Understanding customer needs through quantitative analysis of Kano's model

Purpose – The paper aims to help companies develop a better understanding of customer needs through quantitative analysis of Kano's model. Design/methodology/approach – A novel approach is developed to measure and quantify the relationships between customer satisfaction and the fulfillment of customer requirements (S‐CR) as depicted in Kano's model. A case study concerning notebook computer design is conducted to illustrate the application of the proposed approach. Findings – By implementing the proposed approach, S‐CR relationship functions have been identified from Kano's model to illustrate the impact of different customer requirements on customer satisfaction. The case study demonstrates that the proposed approach can be implemented successfully. Research limitations/implications – In order to identify the S‐CR relationship functions, several assumptions have been made in determining the shape of relationship curves in Kano's model. Future work could focus on improving the assumptions to derive the relationship functions more objectively. Practical implications – The proposed approach enables companies to develop a better understanding of customer requirements by visualizing the impact of customer requirements on customer satisfaction through S‐CR relationship functions. More importantly, it provides a way for companies to integrate Kano's model with other mathematical models or tools to support engineering design. Originality/value – The proposed approach goes beyond the qualitative analysis in Kano's model by identifying S‐CR relationship functions, both linear and nonlinear, to measure the impact of different customer requirements on customer satisfaction, which is currently a new attempt in the analysis of Kano's model for quality improvement.