Prioritising customer needs at spectator events : Obtaining accuracy at a difficult QFD arena

To present a method for prioritising customer needs that was devised for a quality function deployment (QFD) project at a mass spectator event, due to the particular characteristics and constraints of this project. Standard methods for prioritising customer needs documented by several authors are reviewed, as well as their principal features and why they were not suitable for this particular QFD project. The devised method is presented together with an example extracted from this project. With the data available from the project, this method is briefly contrasted to a standard similar method. Presents the devised method as an effective solution for this particular QFD project. The method was useful for this particular QFD project due to the time and physical location constraints, but more research is needed in order to assess the real accuracy of this method compared to other documented practices. Sometimes standard practices may not be suitable for particular QFD applications, so methods should be adapted to the unique characteristics of specific QFD projects. This paper presents a review of documented practices for prioritising customer needs that was done for a particular QFD application, as well as a method that was devised because these standard practices were not effective enough for handling the constraints in the project. The process followed and results obtained may serve as a reference for QFD practitioners in the selection of a convenient method for prioritising customer needs.