Manufacturing Systems Foundations of World-Class Practice (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction
Pages 128-136
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 128... ...
This phrase not only is used by most business authors, but also finds its way into virtually every annual report and statement of business strategy published by companies, large and small, across our land. I do not want to downplay the importance of customer satisfaction.
|
From page 129... ...
After surveying their customers carefully, the manufacturer decided that the greatest unfulfilled need their customers had was to somehow provide a food that overcame the greatest disadvantage of man's best friend, specifically, the dog's bad breath. It did not take the research department long to come up with a chlorophyll additive to their regular product, and they went into
|
From page 130... ...
The first several weeks after the product introduction were quite successful for the firm in that they sold lots of their product. They smilingly congratulated themselves for having accurately ascertained their customers' needs and then satisfying that need.
|
From page 131... ...
This rather concise objective should require you to understand both their needs and their wants and, further, nudge you into a much more open-minded approach toward providing truly imaginative products. Sometimes it may appear that "wants" are not at all what the customer needs and are put on this earth only to deceive well-meaning product managers.
|
From page 132... ...
THE CRITICAL STEP THE PRODUCT PLAN By far the most critical step, in my opinion, on the way toward customer satisfaction is the skill with which you engage in product definitions. The foundation of good product definition methodology, in HP's opinion, is the quality function deployment (QFD)
|
From page 133... ...
Any disagreement they have must be hammered out by all three functions, and the final definition is supported by all of them because their names are on the dotted line. When dealing with inside customers, there are two facets to customer satisfaction; the first is of a technical nature and the second is of a business nature.
|
From page 134... ...
In my view, while this has not been as devastating as our choice of R&D, there are some signs that the Japanese are overly obsessed with manufacturing considerations. The best example of this is in the consumer electronics business, where both compact disc players and videocassette recorders have an extremely low selling price but carry with them a rather poor record of mechanical reliability.
|
From page 135... ...
Although there was undoubtedly some technical exchange with your engineers, the customers really have not had an opportunity to see the entire feature set put together as a complete product plan until you have concluded this phase of your work. Thus, it can be very productive to take those complete plans back to your key customers with the simple question, "Is this what you had in mind?
|
From page 136... ...
It may be a good plan, but, if it varies widely from your basic business, there can be far-reaching, disastrous effects in financial or sales-channel issues. I am not proposing that product plans never vary from our charter and strategy, but I am strongly suggesting that, if they do, we need to take another cut at a much broader set of issues and make sure we understand what we are letting ourselves in for.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.