QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT HOUSE OF QUALITY for Sainsbury’s Sophia Sedighi N0568448 Abstract In this paper I have gathered Sainsbury’s voice of customer and developed a house of quality. By the mean of house of quality and Kano plot I was able to suggest possible recommendation and at the end discussed other methods that can combine with QFD for improvement. Supervisor’s Name: Dr. Chris Mccollin Module Name- Business Operations & Reliability Management COMP 40161 Course Work 2
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QUALITY FUNCTION
DEPLOYMENT HOUSE OF QUALITY for Sainsbury’s
Sophia Sedighi N0568448
Abstract In this paper I have gathered Sainsbury’s voice of customer and developed a house of quality.
By the mean of house of quality and Kano plot I was able to suggest possible recommendation and at the end discussed other methods that can combine with QFD for
improvement.
Supervisor’s Name: Dr. Chris Mccollin
Module Name- Business Operations &
Reliability Management COMP 40161
Course Work 2
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Contents Description of Sainsbury’s mission and KPI’s .......................................................................................... 2
11 7 Clear labelling on sugars, fats and salt in food
11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
12 4 Fitting room should be open during all store opening hours
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
13 7 Main doors for entrance and exit should be bigger
13 13 13 13 13 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
14 17 The fuel pump should have a card payment facility
14 14 14 14 14 15 16 17 18 19
15 7 More incentives for new and existent customers
15 15 15 15 16 17 18 19
16 6 British products/farmers 16 16 16 17 18 19
17 18 24 hour opening 17 17 18 19
18 8 In store opticians 18 19
19 7 Reducing waste
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Most important requirements 24 hours opening is the highest scored requirement, Tesco is a big competitor and benefits from
being 24/7, Sainsbury’s customer if they need something at night time they will go to Tesco’s.
The card payment facility on the fuel pump is the second high requirement, if the store is not open
customers passing Sainsbury’s fuel station will go to Tesco’s or other 24hours fuel station, some
Morrison stores have this facility, and also it makes the process of refuelling the car quicker and you
can avoid waiting in the queue to pay.
Free delivery for loyal customers is the other high requirement, customers who always shop at
Sainsbury’s would like to benefit from special offer, Iceland is not a direct competitor for Sainsbury’s
but they have recently started free delivery for each customer, the expectations has risen from this
strategy has been made. I read an interesting article in The Telegraph about how supermarkets
changing in the year 2075, and what I found related to this topic was that John Timpson mentioned a
driverless white vans that delivers the grocery to your house drop box and he mentions people are
more interested in free deliveries in future (Timpson, 2015).
Less important requirement More shopping trolley stations is not very important as there are usually enough to reach.
Sometimes there is no baskets at front entry, or some of trolley stations around the carpark are
empty and customer has to walk far to find one.
Kano plot: Delighters:
24 hour opening
The fuel pump should have a card payment facility
Free delivery for loyal customers
One Dimensional:
British products/farmers
Clear labelling on sugars, fats and salt in food
Looking after their environment(reduce waste)
Must-Be’s:
Toilets should smells fresh at all times, provide tissues to dry hands
There should be more brand names available for each product
More staff at check out so there will be no queues at check out
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Processes A table of process has been provided after a good investigation of Sainsbury’s website and other
related sources.
processes description
1 Offer and promotion process The process of deciding on which product and when should go on offer, and apply it to product in store and online
2 Card payment process The process of dealing with front-end and back-end company that provides the service, the number of card machines needed
3 Employing process The process of deciding who to employ and how many for which department
4 Building(construction) process The process of building trolley stations, fitting rooms, make extra space for car park, shelves…
5 Training process The process of training new staff and exciting staff
6 Cleaning process The process of keeping the whole store clean and hygiene
7 producing process The process of producing the foods for store
8 Check out process The process of customer goes to checkout point, scanning items and makes the payment
9 storing process The process of storing items that can’t go on the shelves yet in store
10 Process of re-paint the car park The process of remove the old paint and repainting it to achieve new layout
11 waste process The process of reducing the waste to minimum
12 Labelling process The process of putting price tag on shelves, mix and match labelling or reduced labels on reduced items
13 Marketing process The process of offering new incentives for customers , relevant nectar vouchers and advertising
14 Supply chain process The process of contacting warehouse, ordering, logistics, storing and receiving the products at store
15 Packaging process The process of packaging the products that Sainsbury’s itself produces and also packaging the agile products, stop them from damaging from ordering to receiving it in store
16 Ordering(purchasing) process The process of deciding what to buy and how many and where from
17 displaying process The processes of receiving the products from warehouse to going on the shelves
18 Reducing process The process of reducing price on the foods which are running out of date
19 Maintenance process The process of inspecting, reporting and fixing any problems with facilities
20 Home-delivery process The process of delivering online orders
Importance weighing: Based on HOQ employing process has the highest weight, and then marketing process and then offer
and promotion process, these processes have priority to other processes to improve.
7 | P a g e
Affinity diagram for what’s An affinity diagram displayed below with the help of students ideas.
Great offers
cheaper cafe prices for customers
relevent nectar card
vouchers
free delivery for royal
customers
more intencive for new
customers
Variety of products
lots of brand name available of each product
great range of homeware
Respect the environment
reducying waste
Well labelling
clear labelling on sugars,
fats and salt
clear labelling on mix and
match items
clear labelling on offers and
sales
Great quality
British products/far
mers
Acceccebility
24 hours opening
Well maintained
facilities
enough parent and child
parking spaces
access fitting room at all the
times
in store optician
card payment facilities at fuel
pump
clean toilet
wide entrance and exit doors
lots of shopping
trolley stations
Staff management and training
no queue at checkout
enough staff at costumer
service and shop floor
assist with packing if needed
8 | P a g e
Tree diagram for what’s
satisfiedcustomers
reasonable offers
low cost cafe prices for customers
free delivery for
loyal customers
more intensive for new and existing
customers
relevent nectar voucher
good qualityquality
suppliersBritish
products/farmers
good customer services
staff trainingsassist with
packing with elderly,parents
minium time of waiting for checkout
enough staff at checkout points
at least two customer services
good surrounding
access to fitting room all the times
well maintenance facilities
card paymment facility at fuel pump
clean toilets
in store opticionenough parent
and child parkings
lots of shopping trolly stations
looking after their environment
reducing waste
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Table of quantitate indicators for processes process quantitate indicator target
Offer and promotion process number of new customers per day in one store
5%
Card payment process number of complains per day 1
Employing process Turnover of staff per month per store 1
Building process budget per year £1mn
Training process Number of training sessions per month 2
Cleaning process number of complains per week 5
producing process number of customer complains of packaging or quality per day
5
Check out process number of check out process took more than 10minutes per day
2
storing process number of items out of stock per day 2
Process of re-painting the car park
Number of parents couldn’t park in parents and child spaces per day
2
waste process The amount of food wasted and not been used positively
0
Labelling process number of items with no label or wrong label per day
0
Marketing process Percentage of new customers per day for one store
5%
Supply process number of damaged, missed, delayed items per day
0
Packaging process number of items with no sugar, salt, calorie information’s
0
Ordering(purchasing) process number of none UK fruit, veg, meat per day
%10
displaying process items out of stock per day 2
Reducing process items out of date per day 0
Maintenance process number of damaged facilities per day 0
Home delivery process Cost of delivery per customer per order 0
Direction of improvement description - The direction of improvement for offer and promotion shows that this process needs to
improve the target is to have 5% of the customers shopped that day be new customers.
- The direction of improvement for employing staff shows this process needs improvement,
this means staff are not happy and leave the company or find similar jobs with better salary
therefore this process should reach the target of 2 turnover of staff per month per store
- The waste process needs no improvement as already it reached the target of zero waste
- The packaging process doesn’t need improvement as there is no complains on labelling the
products, all the foods arrive to store have clear labelling of sugar, salt and fat
- Maintenance process needs to improve, the expectations is to have no out of order or
damaged facilities with in the store, at the moment most of the stores have out of order
facilities such as hand dryers, cash machines and etc.
- The demand for British product is high, there for the ordering process needs to improve too,
target says out of fruits, veg and meats 10% order could be non-British, which is a high
target, as most of the fruits are from Spain and nearby countries.
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Relationships (Impact of Technical Response on Customer Needs) In the HOQ the relationship between employing process and requirement of no queues at
checkout is 9, it is obvious that management needs to monitor the footfall and the peek
time of shopping hours and makes sure there is enough staff in the store.
But this relationship between more staff, less queue is changing. Sainsbury’s new
smartphone app lets customer’s avoid checkout queues, the app allows you to choose the
products from home, and then you go to store and scan those items by the app and put
them in the bag then pay for it with their smartphone without even having to go to
checkout (Hart, 2014). This program was expecting to go live at 2015 for nectar card holders
but still there is no news of it. And this idea won’t be practical for elderly people.
For having the store open 24 hours and have in store optician again the relation between
these requirements and employing process has been rated 9. Sainsbury’s has to be aware of
the problems of employment with 24 hour opening, for example Tesco’s recruits have to
agree working anti-social hours, the new contract said staff has to commit to “flexibility
plan” and this affected some of the recruits (Craven, 2011).
24 hours opening has interrelationship 9 with 4 processes, employing process mentioned
before, the other processes are card payment process, card payment method should be
available if there is no staff at checkout at night times, checkout process in this case is to
have a self-checkout machines available and also the marketing process, mainly because you
can use 24 hour opening as an advantage to competitors and use it in marketing methods.
Again for free delivery for loyal customers I marked it 3 in relation with marketing for the
same reason as above with less impact.
There is no interrelationship between installing card payment method for fuel pumps with
employing process and supply process, but it shares mark 1 with marketing, offer and
promotion and training processes. Staffs at fuel station needs to get trained to the new
Sainsbury’s head of brand communication, Mark Given has revealed “A fifth of the food that is
bought in our stores is wasted and 60% of that is perfectly edible. Not everyone can plan a meal
perfectly and people need a bit of inspiration to help them”. Therefore Sainsbury teamed up with
p
Sain
sbu
ry’s
Can
no
ck d
epar
tmen
t
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Product goes
on shelves
Product
left at the
end of the
day
Product goes on
offer
Is the
product left
suitable for
charity?
Charity partner
collects it from
store
Is it
suitable for
animals?
Products including
bread and fruits goes
for animal
feed.(Safari Park)
Picked up by the
empty Sainsbury’s
lorry that has just
delivered food
Waste is picked up by a
Biffa lorry from
Sainsbury’s depot and
taken to Cannock
The food waste is sent
to big silos that breaks
down the food into bio
methane gas
Gas generates
electricity at the AD
plant and used by local
farms
Electricity is directly
supplied to the
supermarket via a
1.5km cable
Preparation phase Executive phase Final phase
Sho
p f
loo
r d
epar
tmen
t Su
pp
ly c
hai
n D
epar
tmen
t
15 | P a g e
google and created new way of advertising and reducing consumers waste. A new development in
the digital advertising world is set to make click-through dismissed. Following the development of
the Food Rescue app from Sainsbury’s, the famous supermarket brand has teamed up with Google
to launch the first ever voice-activated banner ad.
The advert will act as in the same way as the app; you will be able to speak the names of the
ingredients you need to use up, you’ll then presented with a list of relevant recipes which include
those ingredients (Carter, 9 June 2014).
Negative correlations correlation process process explanation
Strongly negative
Supply process
Cleaning process
As a part of the supply chain process when orders arrives by the lorry to store the process of emptying the products and storing and unpacking to go on shelves leaves some cleaning to do.
Strongly negative
ordering process
waste process
The ordering has to kept to minimum in favour of waste process, so less products gets wasted
negative Re-painting the car park
Maintenance process
By re-painting the car park there is more maintenance process involve
Strongly positive
Displaying process
Labelling process
The labelling process should be right otherwise it effects the space it should be displayed
Strongly positive
Supply chain process
Packaging process
For a good supply process without any damages there is a need for a good packaging process
Strongly positive
Reducing process
Producing process
More you produce its more chance of some left at the end of the day and had to get reduced
Description of competitive evaluation - Competitors believe Nectar vouchers are not relevant to customers shopping habits, at
checkouts you don’t see customers using their vouchers on milk, fruits and other goods
there for it ranked 3 out of 5.
- Sainsbury’s ranked Tesco 5 out 5 for incentives and offers, Tesco provides offers that makes
attention to shoppers, even quality in Tesco is not better and the variety of products is less,
tempting offer takes the customers to Tesco
- Competitors scored Sainsbury’s and Tesco 2 out of 5 based on delivery services, Iceland
provides free delivery for all customers
- Tesco scores 5 out of 5 both in 24 hours opening and in0store optician as it’s the only
supermarket provides these services
Description of Technical evaluation - Sainsbury’s scores 1 out 5 on reducing process, Customers from Tesco and Morrison’s can
find more reduced item in store and the reduce price is reasonable in these stores, where as
in Sainsbury’s reduced price is usually about 10%
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- Sainsbury’s scores 2 out of 5 in re-painting the car park process, as the spaces available in
Tesco and Morrison’s better for parent and child and nearer to main entrance
- Sainsbury’s and Tesco scores Morrison’s 1 out of 5 on marketing as there is less advertising
on Morrison’s than Tesco and Sainsbury’s
Customer satisfaction performance
For measuring customer satisfaction a survey took place of Sainsbury’s customers.
Very poorly
poorly neutral well Very well
Does not apply
Performance weight
How often you can park in parent and child car park?
2.03
How often do you get assistant with your packing?
1.5
How well is customer services?
3.8
How often you can check out quickly?
3.01
How clean is the toilets?
3.5
How do you find café’s prices?
3.2
How relevant is your nectar vouchers?
2.02
How easy you can access shopping trollies?
5.00
How do you rate delivery costs are fare?
3.06
How well is Sainsbury’s at reducing wastes?
5.8
How do find the variety of each product?
5.00
How clear is labelling for sugar, salt, fat?
5.5
How often can you access the fitting room?
3.7
How do you rate the entrance and exit doors are convenient?
2.00
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How well is the payment method for fuel station?
2.9
How do you rate the offer and promotions in Sainsbury’s?
1.9
How many of the products are from British farms?
3.3
What do you rank the Sainsbury’ opening hours?
2.9
How important is the in store optician?
3.03
Figure 2: An example of survey filled in by myself
Figure 3: Homogeneous Customer Performance
50150
500
100 800
100
200
300
400
500
600
very poor poor neutral good very good
in store optician
in store optician
18 | P a g e
Goal and Improvement Ratio requirements Current
satisfaction performance
Goal Improvement Ratio
More car park for parent and child 2.03 5 52.03⁄ = 2.49
Assist with packing at checkout for disabled or elderly
1.5 5 51.5⁄ = 3.33
At least two customer service staff at all the times
3.8 5 53.8⁄ = 1.31
More staff at check out so there will be no queues at check out
3.01 4 43.01⁄ = 1.32
Toilets should smells fresh at all times, provide tissues to dry hands
3.5 4.5 4.53.5⁄ = 1.28
Café prices should be lower for Sainsbury’s shoppers
3.2 3.5 3.53.2⁄ = 1.09
Nectar card vouchers should be more relevant to individuals shopping habits
2.02 3.5 3.52.02⁄ = 1.73
More shopping trolley stations 5.00 5 5.005.00⁄ = 1
Free delivery for loyal customers 3.06 3.9 3.93.06⁄ = 1.27
Reducing waste 5.00 5 55⁄ = 1
There should be more brand names available for each product
4.5 5.00 5.004.5⁄ = 1.11
Clear labelling on sugars, fats and salt in food
4.8 5.00 54.8⁄ = 1.04
Fitting room should be open during all store opening hours
3.7 5.00 53.7⁄ = 1.35
Main doors for entrance and exit should be bigger
2.00 4 42⁄ = 2
The fuel pump should have a card payment facility
2.9 5 52.9⁄ = 1.72
More incentives for new and existent customers
1.9 5 51.9⁄ = 2.63
British products/farmers 3.3 4 43.3⁄ = 1.21
24 hour opening 2.9 5 52.9⁄ = 1.72
In store opticians 3.03 3.5 3.53.03⁄ = 1.15
As you can see on table above the highlighted requirement: more incentives for new and existent
customer, assist with packing at check out and more car park for parents and child has the highest
improvement ratio. There will be recommendations regarding these results on the table of
recommendations.
19 | P a g e
Sales Point and Raw Weight and Normalized Raw Weight If customer importance, goal value and the sale point value are high, some experts say it’s a form of
“double accounting”. The only harm in double accounting is that customer need’s priority (raw
weight) might be too high. With all these factors high, this customer need must be the priority.
(Cohen, 1937)
requirement Sales point
Relative Customer
Importance
Raw Weight (Customer importance.
Improvement Ratio. Sales point)
Normalized Raw Weight
More car park for parent and child
1.2 24 24x2.49 x 1.2 = 71.712
71.7121588.162⁄ =0.04
Assist with packing at checkout for disabled or elderly
1.2 35 35x 3.3 x1.2 = 138.6 138.61588.162⁄ =0.08
At least two customer service staff at all the times
1 20 20 x 1.31 x 1 = 26.2 26.21588.162⁄ =0.01
More staff at check out so there will be no queues at check out
1.2 64 64 x1.32 x1.2 = 101.37
101.371588.162⁄ =0.06
Toilets should smells fresh at all times, provide tissues to dry hands
1 60 60x 1.28 x 1 = 76.8 76.81588.162⁄ =0.04
Café prices should be lower for Sainsbury’s shoppers
1.2 58 58x 1.09 x1.2 =75.864
75.8641588.162⁄ =0.04
Nectar card vouchers should be more relevant to individuals shopping habits
1.2 25 25x 1.73 x1.2 = 51.9 51.91588.162⁄ =0.03
More shopping trolley stations
1 9 9 x 1 x 1 = 9 91588.162⁄ =0.005
Free delivery for loyal customers
1.5 78 78x1.27 x 1.5 =148.59
148.591588.162⁄ =0.09
Reducing waste 1 30 30 x 1.01 x 1 = 30.3 30.31588.162⁄ =0.01
There should be more brand names available for each product
1.1 52 52x 1.09x1.1 =62.348 62.3481588.162⁄ =0.03
Clear labelling on sugars, fats and salt in food
1.2 34 34x 1.04 x1.2 = 42.432
42.431588.162⁄ =0.02
Fitting room should be open during all store opening hours
1.2 12 12x 1.35 x 1.2 = 19.44 19.441588.162⁄ =0.01
Main doors for entrance and exit should be bigger
1 44 44 x 2 x 1 = 88 881588.162⁄ =0.05
The fuel pump should have a card payment facility
1.2 83 83x 1.72 x 1.2 =171.3 171.31588.162⁄ =0.10
More incentives for new and existent customers
1.5 34 34x 2.63 x 1.5 =134.13
134.131588.162⁄ =0.08
British products/farmers 1.2 28 28x 1.21 x 1.2 =40.656
40.6561588.162⁄ =0.02
24 hour opening 1.5 84 84x 1.72 x 1.5 =216.72
216.721588.162⁄ =0.13
In store opticians 1.2 60 60x 1.15 x 1.2 =82.8 82.81588.162⁄ =0.05
Total Raw Weight 1588.162
20 | P a g e
As it’s highlighted above in grey, you can see which requirements is more important to the
development team.
Customer performance should be treated as more important than sales potential. (Cohen, 1937)
To be able to count the Normalized Raw Weight, we need Relative Importance, so the results are
between 0 and 1, Relative Importance is the importance of a requirement between 1 and 100.
Cumulative Normalized Raw Weight In this case we have to put the requirements in descending order base on their Normalized Raw
Weight.
Requirements Normalized Raw Weight
Cumulative Normalized Raw
Weight
24 hours opening 0.13 0.13
The fuel pump should have a card payment facility 0.10 0.23
Free delivery for loyal customers 0.09 0.32
More incentives for new and existent customers 0.08 0.40
Assist with packing at checkout for disabled or elderly
0.08 0.48
More staff at check out so there will be no queues at check out
0.06 0.54
In store opticians 0.05 0.59
Main doors for entrance and exit should be bigger 0.05 0.64
Toilets should smells fresh at all times, provide tissues to dry hands
0.04 0.68
Café prices should be lower for Sainsbury’s shoppers
0.04 0.72
More car park for parent and child 0.04 0.76
Nectar card vouchers should be more relevant to individuals shopping habits
0.03 0.79
There should be more brand names available for each product
0.03 0.82
Clear labelling on sugars, fats and salt in food 0.02 0.84
British products/farmers 0.02 0.86
At least two customer service staff at all the times 0.01 0.87
Fitting room should be open during all store opening hours
R=Requirements, P=Process, NRW=Normalized Raw Weight, P=Priorities
The results above shows process 3 (employing process) has the highest priorities, this means this
process has the highest impact on customer satisfaction performance. Process 8 (check out process)
is the second highest priority and process 13 (marketing process) is third.
Negative Impacts In this case, the processes that have been chosen for Sainsbury’s supermarket has no negative
impact on customer satisfaction performance.
22 | P a g e
Kano Diagram
process
low high
Clear labelling-labelling process In store optician-employing process Widening the entrance doors-building process
Reducing waste-waste process British farms products-ordering process Clean toilets-cleaning process Reduce café prices-ordering process More shopping trolley stations-maintenance process
More parents car park- repainting car park process Free delivery-offer and promotion process Extend fitting room opening times-employing process 24 hours opening-employing process
Assist with packaging-checkout process-training process More brand names availability-ordering process
Recommendations recommendatio
n reason plan cost time
Produce more parent and child car park
On Kano Plot it is clear that the requirements for parents car park is high and process of re-painting is low, therefore the store is at risk against competitors. The third highest score in improvement ratio from HOQ
Clear the old marks with thinner, re-design the car park and paint
£1000 5 days
Reduce the time and resources on cleaning the toilets
On Kano Plot the requirements are low but process is high this means over kill
Reschedule the shifts No cost Short time
Provide free delivery for loyal customers
Based on Kano Plot it is low-high, therefore it is in danger of losing customers
Make new announcement and advertise it
Cost of advertising could be low, Sainsbury can advert it in store, on its delivery vans
1 week to make new advertisements
req
uir
eme
nts
low
h
igh
23 | P a g e
Cut cost and resources on reducing waste
It’s overkill, the requirements compare the effort is low
the process doesn’t need more training, no more employing, no more research
No cost Long term
Sainsbury’s should advertise the fact they provide more brand names in the store compare to competitors
The requirement is high and ordering process is high too. Scored second highest improvement ratio
Advertise it TV advert costs are high
Short term
The labelling process doesn’t need to change
Both requirement and process is low
N.A No cost Long term
Fitting rooms should be kept open all the time
It’s a high requirement but there are not enough staff to meet the demand
Employ full time staff in charge of fitting room
£500 per week before tax
Long term
Sainsbury’s should apply card payment devices on fuel pumps
The requirement is high, therefore is at risk of losing customer’s and ranks second highest normalized raw weight and the second highest score in Relative Customer Importance
Order the device, apply it to fuel pumps and computer systems
For one fuel station with 4 card payment machine £1000
Long term
Sainsbury’s should consider more incentives for new and existing customers
Sainsbury is at risk of competitors like Tesco’s, Aldi and Lidl- the process of offer and promotion is very low
This year Sainsbury’s cut points from two for every £1 spend to just one, while customers will also no longer receive a point when they use their own bags. This made customers angry and The Guardian noted Sainsbury’s is at risk of losing their customers. Try to soften customer’s anger Sainsbury’s launched get 10 points per litre of fuel purchase (Bachelor, 10 April 2015) Sainsbury’s can remove the first cut down on points and think of new offers to compete with competitors
£500 per day
Long term
24 | P a g e
Sainsbury’s can advertise the fact cost of their orders are from British farmers
The requirements are high, people should now about it
Advertise it in TV, for all advertising above can use one advert
Cost of advertising in TV-high
Short term
Consider 24 hour opening
Requirement is high, at risk of its competitors, and the highest normalized raw weight and the highest score in Relative Customer Importance
based on The Guardian Sainsbury’s axe hundreds of UK store jobs, it is also replacing night shifts with early morning and evening shifts (Butler, 2015) but considering HOQ Sainsbury needs to employ night shift staff
One store considering 5 staff in store plus electricity £2500 per week
Long term
Improve employing process
Employing process rated highest in priority raw in HOQ
Sainsbury’s should choose the HR staff very carefully, make sure they are the best at their job as this process is very important, to improve the overall process Sainsbury’s can carry out trainings for HR department and to make the application process better Sainsbury’s can upgrade its online application every 6 month, make sure it’s easy to use. Sainsbury’s can use mystery shoppers to check and improve employee skills in dealing with customers
Provide training every 6 month £1000 per session considering have to pay the staff too, upgrade website each 6 month £200
Long term
Improve check out process
Based on second priorities row in HOQ
as mentioned before Sainsbury’s developed a new smartphone app to make the checkout process faster, but still it’s not functional therefore Sainsbury’s can apply more self-checkout points, employ more staff at checkouts at peak time so there will be no queues
Cost of adding 4 more self- checkout machine £2000 Have 2 more staff at checkout per week £500
Long term
Conclusions The ideal environment for successful implementation of QFD may not always exist, as the nature of
the businesses are different and engineers have no control on Voice-of-Customer, but teams can still
benefit from QFD. There is two way to tackle these problems:
The Fight ‘Em Approach: aims to accepting the order-processing function to fix the system
25 | P a g e
The Join ‘Em Approach: adapting the product design so it avoids the order-processing system
Most organizations that use QFD stop after developing their HOQ. Some organizations expand it to
some graphs and tables and matrixes that shows the shop floor processes. Cohen explains there are
several reasons why these organizations don’t use the full possibilities of QFD. It is mostly because of
lack of specificity in an essential literature.
In the US they use to usual QFD models: the “Four-Phase Model” and the “Matrix of Matrices”. The
two models are not in conflict, the Matrix of Matrices makes more obvious activities that are implicit
or optional in the Four-Phase Model (Cohen, 1937).
Listening to internal customers is very important and it helps towards real improvements in external
customer satisfaction. External customers are stakeholders and improvement methods are different
but internal customer’s satisfaction is more complicated and time consuming but internal listening is
complementary to external focus.
Several process improvement frameworks and methodologies have been established such as
Taguchi methods and quality function deployment. Complementing these are essential
improvement procedures such as business process re-engineering.
Kanji proposes a pyramid model of Quality Management, which is based on the proposition that to
achieve a high customer satisfaction level, the organization has to improve continuously all aspects
of its operations. To implement Kanji method these steps are required (Pervaiz K. Ahmmed, 17 June
2013):
Delight the customers
People-based management
Continues improvement
Management by fact
There are other technics such as fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks (ANN) and the Taguchi
methods that can be combined with QFD to resolve some of its problems.
Fuzzy logic
The information from questionnaires and interviews used in HOQ rises the uncertainty when try to
analyse the data. Fuzzy logic can be used in order to reduce the rate of uncertainty. Fuzzy logic uses
human linguistic understanding to express the knowledge of the system. The VOC contains opacity
and different meanings. In fuzzy logic-based QFD approach, symbols which represent the customer
requirements and engineering characteristics (strong, medium, weak) are used to fill the relationship
matrix (Kho and Ho, 1996). For example:
Strong relationship [4.0, 10.0]
Moderate relationship [2.0, 8.0]
Weak relationship [0.0, 6.0]
Artificial neural networks (ANN)
ANN can be described as simplified mathematical models of the human being brains but it functions
as computer networks and have the ability to manage systems from their observed behaviours
rather than from a theoretical understanding. ANN has the ability to deal with a large amount of
data.
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The Taguchi Method
The goal of Taguchi method is to identify parameters that can be controlled and to reduce the
sensitivity of engineering designs to uncontrollable factors known as noises. This method is useful
for the roof of HOQ, optimizing the targets value and improves technical benchmarking at the
bottom of house of quality (Vivianne Bouchereau, 2000).
Some companies based on the nature of their business combine one of these methods to achieve a
improved HOQ, but if combine all these three methods at once with your HOQ superlative results
will distributed.
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