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New Kano Model

Discover Latent Customer Needs and Introduce Exciting Quality into Product Development

What is Kano Model?

image of Kano model by QFDI The Kano Model is a framework developed by Dr. Noriaki Kano for “attractive quality creation” that helps explain why removing defects does not equal customer satisfaction.

It is a powerful approach for segmentation, and can also be applied to strategy and advertising. The competitive edge from products that excite customers is important for product line planning and brand distinction.

In today's information economy, with its unprecedented globalization and environmental concerns, businesses are challenged by:

How can a company maintain a competitive edge in a market filled with products of equally satisfying quality and functionality?
How can your new products be differentiated when they are quickly followed by low-priced clones?
In some product segments, consumers are making the purchasing decision more and more on psychological and emotional appeal. How can your product and brand connect emotionally with them?
How can engineers address the emotional design needs of new breeds of consumers who are highly informed, multi-cultural, and globally minded and represent a different purchasing decision process?

These challenges offer new opportunities for generating greater sales and market share if you can successfully harness the insights of latent needs and exciting quality that the Kano Model can help identify.

The New Kano Model and QFD

The Kano Model was developed in Japan, and introduced to the West in the mid-1980s by Dr. Yoji Akao during his teaching of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in America. US QFD practitioners intuitively liked how this model explained the power of latent requirements. While almost every QFD presenter talks about the Kano model, few have succeeded in using it or actually integrating it into QFD.

This workshop provides an explicit framework for effectively learning how to apply the model and merging this powerful method for exciting quality into QFD and your product development process. This Workshop will:

Introduce participants to the New Kano Model concepts, methods, and applications such as market segmentation;
Present case studies where the Kano Model was successfully used;
Explain the rationale behind the Kano Model: why are some features exciting, while others are only expected?;
Show the integration of the Kano Model and QFD;
Offer participants a chance to develop, present, and analyze a Kano Survey.

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in developing superior, competitive products;
Anyone wanting to understand customer “WOW” or “Customer Delight”;
Anyone who wants to understand how to “apply the Kano Model”
Product planners and decision makers involved in product strategy (either new or improving current products)
No Prerequisites

This Tutorial may be offered at the QFD Institute Symposium on QFD or at your company location as an in-house training. For in-company workshop rate, please Contact Us, TEL: +1 734-995-0847 (U.S. Eastern Time).

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