Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology which combines (as the name implies) tools from both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma [1]. Lean manufacturing focuses on speed and traditional Six Sigma focuses on quality. By combining the two, the result is better quality faster [2].
This strives to mitigate significant failure modes of “Quality only” Six Sigma when it is applied to reducing variation in a single process step (sub-optimizing), or to processes which are not value added to the customer. The DMAIC steps can still apply, but the objectives (“Y’s”) and inputs (“X’s”) under study incorporate both quality (ppm) as well as speed (cycle time) metrics.
An example would be to add inter-process inspections to catch and eliminate defective units prior to further processing. The waste of processing defective units is eliminated, but at the expense of adding inspection which is in itself waste.
The first failure mode is partially mitigated by adoption of Rolled Throughput Yield analysis tied to cost [3], but is limited when costs are not tightly monitored at each process step.
Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a term used in business to describe the process of capturing a customer’s requirements. Specifically, the Voice of the Customer is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives. Voice of the Customer studies typically consist of both qualitative and quantitative research steps. They are generally conducted at the start of any new product, process, or service design initiative in order to better understand the customer’s wants and needs, and as the key input for new product definition, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and the setting of detailed design specifications.
Much has been written about this process, and there are many possible ways to gather the information – focus groups, individual interviews, contextual inquiry, ethnographic techniques, etc. But all involve a series of structured in-depth interviews, which focus on the customers’ experiences with current products or alternatives within the category under consideration. Needs statements are then extracted, organized into a more usable hierarchy, and then prioritized by the customers.
It is critical that the product development core team own and be highly involved in this process. They must be the ones who take the lead in defining the topic, designing the sample (i.e. the types of customers to include), generating the questions for the discussion guide, either conducting or observing and analyzing the interviews, and extracting and processing the needs statements.
A good Voice of the Customer study provides:
1) A detailed understanding of the customer’s requirements
2) A common language for the team going forward
3) Key input for the setting of appropriate design specifications for the new
product or service
4) A highly useful springboard for product innovation.
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