Step 6.3
Monitor product performance in market.
Primary findings
Customer expectations about products have increased so high quality and cost effectiveness are necessary but not sufficient. Today these factors need to be supported by after-sales service for successful results.
Survey of 87 manufacturers.
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The manufacturer can provide free users' manuals or online access to tutoring programs in order to reduce the learning cost incurred by customers.
Case analysis
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Voice of the Customer Information as a Best Practice for the NPD process: 1) Market and buyer behavior studies are a valuable source of information for planning the market launch. 2) Market research as a tool to help define the product. 3) The customer or user ought to be an integral part of the Development process. 4) Identification of customers or users real or un-articulated needs and their problems, is considered fundamental to voice-of-the-customer research, and should be a key input to product design. 5) Working with highly innovative users or customers.
A quantitative survey of 105 business units, supported by team's experience in NPD modeling, consultation, application and analysis.
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Product support is essential to customer satisfaction.
Source: Lele and Sheth (1988). In: Goffin, K. (1998)
Secondary findings
The strategic activities which are essential to the successful marketing of complex, technology-based products include product customization, information gathering on product performance, product education and training, ongoing product support.
Source: Athaide et al (1996). In: Goffin, K. (1998)
Use the Internet to assist with customer and product support. Train salespeople and provide them answers to product questions online.
Source: The Baan Company: Case Study (2002), FileNew Corp: Case Study (2002), Tompkins Group: Case Study (2002). In: Ozer, M. (2003)
Troubleshoot and correct problems in product.
Primary findings
Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) techniques help the design team to study the causes and effects of product failures. FMEA specifies the various conditions the product will endure, and tests, how it reacts under those conditions, allowing designers to plan a product that will withstand a broader range.
Experiential. Authors' knowledge.
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Continually observe and correct problems or errors made by team members to improve the quality of decision making and implementation.
Literature review
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Detect problems early and communicate “fixes”
Survey.
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Failure Knowledge Network (FKN) — captures and inter-relates mechanical product quality knowledge from five areas: (i) the connection between failures and product functions, (ii) the relationship between failures and product components, (iii) the correlation between failures and organizations, (iv) the association between failures and product processes, and (v) the conjunction among different failures. FKN information is represented in a four-dimensional matrix that includes components, functions, processes and organization. Each element in the matrix is a failure scenario and represents the related failures within the corresponding dimensions. Conventional factors of failures are embodied in the FKN representation. They include event, detection, effect, severity, solution weight, cause, monitor, reappearance, operation, efficiency and precaution. The indexes of each factor are provided by subject matter experts and are set in accordance with the correlation between corresponding characteristics and failures
Failure knowledge based decision-making in product quality.
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Product quality-related decision-making using the Failure Knowledge Network (FKN) — The first step of the decision-making process is the identification of related failures and characteristics. The second step is determination of the important characteristics of the clusters. Next, there is a comparison between the characteristics of each target. Finally, the interdependent priorities of the characteristics are determined by analyzing dependencies among the targets and characteristics.
Failure knowledge based decision-making in product quality.
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Secondary findings
One drawback to using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is that it has deficiencies in the expression of the relationship between different failure components. As a result it can not be used as a technique for knowledge formulation. One way to represent and share failure information is to construct a knowledge network of failure scenarios.
Source: Dai (2009). In: Dai,W., Maropoulos, P.G. &Tang, X.Q. (2010)
One of the reasons that product quality failures reoccur is that the knowledge of past failures is not well represented or readily-available to respective parties. One way to represent and share past failures is to construct a knowledge network of failure scenarios.
Source: Hatamura (2003). In: Dai,W., Maropoulos, P.G. &Tang, X.Q. (2010)
NPD performance can be measured in various ways: 1) Development lead time and cost (Roemer et al, 2000); 2) Quality level in terms of number of open issues remaining (e.g., bugs in software) at time of launch (Yassine et al, 2003); 3) The number of features implemented or supported (Karlsson & Ahlstrom, 1999); 4) The amount of discrepancy between a desired goal and the actual NPD outcome (O'Donnell & Duffy, 2002).
Source: O'Donnell & Duffy (2002). In: Yassine, A.A., Sreenivas, R.S., & Zhu, J. (2008)
Use the Internet to assist with customer and product support. Train salespeople and provide them answers to product questions online.
Source: The Baan Company: Case Study (2002), FileNew Corp: Case Study (2002), Tompkins Group: Case Study (2002). In: Ozer, M. (2003)
Continue production, monitoring and support.
Primary findings
Follow up on customer suggestions; conduct formal interviews, review warranty reports, conduct on-site meetings and product reviews
Survey.
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Utilization of market research early in the new product development process, and continuing throughout the entire development phase is critical to ensuring success.
Survey data.
(View full citation)
Voice of the Customer Information as a Best Practice for the NPD process: 1) Market and buyer behavior studies are a valuable source of information for planning the market launch. 2) Market research as a tool to help define the product. 3) The customer or user ought to be an integral part of the Development process. 4) Identification of customers or users real or un-articulated needs and their problems, is considered fundamental to voice-of-the-customer research, and should be a key input to product design. 5) Working with highly innovative users or customers.
A quantitative survey of 105 business units, supported by team's experience in NPD modeling, consultation, application and analysis.
(View full citation)
Secondary findings
Use the Internet to assist with customer and product support. Train salespeople and provide them answers to product questions online.
Source: The Baan Company: Case Study (2002), FileNew Corp: Case Study (2002), Tompkins Group: Case Study (2002). In: Ozer, M. (2003)
When conducing evaluations, keep in mind that customers are likely to retain or switch suppliers on the basis of service (55%), quality (7%), or price (7%).
Source: Forum Corporation, 1988. In: Datar, S., Jordan, C.C., Kekre, S., Rajiv, S. & Srinivasan, K. (1997)
Troubleshoot and correct problems.
Primary findings
Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) techniques help the design team to study the causes and effects of product failures. FMEA specifies the various conditions the product will endure, and tests, how it reacts under those conditions, allowing designers to plan a product that will withstand a broader range.
Experiential. Authors' knowledge.
(View full citation)
Continually observe and correct problems or errors made by team members to improve the quality of decision making and implementation.
Literature review
(View full citation)
Failure Knowledge Network (FKN) — captures and inter-relates mechanical product quality knowledge from five areas: (i) the connection between failures and product functions, (ii) the relationship between failures and product components, (iii) the correlation between failures and organizations, (iv) the association between failures and product processes, and (v) the conjunction among different failures. FKN information is represented in a four-dimensional matrix that includes components, functions, processes and organization. Each element in the matrix is a failure scenario and represents the related failures within the corresponding dimensions. Conventional factors of failures are embodied in the FKN representation. They include event, detection, effect, severity, solution weight, cause, monitor, reappearance, operation, efficiency and precaution. The indexes of each factor are provided by subject matter experts and are set in accordance with the correlation between corresponding characteristics and failures
Failure knowledge based decision-making in product quality.
(View full citation)
Product quality-related decision-making using the Failure Knowledge Network (FKN) — The first step of the decision-making process is the identification of related failures and characteristics. The second step is determination of the important characteristics of the clusters. Next, there is a comparison between the characteristics of each target. Finally, the interdependent priorities of the characteristics are determined by analyzing dependencies among the targets and characteristics.
Failure knowledge based decision-making in product quality.
(View full citation)
Secondary findings
One drawback to using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is that it has deficiencies in the expression of the relationship between different failure components. As a result it can not be used as a technique for knowledge formulation. One way to represent and share failure information is to construct a knowledge network of failure scenarios.
Source: Dai (2009). In: Dai,W., Maropoulos, P.G. &Tang, X.Q. (2010)
One of the reasons that product quality failures reoccur is that the knowledge of past failures is not well represented or readily-available to respective parties. One way to represent and share past failures is to construct a knowledge network of failure scenarios.
Source: Hatamura (2003). In: Dai,W., Maropoulos, P.G. &Tang, X.Q. (2010)
Use the Internet to assist with customer and product support. Train salespeople and provide them answers to product questions online.
Source: The Baan Company: Case Study (2002), FileNew Corp: Case Study (2002), Tompkins Group: Case Study (2002). In: Ozer, M. (2003)