Introduction
The customer-oriented, business-like approach
adopted by the Institute aims at showing the utility of remote sensing
technology and the contribution it can make to the decision-making
processes of local governments faced with the increasing pressure
of growth management, regulation compliance, and environmental concerns.
Under this approach, research projects are treated as prototypes
that can potentially be replicated on a larger scale, and the customers
(users of the technology) are considered to be representatives of
a broader segment of the market for commercial remote sensing products.
Focusing on the customer and their requirements, rather than technology,
is further justified by a widely accepted view that the key to success
in introducing new technology, as well as in business in general,
is in understanding and meeting customer needs.
BOCOMO projects undertaken by ICREST under the
Raytheon's Synergy initiative represented a good example of interactive
assessment of user requirements through a structured approach utilizing
the elements of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology.
QFD is a systematic means of analyzing customer needs and deploying
them into product, service, or business operations. By mapping customer
needs into controllable product parameters, QFD ensures that products
are better accepted in the marketplace since they more accurately
reflect what the customer is willing to buy.
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QFD
Background
In terms of age, QFD is a relatively young technique.
Its first use was reported in Japan in the late 60s, at the Kobe
Shipyard. From there, the applications were further developed in
various industries. In the mid 80s, Dr. Donald Clausing brought
information on QFD to Xerox. From there a number of organizations
have promoted and taught how to utilize QFD, the two most prominent
organizations being GOAL/QPC and the American Supplier Institute
(ASI). Nowadays QFD continues to attract a lot of attention in several
industries. It is increasingly being recognized as an excellent
means of ensuring that the "Voice of the Customer" directs
the efforts of the complete organization. This usually results in
providing products and services that are better accepted in the
marketplace since they more accurately reflect what the customer
is willing to buy.
QFD is a systematic approach mapping the customer's
needs into definable and measurable product and process parameters,
using matrices and other quantitative and qualitative techniques.
The thing that makes QFD unique is that the primary focus is the
customer requirements. The process is driven by what the customer
wants, not by innovations in technology. It tends to look beyond
the usual customer feedback and attempts to define the requirements
in a set of basic needs, which are compared to relevant technical
information.
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The Core QFD Matrix
The basic tool of analyzing customer requirements
and deploying them into product or service is the Core QFD matrix.
This matrix is a fairly flexible approach to implementing QFD that
can be configured in different ways depending upon the purpose or
application of the matrix. In fact, one of the keys to successful
implementation of QFD is to adapt the basic matrices and procedures
to the product, process, and project at hand. Working with the BOCOMO
research teams we have utilized a combination GOAL/QPC call the
A-1 matrix and what ASI calls the customer requirements matrix as
an element of the "House of Quality" concept. (Figure1).
On the left side are customer needs ("Whats")
reflecting the "voice of the customer", what the customer
wants in the product. The top of the matrix shows technical characteristics
("Hows") that a research team
can control in order to satisfy the customer's requirements. The
right side of the matrix illustrates evaluation and prioritization
of “Whats” and assigns the Importance Weight and the Relative Weight
for each requirement. The body of the matrix shows relationship
correlations between what the customer
wants from the product and how a project
team can meet those requirements.
Relationships within this section are defined
using a strong ( ), medium ( ), weak ( ), or none (blank cell) scale.
The peak of the matrix (the "Roof") is used to identify
the interactions between different Hows and the relationships are
rated as strong positive ( ), weak positive( ), weak negative (
), strong negative ( ), and none. The bottom of the matrix is the
prioritized and weighted technical requirements. It identifies the
requirements that are the most critical for success, which is illustrated
through a bar chart to provide quick analysis of the key technical
requirements. This is followed by a concept evaluation section in
which different system alternatives are compared for determination
of how well technical requirements are met.
QFD methodology proved to be a useful tool for
customer needs assessment directly involving the user in the process
of technological development. Quantitative analysis of data in the
matrices allowed to better define the relationships between the
customer needs and technical requirements and to evaluate the role
high-resolution satellite imagery could play in different mapping
applications for local planners and managers. For example, "spatial
resolution" as a technical requirement received the highest
relative weight of all other specifications related to data in the
land cover matrix (16.9%), followed by "spectral resolution"
(13.7%), "radiometric resolution" (13.7%), and "classification
process" (13.6%). This indicates that high-resolution imagery
is well-positioned among other alternatives to satisfy customer
needs within this local mapping application.
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Figure1: The QFD Core Matrix:
Land Cover Map
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Customer needs and requirements have a tendency
to evolve in time. This process is one of the drivers of market
development that may result in either expansion (existing users
- new applications) or diffusion (new users - existing applications)
of new technology. Monitoring and analyzing the evolving needs and
identifying socio-economic factors impacting their development will
be the focus of future research.
Working together, city and county officials and
planners have become the focal point for needs assessment, community
interaction approaches, identification of information requirements,
output product definition, preferred delivery mechanisms, and data
requirements such as timeliness, accuracy, database size, etc. An
evaluation of appropriate, user determined application scales for
remotely derived data sets (base mapping, hydrological and population
modeling, terrain generation, and land cover issues) is a key component
of this research. Several application areas were used to support
the implementation
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