Creating a SIPOC Chart
February 12, 2025
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The Kano Analysis is a simple looking tool that has grave implications of the field of quality management. It has brought about a paradigm shift in the way quality is viewed by organizations worldwide. The Kano analysis brought about this change from changing the measurement of quality from one-dimensional to two dimensional.
Traditionally quality was measured on operational parameters only. This meant that the company with the least number of defects was said to have the best quality. However, in modern times with increased competition, delivering defective products is simply out of question. Hence this measure of quality did not truly represent the current state of affairs.
Mr Noriaki Kano observed this issue and came to the conclusion that quality needs to be measured as a relationship between two dimensions. The two dimensions chosen were customer satisfaction and need fulfilment. Any attribute that the product already had as well as the ones that were going to be added to the product were placed in one of the four quadrants of the co-ordinate system created by the intersection of these two axes.
The Kano model can be seen as an interface between the marketing and the operations team. This is because both these teams need to co-ordinate to ensure that the model is applied correctly and the resultant benefits are reaped. The application of the Kano model is as follows:
Understanding that All Needs are Not Equal: Kano Model helps the organizations segregate and prioritize needs. There are some attributes of a product that must absolutely be present, there are some others which are nice to have and still others that make no difference to the customers.
Helps in Conducting Surveys: The voice of the customer needs to be incorporated in to the product. While customers state what they want and what they do not want, they are not able to state the magnitude of the need or how compelling they think it is. However whether it is compelling or not has serious implications on the perceived benefits that the consumers reap.
Surveys therefore need to be planned to incorporate this aspect as well. Empirically surveys that have been planned keeping the Kano Analysis in mind have been more successful in finding the customer need and helping the management fulfil it.
A Lean Product: With the help of Kano analysis, organizations can add features which provide maximum satisfaction to the customers. Features to which the customers are indifferent can be removed from the product as it adds cost but does not provide the benefit. This helps in giving the customers just what they want at the price that they want.
The Five Types of Attributes:
The Kano model has been implemented by almost all major corporations in the world at one point of time or the other. A couple of important operational concepts have evolved out of the Kano model. They are as follows:
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