Patent ID: 6904396

Claim:
A method for efficiently and accurately measuring the progress of achieving optimal motor vehicle characteristics that are important to customer satisfaction, the method comprising: gathering internal organizational data; gathering external organizational data; matching the internal organizational data with the external organizational data to create a first list of characteristics, wherein the first list of characteristics comprises characteristics gathered from the internal and external organizational data that are valued by customers according to an organizational point of view; performing a plurality of tests to determine test characteristics, wherein the test characteristics are determined from vehicles having a best-in-class rating such that the best-in-class ratings indicate the test characteristics that are valued by customers according to one or more publications; matching the test characteristics with the first list of characteristics to create a second list of characteristics, wherein the second list of characteristics comprises the characteristics of the first list that correspond with the test characteristics such that the characteristics in the second list are valued by customers according to the organizational point of view and according to one or more publications; defining a stop designation for each characteristic of the second list, the stop designation including a range of values which define performance levels which require repair; defining a caution designation for each characteristic of the second list by establishing a range of values, the caution designation including a range of values which define performance levels which may be improved; defining a go designation for each characteristic of the second list, the go designation including a range of values which define performance levels are acceptable; assigning a designation to each characteristic in the second list to illustrate the progress for each characteristic of the second list.