Showing posts with label QFD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label QFD. Show all posts

05 November 2019

Competitive Benchmarking and QFD - ASQ Webcast


Competitive benchmarking plays an important role in the design and development of new products. After all, why would a customer buy something new unless the new product offered superior benefits over what they use now.

Benchmarking competitors can be employed at different QFD phases to help identify opportunities where both the producer (business) and the customer get the "biggest bang for the buck."

The "Competitive Benchmarking and QFD" webcast gives an excellent overview of what QFD really is and how your business can benefit from it. Best of all, you learn the most trusted QFD information from the world top QFD expert, Glenn Mazur.

The webcast also provides an eye-opening update including the new ISO 16355, for those who had learned QFD from the books and/or instructors teaching the out-of-the-date method (such as 4-phase or 4-house model from the 1960s) or incorrect information (such as 'a House of Quality matrix is QFD').

This webcast is a part of "Learn About Quality" education by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the QFD Institute is pleased to provide the updated content.

The webcast is free to the ASQ members.
Sign in from this page to access it, if you are already a member.

Interested in getting an ASQ membership?
It is available for individuals and corporations, regardless of your location.

You can read the snippets of the webcast content from this page, if you do not wish to get an ASQ membership at this time.



27 February 2016

New ISO 16355-1 for QFD



Since 2009, an international team of QFD experts convened by the QFD Institute has been writing the new ISO standard 16355 for QFD. The Part I is now on sale through various standards organizations listed below.

The purpose of the standard is to guide the global community of QFD practitioners, international businesses, and Quality and Design professionals in complying with the skills they need to achieve 21st century levels of innovation and quality in their new products.

To comply with this standard—more accurately, to be able to use the standard successfully, you must possess important QFD foundations.

Simply copying from the standard will not help achieve the desired success. You must know how to tailor QFD methods discussed in the standard, you must be able to distinguish which QFD tools and which deployments in what sequence are best for your project, not falling into copying something that turns out to be detrimental to your particular project.

To develop the sound QFD foundation to comply with ISO 16355 and develop successful product development skill-set, consider proper training. This will save you from making costly mistakes, wasting resources, and project failure.

The papers and links referenced in the standard and its Tool Matrix have been complied in a 1400+page eBook, which was complimentary to the March 2016 QFD Green Belt® attendees. After that, this eBook is available from the QFD Institute. It contains case studies using the tools cited in the ISO 16355 as well as other resources. 

Standard organizations selling ISO 16355-1:2015 (Part I):
  • ISO (International Standards Organization)
  • ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
  • ASQ (American Society for Quality)
  • BSI (British Standards Institute)
  • DIN (German Institute for Standardization)
  • JSA (Japan Standards Association)
  • NEN (Netherlands NEN)
  • EESTI (Estonian Centre for Standardisation)
  • SIS (Swedish Standards Institute)
  • NO (Standards Norway)
  • AFNOR (France)
  • Normservis (Czech Republic)
  • SCC (Standards Council of Canada)

Original post Feb. 27, 2016.  Updated March 25, 2016.




28 October 2014

Thomson Reuters 2014 Journal Citation Reports® recognizes "Using QFD to Write an ISO Standard"

Writing and publishing implies a level of authority on a particular subject. We say "imply" because it may not always be the case. There are numerous books, papers, and articles that suggest a certain expertise but fall short of delivering it.

The recent advent of self-publishing technology, without peer review, makes it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Even the Quality community is not immune.

That is why it was a pleasant surprise to receive a notification from Francis and Taylor, publishers of the Quality Engineering Journal, saying that a recent article by Glenn Mazur, "Using Quality Function Deployment to Write an ISO Standard for QFD,"  has been recognized by Thomson Reuters 2014 Journal Citation Reports® for improving Quality Engineering Journal Impact Factors.

Thomson Reuters 2014 Journal Citation Reports®
screen shot of Thomson Reuters JCR

Thomson Reuters is a major multinational media and information company based in New York City. Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports® measures how many times a particular article has been cited by peers, as an indicator of the article impact on the subject matter. This is what they say on their web page:

"Journal Citation Reports<sup>®</sup> offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data. By compiling articles' cited references, JCR helps to measure research influence and impact at the journal and category levels, and shows the relationship between citing and cited journals. Available in Science and Social Sciences editions."


Hooray for Glenn Mazur, executive director of the QFD Institute and also one of the contributors of this QFD Blog. He also shares his expertise often in the QFD Institute Newsletter, which is free and you can subscribe from here. He will be speaking at the December 5, 2014 Symposium on QFD.

 Thomson Reuters® and Journal Citation Reports® are registered marks of Thomson Reuters.



17 October 2014

Is it mean to mean different things with the same words?

One strength of Modern Blitz QFD® and its powerful voice of customer analysis toolset is a way to more deeply understand the customer's words, since different cultures, regions, age groups, sexes, and so forth can use the same words to mean different things.

The other day, I was listening to the rock opera Tommy by the Who, and in the song Pinball Wizard is the line "…sure plays a mean pinball." Even though I have heard that song a hundred times or more, it suddenly occurred to me, does that mean he plays average pinball or above average pinball?

If you ask us quality specialists, "mean" means average. If you ask us hippies (the album was released in 1969), "mean" means wickedly good, and certainly better than average. Same word, different meaning depending on who says it and in what context.

In his hilarious book Dave Barry Does Japan, the author offers a translation table. My favorite is "We will study your proposal" translated into American English as "We will feed your proposal to a goat."

(we will feed your proposal to a goat)

My point is this, QFD should start with the voice of the customer, but that voice must be translated in order to understand its true meaning.



13 October 2014

New QFD Group in LinkedIn

The QFD Institute is pleased to launch a new LinkedIn Group devoted to conversations, Q&A, and announcements about QFD activities. It is moderated by the Executive Director, Glenn Mazur.

To join this new group,
1. You must have a free LinkedIn account, which you can easily join at www.linkedin.com
2. In the search box, type "qfd institute" and select the QFD Institute Group.

3. Click "Join" and join the conversation.
















While there are other QFD-named groups, it appears they have gone "ghost" or "zombie" where the underlying moderator no longer exists or participates.

This new QFD LinkedIn group is for professionals who are serious about learning and implementing QFD and relevant methodologies for design, quality, new product development, business process innovation, VOC, innovation, etc.

We invite you to ask a question, post a comment, like something, or follow the QFD Institute.



22 September 2014

Bad customers causing problems? Only sell to good ones, then.

At a dinner party last week, one of my friends who recently retired as an automotive safety engineer was discussing the latest recall in airbags. It reminded me of an Automotive News article I had read decades ago about a seatbelt manufacturer that had to recall millions of seatbelt buckles because the plastic retainer was breaking.

As I recall, the article quoted an employee of one international seatbelt supplier blaming the American customer because they eat fried potatoes and have dogs in their cars. Apparently, the salt, oil, and pet hair was weakening the plastic part.

QFD thinking tells us that if you want to sell in America, your product must be robust to reasonable American use – in this case food and pets in the cars. Otherwise, DON'T sell in America. Blaming the customer moves the responsibility from you, the maker to the customer. If you blame the maker, who has control over your design, you can effect a solution. If you blame the customer, over whom you have no control, the only solution is to get better customers. Good luck with that!


23 August 2014

QFD in Europe - Reporting 2014 QFD activities across EU

2014 has been a big year for QFD in Europe.
The statue of Poseidon in Gothenburg
photo: Historiker/Wiki Commons
  1. The spring blossomed with QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® in-company training sessions in Nuremberg Germany, Prague Czech Republic, and Waterloo Belgium. Several projects are well under way.
  2. The summer heated up with a June QFD workshop during the International Academy for Quality (IAQ) annual meeting in Stenungsbaden Sweden, using QFD tools to capture the voice of the IAQ membership (including our Chair, Sr. Mary Jean Ryan) in order to explore ways to improve the membership experience. The session was followed by an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet and musical dinner cruise!
  3. Next was a special Pre-EOQ Congress session in Gothenburg Sweden attended by 37 participants. This included a 2.5 hour QFD White Belt® training session to introduce the new VOC (Voice of the Customer) and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) tools used in Modern Blitz QFD®.
  4. In the main European Organization for Quality (EOQ) session was a paper on the ISO 16355 standard (new QFD standard).
  5. Vienna
    photo: Eliza0027/Wiki Commons
  6. The ISO Technical Committee (TC) 69 for Statistical Methods held its annual plenary session in Vienna Austria later in June. We were able to finalize the ISO 16355 draft and launch its commentary phase. Work on Parts 2 and 3 have begun.
  7. The autumn is ablaze with new events, starting with the 20th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) as well as a
    QFD Green Belt® course to be held in Istanbul Turkey from September 2 - 5, 2014.  This is a great opportunity for readers in EU and ME regions to attend the today's best QFD training and earn an international QFD certificate.
  8. The 2014 Akao Prize® is being awarded to Associate Prof. Jaroslav Machan of the Czech Republic during the ISQFD.

Keep up the good work, Europe. I will update you on Turkey soon!



30 January 2014

Shakespeare's Gemba

While ago, I nominated Champlain as my Mr. Gemba ("I get my kicks from Champlain").

(stain glass image of Polonius)
Polonius
Here are more Gemba wisdom for you, one from the literature masterpiece and another from today's TV show.

Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3, Lord Polonius advises Laertes.
  • Listen twice as much as you speak.
  • Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice
  • Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment


Today's TV star Judge Judy puts it more directly:
"God gave your two ears and one mouth for a reason."

I believe the #1 gemba tool is a piece of tape across the lips of every QFD team member.

When we are silent, the customer fills the silence with gold – his take on his life and business, what he likes and dislikes. This is the true VOC from which we can begin to understand his needs.

31 August 2013

2013 International Symposium on QFD & Public QFD Courses

For anyone wanting to find out how QFD is used today in real projects, innovative new tools and current best practices, better integration with DFLS and other initiatives, and what international markets are using QFD to their advantage, here are the annual QFD events that are perfect for you:

September 4–5 : QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course

September 6–7 : The 19th International Symposium on QFD   See presentation schedule

September 8 : QFD Black Belt® UPDATE and QFD Green Belt® UPDATE

September 9–13 : QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course


Registrations for QFD courses will be accepted up to 1 day before the start of the respective courses. The Symposium accepts walk-ins. In any case, we recommend contacting the QFD Institute as soon as you decide, so as to ensure your seat, materials, and meals.

Venue: Hotel Santa Fe
All events will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA. Please see Venue details and Travel information.

This year's International Symposium will have keynote addresses by Dr. Yoji Akao (founder of QFD) and Glenn Mazur (executive director of QFDI) and case studies and research from Germany, Japan, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, and USA. See here for details.

The QFD courses include the modern QFD templates which also include the House of Quality matrix with modernized math, AHP, Customer Voice Table, Maximum Value Table, etc.

We hope you will be able to join us.

15 August 2013

Mirror Neurons – the science behind "gemba" ?

Recent studies on the behavior of monkeys in a research lab in Parma Italy accidentally found that brain neurons that fired when a monkey picked up a peanut, also fired when a monkey watched a human pick up a peanut.

Ongoing research in these so-called "mirror neurons" in humans have discovered what might be the root-cause of empathy. When we see someone performing a task, it triggers the same neurons as if had been doing the same task ourselves.

A recent discovery has also shown that people on the "empowered" side of a relationship lose some ability to fire these mirror neurons compared to those on the "unempowered" side of the relationship.  (See the report and video at NOVA: Mirror Neurons)

For QFD practitioners, this gives strong support for the power of gemba visits. Unlike surveys and questionnaires which are passive, going to gemba to observe and even participate in activities with our customers, apparently triggers empathy in our brains that may improve how we understand our customers and how we innovate solutions to their problems. Further, this latest research suggests that if we empower the customer to lead the gemba visit, we consequently unempower ourselves, thus improving our ability to empathize.

Wow! I've been teaching "go to the gemba" for twenty years and now have an explanation for why this works so well, especially for bringing marketing and technical people together to better understand customers.

The tools we've developed, which are now core in the Blitz QFD® approach and taught in the QFD Green Belt® course are designed to capture this implicit mirroring process and make it explicit. The result has been more marketing-technical teams attending both public and in-company Blitz QFD® training.

Why not join our next course on September 4-5, 2013 in Santa Fe NM and learn how to put your mirror neurons to good use!



27 July 2013

QFD for cloud computing security, e-learning systems, service industry, FMEA, VOC codification

This continues a preview of the upcoming The 19th International Symposium on QFD (ISQFD) on September 6-7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA.

The 2-day symposium welcomes people of all levels QFD, from the beginner to the experienced, people of countries and industries. It is complimentary to the attendees of QFD Green Belt® Certificate Course and QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course  We hope you will join us!

See the previous posts:



QFD and Requirements Prioritization: A Survey on Security Requirements for Cloud Computing

(image - Clound Computing security)Prioritization is an essential task within QFD, and QFD is highly suitable for the development of Cloud Computing (CC) applications where non-functional requirements play a main role. Many of them are security requirements, often the main concern for CC investments. This paper introduces the usage of QFD for Cloud Computing (CC). In this research, CC security requirements were prioritized by pairwise comparison, showing that not all security requirements are equally important. With this finding, the appropriate usage of QFD for CC development will be discussed.

Keywords: QQFD, Requirements Prioritization, Security Requirements, Cloud Computing, GERMANY

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Improving a Learning Management System based on QFD and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

(photo - Service Oriented Architecture QFD for e-learning system)This paper reports how to improve web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) through integration of the elements of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD).
The users of an LMS are typically invisible to the systems developers and administrators, However, understanding the user needs has high priority in any networked learning systems, in order to develop and implement effective virtual learning services that meet diverse expectations of the users. An example will be presented based on a Turkish platformed LMS.

Keywords: Learning Management System, Service, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), QFD (Quality Function Deployment), TURKEY

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Study of Service Quality Improvement Using the Theories of Nonverbal Communication, FMEA and QFD

(image - customer service)Study of service industry presents unique challenges because of soft issue measurements such as quality evaluation and service quality.
With this in mind, the authors propose a quality improvement process specifically for service industry. The presentation will include a case study using non-verbal communication, FMEA, and QFD.

Keywords: Service Quality Improvement, QC story, QFD, JAPAN

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Statistical Engineering Approach to Codifying the Voice of the Customer

(image - HOQ whats and hows)Virtually all design projects involve the collection/processing of the Voice of the Customer to develop a set of requirements to which the producer designs their process/product.Approaches to efficiently and effectively deriving those requirements involve multiple techniques from the fields of market research, quality engineering, design engineering, and inferential statistics. This paper proposes a way to create a logical flow for the Voice of the Customer processing by codifying a series of tools into a linear statistical engineering road-map, and thereby more efficiently populating the House of Quality matrix that uses the "whats" (functions) and "hows" (functional requirements) approach. The exposition is supplemented with a lucid hypothetical example.

Keywords: Voice of Customer, Function Analysis, Kano classification, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Function Requirements, Specifications, Quality Function Deployment, USA



View more papers & presentations

QFD Courses at this symposium

How to Attend


02 July 2013

Is it advantageous to be first or to be better?

(illustration - internet radio)Newsweek magazine recently published an article "The Myth of First-Mover Advantage" about iTune entering the Internet radio business, thus challenging the well-established Pandora head-on. The article summarized the successes and failures of companies that are first-to-market.

This questions is commonly asked by QFD practitioners:
Is it advantageous to be first or to be better?

My thoughts:

Advantage belongs to first-movers if they continuously put themselves "out of business" before a new competitor does. This requires an on-going assessment of changing customer needs and producing corresponding features. QFD can mitigate the risk of first-mover's typical "technology push" mentality by building a "market pull" approach.

Customers will churn products as they mentally perform cost-benefit analyses of alternatives. Costs include purchase price, cost to change in terms of training, support, maintenance, disposal of old product, etc. To overcome these, the benefits of the new offering either by the original First-Mover or the new competitor must be overwhelmingly substantial in solving the customer problem, enabling a customer opportunity, or enhancing the customer's image.

Glenn

24 March 2013

How to calculate customer value

Value to a customer = what he gets / what he gives.
image - customer valueWe make a sale when this number is >1. Both the numerator and denominator are in the customer's domain; they determine what they get — benefit, and what they pay — price, effort to use, risk of change.

The problem with many quality methods is that they focus on what companies give — product and features, and not on what customers get — value and benefit.

That is why QFD is an essential tool. It is the best method I know that can link together the customer benefit and the product features, thus assuring that developers focus first and best where it matters most to the customer.

The trick is to understand what your customers want to get and what they will pay BEFORE you design. That way you don't have to keep fixing things later. Traditional House of Quality assumes you have complete and accurate customer needs. My 27 years of QFD experience tells me otherwise. You must go deeper than what customers tell you if you want a competitive advantage. This is what the modern Blitz QFD® tools do.

The 2013 International QFD Symposium (ISQFD) will be held in Santa Fe this September. Come meet Dr. Akao (QFD founder) and learn these new Blitz tools.

19 March 2013

What does Akao say? Mu!

A recent poll on the LinkedIn group Lean Six Sigma Worldwide asked:

"Which Lean Six Sigma waste reduction (Muda, Mura, Muri) is the most effective way to increase profitability?"

Quality professionals know the first three Mu as three Japanese words: Muda meaning waste, Muri meaning strain, and Mura meaning discrepancy.

I'd like to add a 4th Mu to the list – Muchakucha ムチャクチャ meaning horrendous, reckless, confused and messy, and mad. In other words, don't blindly follow what others do.

There has been much discussion in the lean and six sigma communities that, like TQM a few years ago, these quality initiatives have become too vanilla flavored and over hyped to the point of diminishing returns. This is the result of failing to custom tailor the tools and training to the cultural DNA of the organization.

Our QFD community faced this problem early on when House of Quality (the tool) became synonymous with QFD (the process). Companies in every industry copied the truncated 4-house auto parts model, became overwhelmed by its simultaneous complexity (takes too much time) and simplicity (doesn't address my problem), and quickly burned out. By the mid-1990s, Dr. Yoji Akao was sufficiently worried that QFD would be abandoned, and he asked the QFD Institute to find a way to make QFD more adaptable and faster.

The result was the Blitz QFD® approach which now precedes and can sometimes replace the House of Quality and subsequent matrices. It is highly scalable and adaptable, and is the core of what we now teach in the QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® courses.

Now, specifically to the LinkedIn poll question: Profit is the difference between revenue and cost. The Lean and six sigma community focus on the cost side – remove waste, improve productivity. There is a limit, though, on cost reduction. Theoretically, once you reach zero cost, where can you go?

QFD, on the other hand, focuses on the revenue side. If we can provide more value to customers by helping them solve their problems, enable their opportunities, and improve their image, then more customers will pay more money for the product or service.  The limit is the size of the global market. Smart customers (the ones you want) won't mind paying 99 cents for one dollar of benefit.





04 March 2013

DFSS / DFLS and QFD: Why we need both

A recent QFD newsletter discussed the similarities and differences of DFSS/DFLS and QFD and why it is not an "either-or" question but that we need both to deliver business success.

(illustration - dfss/dfls vs qfd)
This is because the focus of DFSS (design for six sigma) and DFLS (design for lean sigma) is our internal products and processes, whereas the focus of QFD (quality function deployment) is our customers. The differences between the sigma approaches and QFD are especially notable in these areas:
  • Focus
  • Customer understanding
  • VOC (voice of customer) analysis
  • CRM (customer requirements management) and priority
  • Solutions identification and delivery
  • Design, Development, and Commercialization
  • Math

In short, QFD provides a holistic approach that links business, customer, and technology in one end-to-end trackable flow with the goal of customer value — DFCV (design for customer value). QFD uses quantitative and non-quantitative tools to analyze the unknown unknowns, information that leads to sustainable competitiveness.

(illustration: QFD + DFSS/DFLS = Happy Customer)DFSS provides a powerful set of statistical and analytic tools that can improve the efficiencies and effectiveness during the build of new products. QFD provides the umbrella of customer value as the driver and DFSS kicks in downstream to assure that solutions are optimally developed. We need both together in order to deliver customer satisfaction and business success.

Here is the detailed comparison of the sigma and QFD approaches and the reasons why we must use both: "DFSS/DFLS and QFD"




21 February 2013

I get my kicks from Champlain

Samuel de Champlain is my nomination for Mr. Gemba.

I enjoyed immensely reading David Hackett Fischer's biography of the father on New France called Champlain's Dream (Simon & Schuster, 2008).  Like many of us in modern organizations, Champlain started out with a dream, had little if not negative "management" backing, did his exploration the right way, and changed his corner of the world forever.

Champlain's Dream
Let me put this in a QFD context.

Business Goals: converts Native Americans to Catholicism (as measured by # souls), create wealth for France (as measured in livers – French currency at the time), compete with English and Dutch (as measured by # ports, colonies).

Key Stakeholders: 3 successions of King Henri IV, Queen Regent Marie de Medici, and Louis XIII and their administrations. Financial backers including Compagnie de Caen and Hundred Associates.

Key Customers: various tribes of Native Americans on the St. Lawrence River, French traders, Colonists, Catholic Church clergy.

Customer Process Models: Champlain joined many tabagie (smoking festivals and meetings) with Native Americans to learn about their lives, their joys, and their struggles.

Gemba: After the "interview" research of the tabagie, Champlain then explored the St. Lawrence gemba. They joined hunts for food, parties of war, lived in their villages, ate their food, stayed on through the winter seasons (in the early 1600s, most Europeans were fair-weather visitors to North America). He did youth "student" exchanges to learn their languages and customs, etc. This is real gemba.

Customer Needs:

    About the Native Americans, Champlain learned:
  • Help feed our families (many St. Lawrence tribes were hunters and gatherers, did not store food, and suffered terribly with disease and starvation during some winters).
  • Protect us from our enemies (both Indian and European).
  • Help us live in peace.
    About Colonists:
  • I want to serve my King.
  • I want to become a land owner (almost impossible for non-nobility in France).
  • I want a place to retire with my family.
  • I want a great adventure.
  • I want to get out of debtors prison.
    About Clergy:
  • Establish the Church in North America.
  • Create a rule of law and faith (not just revenge).
  • Free to do missionary work.
    About French traders:
  • I want to trade with everyone.
  • I want to fish anywhere.
  • I want to make a lot of money.

Functional Requirements: respect for Native American cultures, no retribution, assure adequate food and nutrition, establish rule of law based on just solutions for all parties, build trust by keeping promises, religious tolerance, make colonies self-sustaining, encourage intermarriage.

The result was a mastery of exploration, cartography, co-habitation of peoples for mutual benefit, and a tremendous leadership style that got it "right" most of the time. This came from Champlain's non-judgmental willingness to learn, appreciate diversity, and explore beyond his comfort zone. In that era, it was the French who recognized the humanity of Native Americans, while the Spanish were enslaving them and the British were pushing them off their land.

Champlain's life is an example of how to do gemba right.

17 February 2013

Now’s the time!

It’s that time of the year again, when we begin the call for papers for this year’s QFD Symposium.

This year’s will be an International Symposium, taking place September 6–7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  It’s a great time to meet your peers of QFD as well as greet some of the gurus of quality excellence.

As usual, there will be classes, discussions and demonstrations, and we’re looking for contributors who would like to show others how they’ve successfully applied QFD to their own professional (or personal) projects.

If you have a project or paper, completed or in-progress, you’d like to share, please send an abstract now.

(photo from Symposium on QFD)



11 January 2013

Kansei Engineering and Education

One of the "cousin" methods we use in Modern QFD is called Kansei Engineering, which I often translate as emotional quality (when used by itself) or lifestyle deployment (when combined with QFD).

The original concept creator, Dr. Michio Nagamachi, also uses it for ergonomics (both physical and emotional) in order to elevate a produce above its pure functionality.


In a January 5, 2013 article in the New York Times by Al Baker, "Ergonomic Seats? Most Pupils Squirm in a Classroom Classic", the subject of school chairs interested me greatly. It seems that even today, most schools see chairs as a means to corral children so they can learn in the traditional school settings that date back to the 19th century 5-S approach: sit straight, speak only when spoken to, study only the books we approve, store easily, and save money.

photo - school chairs


Saving money seems to still trump the others, as schools continue to buy chairs that will last 30-50 years. Despite a German study and recent experience that children's comfort and engagement are improved with more ergonomic and mobile chairs, schools are slow to change. Professor Galen Cranz in her 1998 book "The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design," wished child movement were accorded more consideration.

From a QFD and Kansei perspective, children should be seen as "customers" and users of the chair.  Today's classrooms, group work, electronics, and other educational tools should be observed in "gemba" visits (actually go to a classroom and see how teachers and students interact), so that 21st century chairs and desks can be created to help children achieve their educational goals.

I know observing children is problematic, and adjustments to the gemba methods must be made. You may find these papers helpful:
  • "Jurassic QFD" (1999) where children were observed in a petting zoo during the design of an animatronic triceratops