Above is an example of one method (you need more than 1 so don’t misunderstand this as ‘the sole source’) of determining the Voice of the Customer. When the auditor looks for compliance, they are simply looking to see that your company has defined some ‘minimums’. These may or may not be in a listing but are typically at least addressed in a procedure or policy.
In addition, one should note that different aspects of Voice of the Customer can come from various departments. This is the reason that that the APQP Team is the entity which gathers the information, parses it and interprets it. We do not simply go to (for example) sales and get what they have.
Most companies use some sort of check list as they define how, within their company, APQP requirements are met. Since each company is different, each company will have a different approach on what information they gather, how it is gathered and how it is interpreted.
There is nothing precise in this. Relating customer needs to technical features, for example, plays a part (and outwardly appears quite clear), while determining/forecasting possible/probably ‘unintended uses’ is quite a bit less clear.
