Kano model

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The Kano model is a theory of product development developed in the 80's by Professor Noriaki Kano which classifies customer preferences into five categories:

Attractive
One-Dimensional
Must-Be
Indifferent
Reverse

These categories have been translated into English using various different names (delighters/exciters, satisfiers, dissatisfiers, etc.), but all refer to the original articles written by Kano.

The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. The purpose of the tool is to support product specification and discussion through better development team understanding. Kano's model focuses on differentiating product features, as opposed to focusing initially on customer needs (as used in the Klein grid model). Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) makes use of the Kano model in terms of the structuring of the Comprehensive QFD matrices. Mixing Kano types in QFD matrices can lead to distortions in the customer weighting of product characteristics. For instance, mixing Must-Be product characteristics --such as cost, reliability, workmanship, safety, and technologies used in the product--in the initial House of Quality will usually result is completely filled rows and columns with high correlation values. Other Comprehensive QFD techniques using additional matrices are used to avoid such issues. Kano's model provides the insights into the dynamics of customer preferences to understand these methodology dynamics.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Cohen, Lou, Quality function deployment : How to make QFD work for you, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-63330-2
ReVelle, Jack B., The QFD handbook, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-17381-9

[edit] External links

See [1] for a Kano diagram showing these categories or check out this effective 8 minute animated tutorial which describes the Kano Model in great detail with examples.