Understanding Customer Needs - Essay Example

1. year 10 = 107.5
2. 157.000
3. 80 units
4. Midtown = 29; bayside = 30
5. 28.75 sheets per hour
6. 80.8%

Part 2
1. design characteristics
2. it results in shorter development cycles for virtually all products
3. product-by-value analysis
4. medium-range forecast
5. CIM
6. Effectiveness
7. Flexible manufacturing system
8. Continuous process
9. All of the above
10. Increased communication cost
11. Vision
12. All of the above
13. Attract and retain global talents
14. Is the application of statistical techniques to accept or reject a lot of material based on sampling
15. Time between the start of one unit and the start of the next unit

Part 3
1. inventory reduction
2. use of pull systems
3. ovular designs
4. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
5. robust design
6. Scanlon plan
7. movement of people and materials
8. to assure adequate supply
9. reduction in the shipping cost
10. cost-based price model
11. none of the above
12. long-range plans
13. breaks the aggregate plan into smaller details.
14. breakdown maintenance
15. Infant mortality refers to the market failure of brand-new products

PART 4
1.
Deep in the minds of quality function deployment develops, was the urge of reducing the distance between the producers and users for productivity purposes. Understanding customer needs is one of the major concepts behind QFD. The acquired understanding helps in maximizing effective production that adds value to any given firm. The main purpose of QFD is to establish a link between customers’ requirements and production processes, including design, development, and engineering. The following are some of the 4 steps required for the creation of a house of quality:
• Customer requirements: This step involves identifying the market segments that are relevant for the collection of information regarding the requirements of the customer. This step is important in QFD since it ensures that a firm does not waste resources in obtaining unnecessary information from non-potential customers. This is also the first step that enables the firm to gain more knowledge about the existing market segments.
• Regulatory requirements: This benefits the firm during the creation of HOF as it provides the customer with the appropriate information about the requirement of the product. This makes the customer aware of the product and hence can participate in the process.
• Customer importance: This step allows the customer to rate the significance of the requirements on a scale of 1-5 which the given firm uses in creating the relationship matrix. From the customer importance, the company obtains information about the relationship between the needs of the customer and its ability to meet the needs.
• Customer rating of the competition: This is the fourth step and it benefits the given firm with tremendous competitive advantage considering that it obtains information about the strength of the competitors in the market. Through this step, an organization can remodel its strategies to outcompete its rivals.

Core competencies and operation management share a lot. In operation management, there is a need for an organization to carry out a production process that is efficient and will maximize the profit realized. Normally, the organization strives for the highest efficiency as far as possible. Read More