Author: Robert P. Neuman

When the stakes are really high and the future of your department or organization rests in the balance, the Define stage of a DMAIC process takes on extra importance. Writing down a few customer requirement statements simply won’t cut it. You have to be much more rigorous in your investigation of customers and their needs, and in defining specific requirements. If your team is in this situation, you will want to investigate Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a method that moves from highly specific customer requirements to what needs to happen in the process to make sure those needs are met.