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CTQ Process Steps

Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) trees are used to break down broad customer requirements into specific, measurable characteristics. They do this by identifying customer needs, then drilling down to determine the quality drivers and performance requirements that are critical for satisfying those needs. The steps to create a CTQ tree are to identify the customer and their needs, then determine the quality drivers and measurable requirements at more granular levels. This ensures improvement efforts align with what customers define as quality. CTQ trees provide a structured way to quantify qualitative customer statements into actionable business specifications.

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Eduardo Ruvalcaba
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955 views

CTQ Process Steps

Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) trees are used to break down broad customer requirements into specific, measurable characteristics. They do this by identifying customer needs, then drilling down to determine the quality drivers and performance requirements that are critical for satisfying those needs. The steps to create a CTQ tree are to identify the customer and their needs, then determine the quality drivers and measurable requirements at more granular levels. This ensures improvement efforts align with what customers define as quality. CTQ trees provide a structured way to quantify qualitative customer statements into actionable business specifications.

Uploaded by

Eduardo Ruvalcaba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) Trees

CTQs are used to decompose broad customer requirements into more easily quantified requirements. Take a qualitative customer statement into an actionable, quantitative business specification. CTQs are derived from customer needs. CTQs are the key measurable characteristics of a product or process whose performance standards or specification limits must be met in order to satisfy the customer. They align improvement or design efforts with customer requirements. CTQs represent the product or service characteristics that are defined by the customer. A CTQ usually must be interpreted from a qualitative customer statement to an actionable, quantitative business specification. To put it in layman's terms, CTQs are what the customer expects of a product... the spoken needs of the customer. The customer may often express this in plain English, but it is up to the CTQ expert to convert them to measurable terms. The critical to quality tree is used during the Design Phase of DMAIC. It is used to brainstorm and validate the needs and requirements of the customer of the process targeted for improvement.

The steps in creating a CTQ tree are as follows: 1. Identify the customer of the process targeted for improvement. 2. Identify the need of the customer. 3. Identify the first level of requirements of the need, that is, some characteristic of the need that determines whether the customer is happy with the need. 4. Drill down to more detailed level(s) of the requirement if necessary. For example, an instruction such as "improve customer service" is too broad to do much with. However, by using a CTQ Tree, you can drill-down from this broad goal to identify specific, measurable requirements that you can use to improve performance. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/ctq-trees.htm

Step-by-step process for developing a CTQ Tree


Step 1: Identify Critical Needs

Identify the critical needs that your product has to meet. Do a CTQ Tree for every need that you identify. During this first step, you're essentially asking, "What is critical for this product or service?" It's best to define these needs in broad terms; this will help ensure that you don't miss anything important in the next steps. If you can't ask customers directly about their needs, brainstorm their needs with people who deal with customers directly sales people and customer service representatives as well as with your team.

Step 2: Identify Quality Drivers

Identify the specific quality drivers that have to be in place to meet the needs that you identified in the previous step. Remember, these are the factors that must be present for customers to think that you are delivering a high quality product. Speak to people with customer contact, and ask your customers what factors are important to them.

Step 3: Identify Performance Requirements


Identify the minimum performance requirements that you must satisfy for each quality driver, in order to actually provide a quality product. Here it's important to remember that there are many things that will affect your ability to deliver these. For example, do you have enough resources or the right technology in place? And, what will you need to do in other parts of your organization to meet these requirements? Once you've completed a CTQ Tree for each critical need, you'll have a list of measurable requirements that you must meet to deliver a high quality product. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/ctq-trees.htm

CTQ Tree Example


NEED DRIVER An understanding of what the customer means by good CTO A measurable form of the driver

Voice of Consumer

A factor expressed by the customer as being important to their perception of quality

NEED

DRIVER An understanding of what the stakeholder means as efficient

CTO A measurable form of the driver

Voice of Business

A factor expressed by a stakeholder as being important to their perception of efficiency

Fast response to inquiry VOC: I want good customer service Provide solutions that meet my challenge

Time to reach customer service officer Time to resolve enquiry

% of inquires resolved

Customer satisfaction rating

Cost per transaction Manageable cost Total cost against budget VOB: I want efficient processing Fast processing Cycle time Processing time

G:ETL/LeanSixSigma/CQT Process Steps 01/30/2013

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