of a Private School Library and to Systematically Engage an ISACS Review"

photo - school library
A Modern Blitz QFD® application in a non-traditional customer/product model – a school. Emerson School, a private school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is in the midst of undergoing a review by The Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). The project goal was to identify key customers and translate their Voice of Customer as well as ISACS criteria into true customer needs.

Often organizations act on a situation without fully determining the true needs of stakeholders that would reveal the important context or unstated factor, leading to inadequate solutions or even exacerbated situations. This occurred several years ago. QFD gemba study revealed the largest and unexpected hindrances to the current learning environment in the library media center. These observations and customer verbatims were translated into true needs and fully ordered using paired comparisons in the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Finally, the highest ranking needs were evaluated on a systematic level, addressing potential causes for concern such as difficulties of implementation, perception of teachers and students, as well as resources like cost, time and effort.  
Speaker: Ken Mazur, QFD Black Belt®, Japan Business Consultants, Ltd., USA

"Implementing Quality Function Deployment to Improve Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction: A Three Stages Empirical Approach in Jordanian Mobile Telecommunication"

photo - telecommmunications
The aim of this research is to develops a conceptual model that integrates the SERVQUAL Gap model and QFD to help telecom companies in Jordan explore service quality shortfalls and improve customer satisfaction. The first stage involved designing, administering and analyzing the SERVQUAL framework questionnaire.

The study population comprises all Jordanian mobile telecommunications companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah) located in Amman, the capital of Jordan. There is a gap between expectations and experience in all service quality dimensions. QFD model will be used to close these gaps.  
Speaker: Tasneem Alfalah, Glasgow Caledonian University (UK)

"QFD and Politics (A Sure Way To Start An Argument)"

image - election campaign flyer
First of its kind, this paper reports the use of Modern Blitz QFD® tools in an actual political campaign for a Florida county judgeship. The primary focus was to understand how to: 1) select target segments; 2) use the voice (top needs) of the target segment customers to develop the strategy; 3) create messaging; and 4) deploy the messaging to the targeted segment.

This application uniquely deploys downstream using the Voice of Constituents data to make strategic and operational decisions. For example, what sort of true “customer needs” can be identified from this verbatim voice of voters — “what do you think about the Chick-fil-A case?” Read more on this paper in the previous post...
Speaker: Carey Hepler, QFD Black Belt®, Solantic Urgent Care (USA)

Skills Building Exercise: Hoshin Kanri mini tutorial

illustration - policy management and navigation
Hoshin Kanri is a systematic quality approach to planning, executing, auditing, and managing corporate vision and business strategy. It is a company-wide strategic management system that uses common QFD tools to visually indicate the relationships between executive-level targets and the means to achieve them, and those of direct reports. In this mini workshop, attendees will be introduced to the basic concept and application of how Hoshin Kanri works through an easy-to-follow example and hands-on exercise.
Instructor: Glenn Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, QFD Institute


Events Schedule (PDF)

How to attend...




14 August 2012

Which country won the 2012 London Olympics — Quantifying and prioritizing subjective data

The 2012 Olympics were fantastic and our British friends are to be congratulated on putting together a memorable experience for athletes and viewers alike.

image - olympic gold medalBut after each series of Games, whether summer or winter, I always marvel at the discussion of which country won.

Those of us in the quality field, for whom numbers are our bread-and-butter, may be interested to know that I posed this question to Dr. Thomas Saaty, creator of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, a method for quantifying and prioritizing subjective data. Tom, I'm not surprised, has authored papers on the subject.

Most news reports go for the straight count of medals:
  1. The U.S. 104
  2. China 87
  3. Russia 82, and
  4. Great Britain 65, for London 2012.
This assumes that all medals regardless of color, are of equal value. But what about other considerations, such as:
  • What was the score difference between gold and silver (7 points in men's basketball, 0.12 seconds in men's 100 meter track, 0.100 points in a women's beam gymnastics)
  • How strong was the competition (US men's basketball team were NBA professionals)
  • How important is the event relative to other events (past modern Olympics included events such as hot air balloon [1900], poodle grooming -- actually this was an April Fools Day joke, and others.)
Dr. Saaty raises interesting questions to develop some weighting criteria, such as how long and difficult is the training, how many challengers in the world engage in the sport, and other intangibles. Saaty looks at additional factors such as national Purchasing Power Parity per person (Ethiopia wins 2008 with 161.441)  and country population from which to send athletes (Bahamas wins 2008 with 6.5433 medals per million people). He also raises the issue of how exciting the game is based on the average ticket price to spectators.

After looking at the medals from multiple perspectives in the 2010 Winter Olympics, Dr. Saaty settles on 7, 2, 1 for the values assigned to gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.

Applying this for 2012, he arrives at a very interesting observation:
  1. The U.S. 104 total medals score 409
  2. China's 87 medals score 342
  3. Great Britain's 65 medals score 256, and
  4. Russia's 82 medals score 251 -- creating a reversal for third place.
Those who want to know more are recommended to read the QFDI newsletter "Decision Making with AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process)".

Today's quality professionals should know how to apply AHP in their projects for better analytic precision, and this includes six sigma black belts and anyone who is involved with prioritization of customer needs and product features in QFD. Case studies using AHP will be presented at the upcoming Symposium.

12 June 2012

How we use Blitz QFD® in our venue decision

The gap between industry-defined luxury (product-out thinking) and customer needs (market-in thinking)  was the topic of a recent QFDI newsletter “Defining Luxury for Today’s Business Travelers.” A survey by an online hotel reservation service confirmed some of the topics raised, according to the June 2012 issue of Michigan Meetings and Events.

“Browsing the Internet over a plate of waffles is a guest’s real idea of luxury,” was an example cited in the magazine with nearly 40% of the survey respondents agreeing that free Wi-Fi is the most important amenity (except for the seniors, who valued free breakfast more than free internet). Another finding was that 23% of female respondents considered designer toiletries a perk in their luxury hotel experience, while only 12% of men agreed. Conversely, 27% of men said they place high value on access to a premium workout facility, while only 19% for women. It should be noted that the survey was done with guests of all ages who used the online reservation service of hotels.com.

As mentioned in the newsletter, we recently conducted a site visit for a future symposium and applied QFD thinking. For example, over the years (the 2012 Symposium on QFD will be the 24th consecutive year) we have seen a shift in our attendees from automotive engineers to more representation from health care services and software and IT developers. Automotive engineers were local and drove to our Detroit area venue, so convenient highways and parking were most important.

As the attendees profiles changed and we began holding the symposium in other parts of the U.S., the quality of city life and availability of evening activities (fun bars and restaurants after a grueling day of study) became important. Based on attendee  questions and comments before, during, and after the conferences, we have seen evolving needs and priorities each year. This is our gemba where we learn about our customers – you, the QFD professional.

When we make a site-visit for future conference venues, part of our job is to represent your needs when examining meeting facilities, observing how hotel staff interact with guests, and discovering interesting evening activities in the area. Of course, it would be nice if the hotel's and convention bureau's glossy brochures, websites, and sales force could describe these things remotely, but that is not often the case. Visiting the venue (our future gemba), is still the best way to "walk in the shoes" of our attendees.

photo of 2012 QFD symposium venue, Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront
This year’s symposium will be at the Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront hotel. Our site visit to the nation’s oldest and continuously inhabited European settlement took place a little over a year ago.  We spent three days visiting several hotels recommended by the local CVB (St. Augustine & Ponte Vedra Visitors and Convention Bureau), presenting your needs, listening to each property's offerings, and experiencing first-hand how well the service level and facility quality would meet your most important needs.

Blitz QFD® tools such as the Maximum Value Table help align the product and service capabilities defined by the hotel’s proposal with the needs and expectations of our customers. We then analyze the overall best value to our attendees using AHP. Your needs become the criteria in our venue selection.

Because we know what you want, we are able to negotiate from a position of strength, and work hard to contract the best location for the best guest room price.  Many of the restrictions hotels place on groups such as meeting room rental fees, minimum number of guest rooms, meal costs, etc. we are able to beat because of the clear prioritization AHP provides.

aerial view of Castillo de San Marcos fort
So join us this year. The Hilton St. Augustine is located right in the historic area within steps from many restaurants and shops. Castillo de San Marcos national park (right photo) is within walking distance, as are an authentic pirate museum, and other attractions. St. Augustine is also a good base to explore many pristine beaches of Florida, including the nearby Anastasia State Park, and the early November weather should be warm and pleasant. Several world-class golf courses and the World Golf Hall of Fame are also nearby.

Tell us how well we do with this year's Symposium venue selection.
Both Registrations for the 2012 Symposium and QFD courses as well as hotel reservations are now open for the October 31 – November 9, 2012 event. See http://www.qfdi.org/ for more details. Below is a quick rundown of the events:


October 31-November 1

November 2

November 3

November 4-9



23 January 2012

How To Handle VOC Issues — Lessons from Japan crisis: Anticipating Improbables with Irreversible Consequences

This is a QFDI newsletter from April 2011, discussing the danger of using ordinal scale math in FMEA, namely for computing risk priority number (RPN) for assessing black swan events. The topic is too important that we thought to share it again for those who missed it.


"The role of Quality in Fukushima nuclear crisis"

1. Centralized consensus vs. triage leadership in disaster preparedness and decision making.

One of the tenets of quality management is "Plan-Do-Check-Act." We find that when the planning has been done properly and consensus built among constituents, most processes will fulfill requirements, and the Check-Act serves to fine tune the process. In Japan, this consensus building is called "ne-mawashi" or going around the roots of a tree before transplanting it to make sure everything is ok.

While TQM experts praise consensus as good for planning, there is a downside that Dr. Deming warned about in chapter 6 of his book The New Economics. That is — "with shared responsibility, no one is responsible." Thus, ne-mawashi can lead to finger pointing and blame instead of collaboration, as well as increased murkiness in accountability and delay in critical actions.

2. This raises these quality questions:

(a) In a disaster, do we go back to Plan or do we go directly to Do-Check-Act (sometimes called Do-Redo) at the local level?

'Planning' may require subject matter experts who may not be optimally located since the exact location of the disaster may be unknown until after it occurs, and time which may be limited by threat to life or subsequent failures in other systems.

Also, in terms of 'planning' resources, are the same resources being competed for various emergency operations (such as fire, police, medical), or should different resources be planned? From a time perspective, should the priority be given to allocating the resources to take care of those who are still alive and need immediate assistance, or should the resources be expedited first to cooling nuclear fuel to address the medium term risk to the life and livelihood of survivors?

In the case of Japan, were certain needs more urgent than others? Such as the need to verify the emergency level vs. the need to issue a quick evacuation order; the need to determine resources for disaster relief vs. the need to add resources to prevent a nuclear event, etc. And how should those priorities be made, by whom, and when? Should such priorities have changed the way the leaders approach the 'planning,' 'doing,' and 'checking'?

(b) In disaster preparedness, how has the extent of the disaster be predicted?

If the disaster falls within the predicted parameters, the planned response may be sufficient. If the disaster rises to unanticipated levels, however, as is the case in Japan, the response plan can easily become insufficient.

"Beyond expectation" was how virtually everyone — from Tokyo Electric Power Company (the operator of Fukushima power plant) to the government nuclear power regulators and safety commission— described the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku region, although retrospective review of historic data begins to hint otherwise.

The probability of a nuclear fatality was set in 2003 by the Japanese Nuclear Commission (JNC) to not exceed 1 × 10-6 per year or about 1 in a million years. On the Japanese nuclear event, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, cautions, that model error causes underestimation of small probabilities and their contribution (see his web site). This highly improbable event with massive consequences is what Taleb calls a "Black Swan."

(c) Is standard FMEA practice adequate for for a Black Swan event?

In FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) we try to account for this Black Swan by looking at not only frequency of occurrence, but also impact and detection. Assuming JNC's probability estimate for a nuclear fatality of 1 × 10-6, the likelihood of a M9.0 earthquake at less than 1 per 100 years or 1 × 10-2 (worst case prediction), and the likelihood of a 20 meter tsunami at less than 1 per 100 years or 1 × 10-2 (worst case prediction), the probability of all three occurring simultaneously would be 1 × 10-10, or 1 in 10,000,000,000 (one in ten billion).