Voice of the Customer
Domestic US automotive manufacturers are faced with fierce competition from their Asian and European rivals, making mere survival a constant challenge. With high quality and fuel economy as the primary factors for deciding a vehicle purchase, consumers constantly raise the bar for automotive manufacturers, forcing them to revisit their design and manufacturing processes in an effort to meet and exceed expectations. Third party consumer agencies such as Consumer Magazine and JD Power play an important role in influencing consumer decisions by providing an unbiased evaluation of competitive vehicle sets. Successful corporations have come to recognize the importance of customer’s voice and implemented processes that integrate voice of the customer into product development cycle before inception product design. On the other hand car manufacturers are under extreme pressure to contain operating cost while delivering high quality products. This more than ever justifies the need for a market oriented research process that helps manufacturers understand how customers perceive their products and focus development efforts in areas that meets customer needs and adds value for the consumers. Statistical based market research provides car manufacturers with a valuable tool for aligning the functional objectives to customer needs and wants before investing time and money in the development of a new product. Implementation of statistical methods in everyday decision making is now more common than before with integration of Six-Sigma techniques now part of the vehicle development process, limiting total number of product defects to only 3.4 per million. This paper discusses potential application of descriptive and inferential stat ...