Scribd
Upload
353 views1 page

ISOM 3730 Quality and Process Management Dr. Ki Ling Cheung Samsung Electronics: Analyzing Qualitative Complaint Data

Samsung had experienced quality issues that stemmed from problems in supply chain, product design, and testing. The quality director wanted to analyze qualitative customer complaint data from a website in addition to their quantitative database. An internal consultant suggested creating an affinity diagram to categorize the complaints and then a Pareto chart to identify the most common issues. The director would then need to examine the results to determine if any quality problems required immediate action or near-term steps to address customer concerns raised in the complaints.

Uploaded by

Sin Tung
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
353 views1 page

ISOM 3730 Quality and Process Management Dr. Ki Ling Cheung Samsung Electronics: Analyzing Qualitative Complaint Data

Samsung had experienced quality issues that stemmed from problems in supply chain, product design, and testing. The quality director wanted to analyze qualitative customer complaint data from a website in addition to their quantitative database. An internal consultant suggested creating an affinity diagram to categorize the complaints and then a Pareto chart to identify the most common issues. The director would then need to examine the results to determine if any quality problems required immediate action or near-term steps to address customer concerns raised in the complaints.

Uploaded by

Sin Tung
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

ISOM 3730 Quality and Process Management

Dr. Ki Ling Cheung

Samsung Electronics: Analyzing Qualitative Complaint Data

Samsung had experienced a series of quality-related problems, including the recall of


one of its LCD TV models. Unfortunately for quality director Kevin Sarni, there was
no single root cause behind these problems; Samsung’s supply chain management,
product design, and testing/quality functions all played a role.

Sarni regularly worked with quantitative data from Samsung’s customer complaint
database, but recently he had been shown comments about Samsung products posted
on the website ConsumerAffairs.com. The number and emotional tone of the website
postings concerned him; he worried these kinds of complaints might touch off a social
media-fueled public relations firestorm that would make his job more difficult.

He wanted to analyze this feedback, but had no experience with qualitative data. An
internal Six Sigma Black Belt consultant suggested he start by creating an affinity
diagram and use that to create a Pareto chart to determine which issues to address
first. Once Sarni completed the unfamiliar diagrams he had still another task ahead of
him: examining the results to see if they justified taking short-term action to address
the quality problems raised in the complaints.

1. Create an affinity diagram from the complaints provided in Exhibit 1. Note the
following:
- Of the thirty-three complaints, some will fit in only one category and some
may fit in multiple categories.
- You should create as many categories as you need. If you end up with more
than fifteen, however, you probably have too many.

2. Create a Pareto chart from the results of the affinity diagram.

3. What items (if any) need immediate attention?

4. What next septs would you recommend for the near term (four to eight weeks)?

5. What other insights (if any) can you offers?

You might also like