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

• 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• Learn how to do QFD analysis without the outdated 4-house matrices, without the resource-consuming House of Quality matrix.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)

• 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 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.

New Kano Model for better design decisions and hidden market opportunities

Many people wrongly assume that so-called Kano model (diagram on the right) describes the relationship between customer needs, fulfillment of product features, and satisfaction.

The1984 research, "Attractive Quality and Must-Be Quality" by N. Seraku, F. Takahashi, and N. Kano, Ph.D.,  measured satisfaction merely against the existence or absence of a feature. It did not and does not address customer needs.

Additionally, the Kano categories came from customer survey responding to inverse-paired questions. They were not and are not assigned by product engineers or producers.

The most serious error that people often make is the misleading "curved-arrow" that is often cited as shown in the above diagram. The inverse-paired question yields only two data points:  the "if" and the "if not". You can only draw a line (= linear) with two data points. It takes three data points to inscribe a curve!  This is why Glenn Mazur (QFD Institute), who translated Kano's original Japanese paper into English over two decades ago, wonders how many people who cite the Kano model actually read their study.

This problems was addressed by Mr. Harold Ross, a now retired General Motors engineer and a director of the QFD Institute. He called this the New Kano Model, which adds the necessary questions to draw the "curve" and use it to reveal hidden market segments and extrapolate better design decisions.

Using the Modern QFD tools that are taught in the QFD Black Belt^® course, you can then identify the invisible, moving target of customer satisfaction that the original Kano model does not address.

This new methodology will be presented at the 26th Symposium on QFD, December 5, 2014 in Charleston, South Carolina USA. It will include implementation examples of automotive industry, development of marketing and advertising content, as well as identifying clearer performance targets for each customer segment.

Everyone is welcomed at this symposium, regardless of your QFD knowledge.
Here is how to attend.

New High in Customer Satisfaction

Forget everything you learned about customer satisfaction.

A Chinese noodle shop has found the secret to customer retention, that scores "higher" than any other approach we've seen.

Read here, Sept 24, 2014 CNN World reported by Katie Hunt