HOW TO MAKE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT-PROJECTS MORE SUCCESSFUL BY INTEGRATING KANOS MODEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INTO QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

Despite all efforts, many product development projects fail and lend t o the introduction of products that do not meet customers' expectation s. A high level of customer satisfaction cannot be obtained. On the ot her hand in many product development projects the process of product d evelopment is conducted very unsystematically and resources are wasted because of a lack of communication between the different functions in volved in product development. Time especially is a critical factor wi thin product development as time to market is becoming increasingly mo re important. Managers need a set of practical step-by-step tools and methods which ensure a better understanding of customers' needs and re quirements, as well as procedures and processes to enhance communicati on by focusing on the voice of the customer within a product developme nt project. The authors propose a methodology, based on Kano's model o f customer satisfaction, to explore customers' stated needs and unstat ed desires and to resolve them into different categories which have di fferent impacts on customer-satisfaction. It is shown how this categor ization can be used as a basis for product development, especially for quality function deployment. Tile paper begins with a brief discussio n of the strategic importance of customer satisfaction, then Kano's mo del and its combination with quality function deployment is demonstrat ed using a case study from the ski industry. The paper closes with a b rief discussion of the managerial implications and the consequences of the application of these tools. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.