从消费者需求到产品功能的历程

1、From the Voice of the Customer to theFunction-oriented Product ConceptThe Value Management Concept in Product DevelopmentDipl.-Ing. HORST R. SCHOELERSchoeler + Partner, Eggenstein, GermanySummerySuccessful products are developed by following a specific transfer and communication process during the d

2、evelopment process. This process is assisted by different methodologies, to be successful in transferring the voice of the customer to a function-oriented product structure as basis for a customer oriented product design.Before entering the design process of concepts, components and parts this funct

3、ion structure must be established. It is like a model for the future product, in function expressions and attributes, without giving any solutions.This paper will describe the way from customer requirements to a product concept described by a functional product structure as the basis for creativity

4、and technical product design.The presented procedure avoids that product development teams jump to fast in technical solutions thinking before the voice of the customer is heard and understood and price/cost questions are answered and solved.The value management methodology delivers the main princip

5、les of t his systematic approach.1. IntroductionIn product development the product definition is the most important step. This has to be done very early in the product planning phase. Having an idea is the starting point, to transfer the idea to a product concept and further in the product design ar

6、e the next necessary steps to introduce a product successfully in the market.The backbone of a successful product is the voice of the customer. If the company does a poor job during this planning phase, problems will be existing throughout the rest of the product live cycle, including poor design, o

7、verengineering, value mismatch, high costs, etc.It is important to have a sure grip on customer requirements and master the methods to define customer-oriented functions in accordance with requirements from customers.When we look at the product development process (Fig.1 we will see different phases

8、. The quality of a product will be set in the planning phase.Before embarking into technical development, the future product to be developed must be defined as well as possible in functions to satisfy the market need.Also the allowable cost for these functions must be set and broken down from the pr

9、oduct target cost, to establish a budget goal for every function.This Value Management approach helps to be successful in defining a customer-oriented product concept.2. The Value Management ApproachTo follow the logical product development process, we have to describe the future product concept out

10、 of two views. At first in the view of the customer (market and than we have to transfer this view into the view of the manufacturer and the engineers, who design the product.We also can say that there are two voices which must be in balance, the voice of the customer and the voice of the company.Be

11、fore starting any product development and commercialisation process, there are two questions that must be answered:§ What are we trying to do for the customer ?§ What are we trying to do for the company ?These views are shown as two triplets (Fig 2.The development team has to achieve the r

12、ight balance between the benefits, needs and wants1 of the customer and the right price of a product in the market. This means a good understanding of the customer, their needs and wants on the tangible and intangible side, the existing competition and their products and the right pricing:Value for

13、Customer: To design the product concept the customer needs and expectations have to be translated into appropriate product requirements, in functions.When we translate the customer focused value in internal company value terms we get a company related value VM : This translation from the customer or

14、ientated value to the company orientated value is necessary, because the designer, manufacturer and other in-house people must understand what the customer means and thinks, expressed in company own words.The transformation of the customer requirements into functions is the basic process to describe

15、 the future product without limiting the creativity during the planning phase.1 understand the 3 types of customer requirements > KANO model (see Fig. 3These design process steps are summarised as follows (Fig.4:§ The design process transforms customer requirements into product purposesor go

16、als, in functions§ these functions and their description identifies the product purposes on afunctional basis§ this function structure is the basis for the creative process to develop conceptsand solutions.This concept incorporates different methods and approaches.The key methods are:§

17、; Quality Function Deployment§ Value Analysis / Value Engineering§ Target Pricing / Target Costing3. Tools and Methods3.1 Quality Function DeploymentThe product design process begins with a solid understanding of the customer requirements or demands. Quality Function Deployment is a method

18、ology to close the gap between marketing and design.It is improving the§ communication§ co-operationbetween these two main involved parties during the product planning phase.Quality Function Deployment, especially the House of Quality (Fig. 5 helps to define and structure in a logically pr

19、ocess:§ who is my customer, what are the customer requirements ?§ how important are the customer requirements§ what are the characteristic values of competitive products or technologies ? § what are the quality and design characteristics and attributes to achieve thecustomer requ

20、irements ?§ what are the ranking and the importance of the quality and designcharacteristics ?§ what design target quantification of the design characteristics have to beachieved and§ what are the possible conflicts during the design stage between the designcharacteristics ?3.2 Value

21、EngineeringAfter collection and identification of customer requirements, the product definition must focus on function rather on physical or other characteristics. Function analysis analyses the necessary functions of the future product on the basis of customer requirements. Functional analysis is t

22、he language of the engineer and the basis of design, before developing concepts. So all customer requirements have to be translated into the functional language (Fig. 6 The functional structure gives answers to following questions:§ What functions have to be designed ?§ What is the quantif

23、ication and feature of the function ?§ What functions have what importance ?§ What functions are for use, and what functions are for aesthetic purposes ?3.3 Target Pricing/ Target CostingTo achieve the target price the allowable function cost must be defined (Fig. 7. Following steps are ne

24、cessary:§ Define the target price for the new product©Schöler & Partner Unternehmensberatung für Produkt & Management§ Derive from the target price the allowable cost. Allowable cost identifies thecost at which the product must be manufactured if it is to generate it

25、s target profit margin.§ Break down the allowable cost to each single function, what has to beachieved .To determine the specific function cost different approaches and methods are available: methods that take the manufacturers perspective in determination achievableminimum costs and methods th

26、at take the users (customers perspective in determining targetcosts based on the relative importance of each function ( what is the customer prepared to pay for the specific function ?4. SummaryThe 3 tools help in the product planning phase to establish a functional product structure (Fig. 8.The fun

27、ctional product structure is important for:§ the functional product structure opens the minds for new approaches and technologies,§ functionality is especially important when one attempts to differentiate a new product from prior art ( additional functions ?§ Functional thinking and s

28、tructuring is also very useful in developing modularity and product platforms.Due to the teamwork during using the tools to find a mutual accepted functional product structure, the communication between market and technology oriented people in the company improved and the voice of the customer was t

29、ransferred to the product design phase.©Schöler & Partner Unternehmensberatung für Produkt & Management§ Functions are derived from the customer requirements and wants and understood by the designer§ Functions importance is known and management can concentrate the re

30、sources on the important ones § Functions are quantified, targets are set§ Function cost for the future product are known and communicated, cost budgets are established for each single functionThe functional product structure is the basis for creativity and systematic idea generation to de

31、velop different solutions and approaches.Given functions, functional objectives (quantification of characteristics and conflict knowledge, analysed limitations and directions created by competitor products gives the engineering team the possibility to design a market oriented product without any big

32、ger changes later (do it right the first time.Product development activities underlay high risk and uncertainty. Therefore it is necessary to front-load the early activities in the product planning phase.Further advantages in practical product development are: § lead time reduction § less

33、development cost§ less changes during the design process§ a designed product, which fulfil the customer expectations and wants.©Schöler & Partner Unternehmensberatung für Produkt & Management5. AppendixFigure 1: Product Development ProcessFigure 2: From Customer Requ

34、irements to the Product ConceptFigure 3: KANO-ModelFigure 4: Customer Requirements and Function Tree StructureFigure 5: House of QualityFigure 6: Functional Analysis ApproachFigure 7: Target Costing ProcessFigure 8: From Customer Requirements to Product Function StructureFigure 9: Example for a Func

35、tion Product Structure Process©Schöler & Partner Unternehmensberatung für Produkt & Management ©Schöler & Partner Unternehmensberatung für Produkt & Management From the Voice of the Customer to the Function-oriented Product Concept 11 House of Quality Fi

36、gure: 5 Conflicts 9 Direction of Optimization 9 Design 4 Characteristics DC Market Segment Customer Group Customer Requirements CR Correlations between CR and Design Characteristics Importance of CR Market Competitor Analysis 1 2 3 5 Targets of DC 8 Technical Competitve Analysis CR = Customer requirements DC = Design characteristics 7 Importance of DC 6 Org/Port/VM 2001/HoQ © Schoeler + Partner - Consultants of Product + Management Function Analysis Approach Figure: 6 Function Structure (verbal model Basic Secondary connect cables convert signal