QFD Papers on Education   (partial list)

To view all abstracts since 1989, please visit QFD Symposia Transactions.

QFD-based Curriculum Development Model for Industrial Training
Catherine Y. P. Chan, Ph.D., QFD Black Belt®, Hong Kong QFD Association, Hong Kong, PRC; Glenn H. Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, QFD Institute, USA and ICQFD

The basic principles of QFD were adopted to develop an industrial training curriculum model for service-oriented manufacturing industries in Hong Kong. Recognizing the importance of dually meeting job performance requirements and knowledge needs of the incumbents, the model is characterized by the performance-focused as well as learning-oriented approaches, based on the Voice of Customers from both employers and individuals, as well as the dynamics of trainers who make use of their subject-matter expertise to suggest the kinds of industrial knowledge for meeting the defined performance needs vs. course developers who make use of his/her professional knowledge to synthesis the derived subjects into an effective and coherent curriculum. Affinity Diagram, VOC Table, and AHP were used as the tools for assisting the operation of the model.

Keywords: QFD, Curriculum Development, Industrial Training, Vocational Training

Development of Educational Structure for Business Students in Quantitative Methods Area

Aysun Kapucugil Ikiz, Ph.D., QFD Green Belt®; Guzin Ozdagoglu, Ph.D.; Sabri Erdem, Ph.D.; and Ferkan Kaplanseren, Ph.D. of Dokuz Eylul University, TURKEY

This paper addresses how to align the educational structures of the business school program at Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey

with the Bologna Process, an European higher education reform through international cooperation and academic exchange.  To facilitate mobility of academic talents and offer broader access to high-quality higher education as aimed by this initiative, it is essential to have a systematic methodology to figure out the knowledge, skills, and competency requirements with respect to stakeholders' requirements and transform them into the commonly accepted professional and learning outcomes. The insights from this study can help other universities see how to perceive their stakeholders' requirements and deploy them into their curriculum by expanding the scope to the other areas in all disciplines.

Keywords:  Bologna Process, European Higher Education Area, QFD, Curriculum Development, Business Administration, Quantitative Methods

Curriculum Planning for Education in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
Lars Oliver Mautsch, Georg Herzwurm, Ph.D., Benedikt Krams, and Sixten Schockert of Universität Stuttgart, GERMANY

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is nowadays dominated by the major software producers and tends to be product-driven and solution-oriented. This research presents an approach for planning a more customer-oriented education in ERP software through the use of QFD techniques and by focusing on  the most valuable modules within an education. Matrix consistency rules are applied so as to ensure identified customer requirements are met by the service offering of the university and to avoid wasting of scarce resources. A House of Quality (HoQ) matrix and pair-wise comparison are among the methods that will be shown.

Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning, Education, Curriculum Planning, QFD

Application of QFD to Curriculum Planning of Vocational Education by Catherine Y. P. Chan, QFD Green Belt®; Gail Taylor; and W. C. Ip of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Keywords: QFD; vocational education; course development; curriculum design; Modern QFD techniques; AHP

Winner of 2007 Akao Scholarship for QFD. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for applying QFD to curriculum planning for vocational education. A study on the content planning of an in-house staff development program illustrates the application method, which can be  useful to vocational education institutions in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Application of QFD in Engineering Education: Assurance of Learning Outcomes Fulfillment by Zbigniew Prusak, Ph. D., Central Connecticut State University, USA

Keywords: engineering education; learning outcomes; Bloom’s Taxonomy; engineering design

Principles of QFD used in assessment of engineering students’ activities during classroom and laboratory instruction. Twenty two types of student activities were analyzed for their contribution toward fulfillment of thirty learning outcomes. Each type of student activity was also assessed in terms of its level according to Bloom’s taxonomy in senior level courses in engineering design and manufacturing processes. Design projects, concept generation, individual formal presentations and forensic studies proved to be the most universal activities, developing a wide range of professional skills.

Design of a Methodology to Elaborate Curriculo CIM of the Industrial Engineer in Spain, Based on QFD by Isabel Melina Balderrama Durán, Institut Quimic de Sarria, Spain / Bolivia

Keywords: Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM); Delphi method; QFD; industrial engineering curriculum design

Developing a methodology that will allow construction of industrial engineering curriculum that teaches Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) technology requires the support of methods like QFD and other tools such as Delphi, Diagrams of Affinity, Analysis of Systematization of the hierarchy, etc. This research uses QFD and Delphi methods to design a CIM curriculum, translating industry requirements into design characteristics of an online course.

QFD-based Curriculum Planning for Vocational Education by Catherine Y. P. Chan, QFD Green Belt®, Institute of Textiles & Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.

Originally set up by the government in the “Golden Age” of manufacturing, the vocational education institutions in Hong Kong are struggling to adapt to the profound changes brought by today's global market. It will show how QFD enables a paradigm shift in vocational education to face a changing world and how Modern QFD tools and methods can be applied to college curriculum design. The paper reports the concept, system, tools and the mechanism of incorporating Modern QFD into curriculum planning, as well as a pilot study using Blitz QFD® to identify important industry-specific knowledge. A Customer Voice Table for identifying the job needs of the clothing industry, Affinity Diagram, Customer Needs Hierarchy table, and Maximum Value Table are also included.

The Applicability of QFD for Designing Vocational Courses for Clothing Industry in Hong Kong.  Yin Ping (Catherine) Chan, Dr. K. Chan, and Dr. S. F. Chan, Institute of Textiles & Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.

For decades, the Hong Kong clothing industry has been a leading supplier of clothing within the developed world as the receiving end of the global outsourcing practice. Now their position is being threatened by emerging countries that offer even cheaper labor and business costs. The socio-economic changes in the last two decades, coupled with the structural transformation of the clothing industry since the late 1980s, had put an end to the “Era of Quantity.” Declining local exports, together with the recent government policy to reduce the financial support, have accelerated the industry's need for change. As the “Era of Quality” begins, the Hong Kong Vocational Education and Training (VETC) institutions can no longer remain just production centers. They must become commercial enterprises. The usefulness of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) for improving various aspects of education has been demonstrated by numerous studies.This presentation will report how one Hong Kong VETC institution is trying to embark on a new strategic direction through application of QFD to develop new courses that would best serve their customers in this changing global market and to prepare graduates who would carry on the future of the Hong Kong clothing industry.

e-Learning System for QFD with improving contents and mentoring in "e-TQM" Project. Masanobu Yoshikawa, Yoshimichi Watanabe, and Hisakazu Shindo of University of Yamanashi, Japan; Masao Takeshita of Japanese Standards Association; and Naofumi Takayama of SYNC Information System Co., Ltd., Japan. This research examines the learning patterns of the students participating in the Internet-based e-learning programs in order to develop an effective online TQM course that provides both support and educational ease to the students, as well as evaluation formula and quality control. It examined these issues: (1) How to automatically collect data on students' learning process; (2) How to analyze the data so we can find ways to improve the content and learning; and (3) How to discourage students from retiring. The result is an e-learning system for an online TQM course that alerts instructors when to update the contents, when to mentor students, and. The finding has been implemented in some of the online courses offered by the Japanese Standard Association.

Deploying and integrating education system indicators with QFD - An  Application Case. Ricardo Hirata Okamoto, Provisional QFD Black  Belt^® and José Carlos Arce Riobóo, Provisional QFD Black  Belt^®, Keisen Consultores, S.A., de C.V., México.   This paper will present the Comprehensive QFD approach that has been undertaken at the Education Ministry of the State of Guanajuato in México (SEG) in order to identify specific strategies for improvements in the nation's educational system and manage them. The study will examine a various indicators of the educational delivery system including the central and local governments, internal processes of the management, administration, schools, and financial and societal impacts. The final phase of this effort will use the Balanced Score Card to implement a management information system that would monitor the whole educational indicators system, as well as SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in data processing).

Application of QFD to Developing Education Products for Northern Australia Beef Producers   by Shane Blakeley, Rural Production Systems Pty Ltd, Mick Quirk, John Bertram, Felicity McIntosh, Queensland Beef Industry Institute, Department of Primary Industries, Bob Hunt, Centre for Management Innovation and Technology, Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Australia. In two separate projects, Meat and Livestock Australia and the Queensland Beef Industry Institute used QFD to determine the education needs of beef producers with regards to beef cattle nutrition and to grazing land management. The first time such a process had been conducted within this industry, the projects provide insights into issues critical to the success of North Australian beef production enterprises. These insights have enabled the organizations to design and deliver education products to enhance skills and consequently profitability of those producers.

Using QFD to Research the Demanded Quality of Students for Lectures by Professor Kozo Koura of Asahi University, Japan. Today, improvement and innovation in education at the university level has begun to spread through Japanese universities. We are seeing a more market-in style of lectures as a two way street between teacher and students instead of a one way product-out style from the professor to the students. Students should be recognized as consumers and the lectures need to meet their requirements. This research is a case study of analysis of "opinionaires" for lecture production control using QFD. The voice of the students was translated into demanded quality deployment and measures deployment was developed from teacher experiments. A quality chart combines both deployments. Importance and weights of planned and designed quality were calculated and a Pareto Analysis implemented. The results were very useful information for the professor.

Using Service Blueprinting and Quality Function Deployment in Restructuring Educational Service Processes by Dr. Klaes Eringa of The Christelijke Hogeschool Noord-Nederland, Leeuwarden and Ms. Isolde L. J. Boer of Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Faculty of Business Administration, The Netherlands. The Christelijke Hogeschool Noord-Nederland has launched a TQM project aiming to restructure educational processes tailored to students’ needs. Service Blueprinting maps both the students’ learning process and supporting organizational processes. QFD translates students’ needs into service process specifications, emphasizing the service encounters. The integration of QFD and Service Blueprinting attempts to improve the student perceived quality of service processes.

QFD-Building Quality Into English Universities, M. Clayton, Aston University.  Aston University is testing the power of QFD as a tool to ensure that customer needs are reflected at each stage of the design, development and execution of degree programs. Initial experimentation is taking place in the Dept. of Vision Sciences. Market share issues are being addressed through planning cost-effective, high-quality learning for optometrists throughout their career, beginning with undergraduate study. This paper reports on progress, including definition of "quality" in universities.

Using QFD for Curriculum Design, J. Hillman and F. Plonka.   QFD principles are being applied to design an engineering education curriculum. To determine a reasonable 'product life cycle,' i.e., a typical career for a manufacturing engineer in this case, four elements - career, competencies, roles, and knowledge - were examined as well as their relationships. The paper reports the application process of this on-going project.

QFD in the Development of Engineering Studies, Per Nilsson, Bengt Lofgren, and Gunnar Erixon, Centre of Industrial Engineering and Management, CITU, University College of Falun Borlange, Sweden.   Shorter development time, the need to satisfy customer needs and demands, and increasing competition. These are common requirements of today's products and product development processes. The same kind of requirements might also be put on the engineering students passing through an educational system. This analogy has been used in the planning of engineering studies at this Swedish university programs. This paper reports the use of QFD in developing an education a system that provides high quality engineers well adapted to a productive life and capable of life-long learning.

Integrating The CustomerÕs Voice To Improve Educational Services Through QFD, M. Grimes, J. Malmberg, and G. LaBine, Lakeshore Technical College.  Lakeshore Technical College selected as a priority for 1992-93 school year to complete a comprehensive study, identify alternatives, and develop recommendations to address the school's facilities needs. QFD was chosen as the methodology to be used. The paper reports the progress made to date, the role of QFD in looking at a problem in an nontraditional way, and the unexpected outcomes that resulted.

QFD to Design a Course in TQM at the University of Michigan, Glenn Mazur, Japan Business Consultants, Ltd.  Presented at 1996 IAQ, Yokohama, Japan. Identifies university customers and deploys their needs to curriculum and class format.