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Why would
some people pay over $100 for a teakettle when you can boil
water just as well with one that costs only $20?
That is exactly what many people have done to
make Michael Grave's Alessi teakettle a long time best-seller.
It boils water; it whistles as steam builds up, it is easy to
use; the handle does not get hot... In short, it does everything
that many teakettles do equally well.
So, what makes Mr. Grave's
design so special?
"It makes me smile," said one user.
Apparently she is not alone. How many of you thought
–
even remotely
–
that "makes me
smile" could be a customer need for a
teakettle design?
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What does "looks good" mean? |
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"What looks good? For me, what looks good is what
'feels'
good," renowned architect Michael Graves was quoted as
saying in a newspaper interview. [The Ann Arbor News, Oct.
30, 2003]
Anyone who has come to appreciate Mr. Grave's stylish
works, be it a teapot or architecture, knows this is a man
who understands a good design—the kind of
design that a gifted and trained artist knows how to do instinctively.
But what about the rest of us? Not everyone is blessed
with such artistic aptitude, and that includes many of us
who are in the field of product and business process
development, quality, and marketing. Additionally, not all
companies can afford to hire talent like Mr. Graves in
addition to maintaining their regular pool of engineering,
design and development staff.
Fortunately, we have two tools to compensate: QFD and
Kansei Engineering. Both can provide on the artist's sixth
sense, so to speak, in a unique way to your fuzzy front end
of product design. |
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Artists'
Sixth
Sense for Engineers
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Kansei focuses on understanding customers' emotional and
sensory needs about a product or service and identifies
unique attributes of these needs that can be used by the
project team. It opens the door to an area which
traditionally belonged to art and
psychology, disciplines in which many of us do not
specialize.
Kansei techniques include category classification, semantic
differential, traditional QFD tools such as affinity and
other diagrams, surveys, statistical analysis, etc. These
techniques help developers identify a "metaphor" concept for
the new product, as well as detailed specifications to
address emotional and lifestyle needs of the customer.
QFD, on the other hand, identifies "unspoken" customer requirements
out of the vague verbatim "looks good" through its
systematic Voice of Customer (VOC) analysis and deployment
processes, focusing more on the functional needs of the
customer and providing a comprehensive system to align the
development efforts with the goals of the company and
project throughout the development process and the entire
organizational system.
QFD and Kansei Engineering complement each other. When used
together, QFD can provide focus on functional superiority
and system-wide execution and Kansei can make the product
inspirational and fun. In Modern QFD, this is called
Lifestyle QFD.
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Kansei Engineering Workshop |
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Attendees of this Workshop will take part in a Kansei
experiment and will be introduced to:
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Kansei Engineering methods, including market
segment-oriented development of Kansei needs and Kansei
Engineering arithmetic;
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Case studies and the latest international research;
Kansei software options that are available today;
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How to begin applying Kansei methods on your next project.
This Workshop is typically held as an in-company
custom-tailored training. A public workshop may be offered
in conjunction with the QFD Institute's annual
Symposium.
For more on this Workshop, please visit
Kansei
Engineering Workshop or contact the
QFD Institute, TEL: +1 734-995-0847. |
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QFD Institute |
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Quick Links...
Kansei
Engineering Workshop
Symposium on
QFD
QFD Green Belt®
Certificate Course
QFD Black Belt® Certificate Course
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