This case study describes how a pizza restaurant used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology to address issues it was facing. In the Define step, customer requirements were identified through surveys and discussions. In Measure, customers rated importance and restaurant performance on requirements. Analysis in the House of Quality prioritized solutions. Improve implemented solutions in priority order, like changing suppliers or upgrading facilities. Control involved periodic feedback and analysis to monitor impacts and hold gains.
LLMs, LMMs, their Improvement Suggestions and the Path towards AGI
Case Study of a Pizza Restaurant using House of Quality or Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
1. Case Study
A Pizza Restaurant
Methodology adopted : Quality Function Deployment (QFD) or House of Quality
Procedure followed : Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC)
Step # 1: Define
• What is the Problem?
Abysmal performance of the company in the last 3 years in comparison with its initial 8 years as shown in the table below:
Attributes Initial 8 years Last 3 years
CAGR 40 % 5 %
Market Share 56 % 32 %
Stores at Loss 12 % 35 %
• What does customer want i.e. Voice of the Customer?
Methods used to know the requirements of customer:
Focused group discussions
Customers' service inquiries database
In-depth customer observation
Structured or unstructured customer interviews
Self-completing questionnaires
Customers‘ complaint and compliment database
Front-line staff feedback
In our case the list of customer requirements was identified with online literature search and a brainstorming
session with a group of friends.
2. Step # 2: Measure
• What to measure?
Weightage: Quantifying the importance of different requirements of customers, on a scale of 0-10, in the customer’s
perspective.
Rating of the Pizza Restaurant X: Asking the customers to rate the firm on these requirements on a scale of 0-5.
Rating of the competitors (say A and B): Asking the customers to rate the nearby competitors on same requirements
on the same scale.
• How to measure?
Using a structured questionnaire, ask pizza customers (say around 300) to rate the importance of their requirements and to
compare the performance of the pizza restaurants with their “ideal pizza restaurant”. In this way it is possible to see which
quality characteristics are more important for meeting or exceeding customers' expectations. Also, the performance of
different restaurants can be assessed competitively.
The questionnaire can be filled through following modes:
Online – Social media platforms, websites, third party survey companies like surveymonkey
Offline – Visitors, via delivery staff
Hotline – Toll free number or IVRS
Step # 3: Analyze
• What is the tool used to analyze?
House of Quality: It provides a systematic approach to identify and prioritize the steps that are needed to be taken to
improve the existing process, service or product successfully inculcating the voice of customer during the analysis.
3. House of Quality
Customer
requirements
(WHATs)
Relationship
between WHATs
and HOWs
Interrelationship
between HOWs
Prioritized
solutions
Technical
descriptors (HOWs)
Prioritized
Customer
requirements
4. Step # 4: Improve
It involves implementing the steps for improvement in the same priority as derived in step # 3. In our case:
Priority 1: Cooking material – Consider changing the supplier or go for in-house material supply if possible
Priority 2: Facilities – Consider upgrading the infrastructure of the restaurant
Priority 3: Discounts – Right discounts at apt time (festivals, vacations etc) considering overall profit,
Priority 4: Tie-ups – Look for a partner who can supply complementary food items at the restaurant on shared profit basis
Priority 5: Delivery Service – Hire more delivery staff and improve the reach of each outlet
Priority 6: Advertisement – Design creative marketing campaigns through mediums like TVF, organize competitions in DU
colleges, consider crowd sourcing of other problems on different platforms
Priority 7, 8 and 9 (Automation, User Interface and Packing Quality respectively) – As these stand very low in the
priority list, consider focusing on them only if the above steps don’t work
5. Step # 5: Control
How do we ‘hold the gains’ of our solutions?
• Periodic feedback about delivery service, quality, consistency, advertisement reach
• Regular analysis of balance sheet of every store to see the impact of each solution as its implemented
• Prepare contingency plans in case a solution fails
• Check the conversion ratio of discounts into profit and market share
• Keep an eye on the market image of tie-up firms
Kshitij Jain
(11112020)
Saurav Garg
(11112039)
Vikrant Yadav
(11112054)
Deepanshu Saini
(11117025)