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3
Determining Customer Needs
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
• Explain why it is important to group customers into homogeneous segments
• Identify the needs of the ultimate customer
• Identify factors that determine customers’ needs
• Describe the methods to forecast demand
• Describe the six attributes of a well-designed product
• Describe alternative approaches to product design
• Determine how many supply chains a company needs
• Explain why serving internal customers is important
Company Profile: McDonald’s
To be successful, a company must nd out what the customer wants and then develop the
supply chains ...