Vella Inc. is working on a design for a new smartphone. Marketing staff conducted extensive surveys and focus groups with potential customers to determine the characteristics that the customers want and expect in a smartphone. Vella$$s studies have identified the most important customer expectations as

$$ Initial cost

$$ Reliability

$$ Ease of use

$$ Features

$$ Operating cost

$$ Compactness

Vella Inc. faces three major competitors in this market: Neuphonia, Simphonia, and Colliefonia. It found that potential consumers placed the highest importance on reliability $($measured by such things as freedom from operating system crashes and battery life$),$ followed by compactness $($weight$/$bulkiness$),$ followed by flexibility $($features$,$ ease of use, and types of program modules available$).$ The operating cost was only occasionally noted as an important attribute in the surveys. Studies of their products yielded the information shown is shown below. Results of the consumer panel ratings for these competitors are shown in this spreadsheet.

Competitors' Product Information

Operating Battery Opr. Costs

Company Price Wt$.($oz$.)$ Size $($In$.)$ Features System life $($hrs$)($Batt$./$Prg$/)$

Neuphonia $$97544\mathrm{.}8$ x $3\mathrm{.}215$ BranchOS $50$ High

Simphonia $5957\mathrm{.}55\mathrm{.}1$ x $3\mathrm{.}39$ Hardmark$*12$ Low

Colliefonia $8508\mathrm{.}85\mathrm{.}3$ x $3\mathrm{.}312$ Easyware$**25$ Moderately high

Note: BranchOS$$ is one of the most recognized operating software programs for smartphones.

$*$New unproven software, unique to Simphonia

$**$Well$-$received proprietary software, used on many smartphones for several years

Consumer Panel Ratings

Attribute Neuphonia Simphonia Colliefonia

Initial cost $354$

Reliability $523$

Ease of use $413$

Features $423$

Operating cost $534$

Weight $533$

Size $444$

Your Challenge:

a$)$ Develop a set of technical requirements to incorporate into the design of a House of Quality relationship matrix to assess how well your requirements address these expectations. Refine your design as necessary, based upon the initial assessment.

b$)$ Present your output in a QFD diagram $(25$ Points$)$

c$)$ Using the given information, develop a deployment plan for the new smartphone. On what attributes should the company focus its marketing efforts? $(15$ Points$)$