Deck 4: Creating a Customer Focus

Question 1

How would you recognize an organization with a customer focus? What
clues would you need?

Answer 1

Do the company leaders and employees know the answer to the question: what are the three to ten things that we absolutely must do well in order to attract and retain customers?

Question 2

Why would a company bother doing anything as complex as a QFD?

Answer 2

A QFD provides a clear product definition enabling the company to compete better in the market.

Question 3

Why would an organization practicing the Six Sigma methodology want to create an atmosphere focused on customers? What would be the benefit of such an approach?

Answer 3

In many ways, a company's future survival depends on their ability to meet their customers' needs, wants, and expectations, not only now, but in the future. Companies that are truly focused on the customer are better able to react to market and global competitive challenges. This agility enables them to attract and retain customers, ensuring their success now and in the future.

Question 4

Combine what you learned in Chapter 2 with this chapter, by selecting one of Deming's fourteen points and discussing how it relates to creating a customer focus in a Six Sigma organization.

Question 5

Passenger airline companies typically measure quality in terms of on-time departures and on-time arrivals. While these are two good measures of a portion of the flying experience, what other measures would be useful if the airline was to change their focus and look at the flights from the point of view of their customer, rather than from their organizational point of view? What are the expectations of the flying customer?

Question 6

Why is a focus on customers so important to the success of an organization?

Question 7

Describe two benefits of creating and using a QFD matrix.