Total Quality Management – Week 7: Product and Service Design
1. Introduction
Product and service design is essential to meeting customer needs and ensuring business
success. Effective design focuses on creating reliable, durable, and aesthetically pleasing
products or services that meet customer expectations.
Example: Apple’s product designs (iPhone, MacBook) emphasize simplicity, sleekness, and ease
of use, which have become a cornerstone of their brand identity.
Activity: Have students research a product or service they use frequently. Ask them to identify
three features that contribute to the product's quality and how they impact their satisfaction.
2. Idea Generation
The creative phase of product and service design involves gathering and evaluating ideas from
various sources to develop innovative concepts.
Example: Netflix decided to switch from DVD rentals to online streaming to customer feedback
and the recognition of changing market trends in how people consumed media.
Activity: Conduct a brainstorming session where students are divided into groups to generate
ideas for improving a common product (e.g., a smartphone). Each group should present one
innovative feature that could enhance customer satisfaction.
3. Legal and Ethical Considerations, Human Factors, and Cultural Factors
Legal and Ethical Considerations: Products and services must comply with laws, safety
regulations, and ethical standards.
Example: Volkswagen’s emissions scandal, where the company violated environmental
regulations, led to huge legal penalties and damaged its brand.
Activity: Ask students to choose a well-known product and research any legal or ethical issues
the company faced during its production or service delivery. Present their findings.
Human Factors: Designs should consider how users interact with the product, focusing
on ergonomics and ease of use.
Example: The design of Tesla's electric cars incorporates a user-friendly interface, minimizing
distractions and improving the driving experience.
Activity: Provide students with a poorly designed product (e.g., a difficult-to-open package) and
ask them to redesign it considering human factors.
Cultural Factors: Products should respect and adapt to the cultural preferences of
different markets.
Example: McDonald’s adapts its menu in different countries to suit local tastes—offering rice
dishes in the Philippines, or lamb burgers in India.
Activity: Assign students to research how a global company has adapted a product or service for
different cultures. Present the cultural modifications they discovered.
4. The Kano Model
The Kano Model helps categorize customer needs into basic, performance, and excitement
features.
Basic Needs: Expected features that prevent dissatisfaction if present. Example: A hotel
room must be clean and quiet. These are basic expectations, and failure to meet them
causes dissatisfaction.
Performance Needs: Features that increase satisfaction when improved. Example:
Faster internet speed in a hotel room directly increases customer satisfaction.
Excitement Needs: Unexpected features that delight customers. Example: A hotel
providing complimentary room upgrades or personalized welcome notes can lead to a
memorable experience for guests.
Activity: Ask students to pick a product or service and identify one feature for each category:
basic, performance, and excitement. Present how these features influence customer satisfaction
using the Kano Model.
5. Designing for Production
Designing for production ensures that products or services are easy to manufacture or deliver
while maintaining quality.
Design for Manufacturability (DFM): Simplifying the production process to reduce
costs and errors.
Example: Toyota’s manufacturing system uses standardized parts and processes to reduce waste
and improve efficiency.
Standardization: Using common components across product lines.
Example: IKEA uses standardized screws and bolts across many of its furniture products,
allowing them to keep costs down while improving production efficiency.
Modularity: Creating products in interchangeable modules for customization.
Example: Dell’s customizable computers are built using modular components, enabling
customers to choose different hardware specifications without disrupting the production process.
Concurrent Engineering: Involving multiple departments (engineering, manufacturing,
marketing) early in the design process.
Example: Boeing uses concurrent engineering when designing airplanes, with engineers,
marketing teams, and production experts collaborating ato ensure feasibility and customer
satisfaction.
Activity: Divide students into groups and ask them to redesign a simple product (e.g., a coffee
cup) for improved manufacturability. They should consider aspects like materials, ease of
production, and cost-efficiency. Present their redesigns.
Key Takeaway: Product and service design is more than just aesthetics—it is a strategic process
that integrates legal, ethical, human, and cultural considerations to ensure that products meet
customer needs while being cost-effective and efficient to produce.
References:
Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management" by Jay Heizer, Barry
Render, and Chuck Munson
Quality Management for Organizational Excellence: Introduction to Total Quality" by David L.
Goetsch and Stanley B. Davis
Total Quality Management and Operational Excellence: Text with Cases" by John S. Oakland
Design for Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Product Development" by Kai Yang and Basem S. El-Haik