KANO MODEL

TEAM MEMBERS
Martin Wanyoike
Catherine Wekesa

Case Study Organization: University of Nairobi

1
University of Nairobi
 Started way back from 1956, with the establishment of the Royal Technical College
 1964, the Royal College Nairobi was renamed University College Nairobi as a constituent
college of inter-territorial, Federal University of East Africa, and henceforth the enrolled
students were to study for college degrees of the University of East Africa and not London
 1970, it transformed into the first national university in Kenya and was renamed the
University of Nairobi
 1983, decentralization of the administration resulted to creation of six colleges headed by
principals
Core Functions
 Teaching and Learning: The university offers innovative , relevant and market driven
academic programmes , both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels with inbuilt
quality control systems the university also provides an environment and policy framework
for undertaking high quality and relevant research
 Research
 Teaching
 Community outreach
 Mentorship
 Industry /Challenge driven education
Five Service Quality Model
Reliability
Deliver what is promised

Tangibles Responsiveness
Ensure that buildings, Service Do it promptly
surroundings, and Quality
materials are attractive Model

Empathy Assurance
Do it with respect and Know how to do3 it
understanding
Kano Model
 What is Kano Model?
 The Kano model is a useful model for integrating the Voice of the Customer (VOC) and
Critical to Quality (CTQ) into the subsequent processes of product development.
Developed by Professor Noriaki Kano in 1984. Based upon:
 Customers’ Satisfaction with our product’s features depends on the level of Functionality that
is provided (how much or how well they’re implemented);
 Features can be classified into five categories;
 You can determine how customers feel about a feature through a questionnaire.
 Today, as in the 1980s the Kano model is used as a means to:
 Prioritize critical to quality characteristics (those most important to the successful function or
fulfillment of purpose) of a product or service as defined by the customer
 Identify implicit as well as explicit customer needs.
 Customers’ preferences are obtained by using a prescribed form to know whether or not
a given product attribute is a Must-be, Attractive, One-dimensional, Indifferent, or
Reverse attribute for a given product.
 Knowing WHAT the categories are is the easy part and only half the battle, knowing
HOW to gather them is the other half.
The Five Categories of Features
1. Must-be Quality(Dissatisfies)
 These are the requirements that the
customers expect and are taken for
granted. When done well, customers are
just neutral, but when done poorly,
customers are very dissatisfied. Kano
originally called these “Must-be’s” because
they are the requirements that must be
included and are the price of entry into a
market.
Example: Lecturer is expected to teach
 Must-Be Quality Elements: Elements that
are absolutely expected but result in
dissatisfaction when not fulfilled.
 Basic Needs (sources): Your experience,
customer complaints, competitive
similarities, industry standards, government
regulations, function analysis, and FMEA
(Failure Modes and Effects Analysis).
The Five Categories of Features
 One-dimensional Quality(Satisfiers /
Performance)
 These attributes result in satisfaction
when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when
not fulfilled. They are expected by
customers. These are attributes that are
spoken and the ones in which companies
compete.
 An example : if a lecturer does not finish
the syllabus then the customer will feel
misled and it will lead to dissatisfaction.
 One-Dimensional Quality Elements:
Elements that result in satisfaction when
fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not
fulfilled.
 Performance Needs (sources): Classic
VOC methods including customer
Interviews, observational research
(ethnography), conversations, surveys,
focus groups, contextual inquiry, etc.
The Five Categories of Features
 Attractive Quality (Delighters)
 These attributes provide satisfaction when
achieved fully, but do not cause
dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. These
are attributes that are not normally
expected, for example, a thermometer on
a package of milk showing the temperature
of the milk. Since these types of attributes
of quality unexpectedly delight customers,
they are often unspoken.
 Unexpected Features
 Attractive Quality Elements: Elements
that when fulfilled provide satisfaction but
are OK for the customer when not fulfilled.
 Excitement Quality: is a little more
illusive and challenging for most
organizations since you can rarely count on
your customers to tell you where or how to
innovate.
The Five Categories of Features
 Indifferent Quality 
 These attributes refer to aspects that are
neither good nor bad, and they do not
result in either customer satisfaction or
customer dissatisfaction. For example,
thickness of the wax coating on a milk
carton. This might be key to the design
and manufacturing of the carton, but
consumers are not even aware of the
distinction. It is interesting to identify
these attributes in the product in order to
suppress them and therefore diminish
production costs.

 Indifferent Quality Elements: Elements

that neither result in satisfaction or
dissatisfaction, regardless of whether
they are fulfilled.
The Five Categories of Features
 Reverse Quality 
 These attributes refer to a high degree of
achievement resulting in dissatisfaction
and to the fact that not all customers are
alike. For example, some customers
prefer high-tech products, while others
prefer the basic model of a product and
will be dissatisfied if a product has too
many extra features

 Reverse Quality Elements: Elements

that result in dissatisfaction when
fulfilled and satisfaction when not
fulfilled.
Advantages of Kano Model
 Priorities for product development. It is, for example, not very useful to invest in
improving must-be requirements which are already at a satisfactory level but better to
improve one-dimensional or attractive requirements as they have a greater influence on
perceived product quality and consequently on the customer’s level of satisfaction.
 Product requirements are better understood: The product criteria which have the
greatest influence on the customer’s satisfaction can be identified. Classifying product
requirements into must-be, one-dimensional and attractive dimensions can be used to
focus on
 Kano’s model of customer satisfaction can be optimally combined with quality function
deployment. A prerequisite is identifying customer requirements, their hierarchy and
priorities (Griffin/Hauser, 1993).
 Kano’s model is used to establish the importance of individual product features for the
customer’s satisfaction and thus it creates the optimal prerequisite for process-oriented
product development activities.
 Kano’s method provides valuable help in trade-off situations in the product development
stage.
 If two product requirements cannot be met simultaneously due to technical or
financial reasons, the criterion can be identified which has the greatest influence on
customer satisfaction
Questionnaire
 Must-be Quality(Dissatisfies)
 The lecturer shows good theoretical
knowledge
 The lecturer clearly defines the student’s
obligations
 The lecturer answers questions
professionally
 The lecturer covers the material to
prepare students for coping with
everyday problems
 The lecturer provides notes for the course
material (e.g powerpoint, handouts)
 The lecturer is able to cover course
outline before deadline.
 The lecturer never misses lectures
 Attractive Quality (Delighters)
 The lecturer shows good practical
knowledge
 The lecturer is communicative
 The lecturer provides good practical
examples
 The lecturer has a friendly attitude towards
students
 The lecturer covers the material to prepare
students for coping with everyday problems
 The lecturer is available to students after
classes (e.g. at the offices, per e-mail)
 The lecturer is on time for lectures
 The lecturer facilitates the class through
the use of technology e.g. use of projector
and powerpoint
 The lecturer provides make up CAT
Questionnaire
 One-dimensional  Indifferent Quality
Quality(Satisfiers / Performance)
 The lecturer facilitates discussion during
 The lecturer answers questions classes
professionally
 The lecturer utilizes all 3hrs during a
lecture
 The lecturer gives assignments to students
References
 Kano, N., Seraku, N., and Tsuji, S. (1984). “Attractive Quality and Must-Be Quality”,
Proc. 12th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Quality Control.
 Herzberg, Frederick; Mausner, B.; Snyderman, B.B. (1959). The motivation to work (2nd
Ed.). New York: Wiley
 Berger, C, Blauth, R, Boger, D, Bolster, C, Burchill, G, DuMouchel, W, Pouliot, F, Richter,
R, Rubinoff, A, Shen, D, Timko, M and Walden, D (1993) Kano’s method for
understanding customer-defined quality, Center for Quality of Management Journal Vol 2
No 4 pp 3e35
 Matzler and H.H. Hinterhuber, How to make product development projects more
successful by integrating Kano’s model of customer satisfaction into quality function
deployment, Technovation 18(1) (1998), 25–38.
 Ullah, A & Tamaki, J. (2011). Analysis of Kano-Model-Based Customer Needs for Product
Development. Systems Engineering, 14(2), .
 Chen, Shun-Hsing, Ching-Chow Yang, Wen-Tsann Lin, Tsu-Ming Yeh,”Service quality
attributes determine improvement priority,” The TQM Magazine, vol.19, no.2, pp.162-
175, 2007.