QFD Papers on Social Issues

To view all abstracts, please visit QFD Symposia Transactions.

Context Sensitive Solutions: The Application of QFD for Developing Public Transportation Projects in the U.S. by Theodore Hopwood II, P.E., Kentucky Transportation Center, University of Kentucky, USA; Glenn H. Mazur, QFD Red Belt®, The QFD Institute, USA.

Keywords: Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) and QFD; community Voice of the Customers (VoC); sustainable development; QFD for transportation and civil engineering projects; QFD for public projects; Modern QFD

For many years, the selection of transportation routes, design of roadway features, etc. were based mostly on engineering considerations. QFD has developed since the 1960s a powerful tool set for new product development that enables engineers to listen to the Voice of the Customer and translate the most important needs into design requirements and then assure their quality in the resulting goods and services. This paper will show how QFD tools can be adapted for Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) and Design in road building and other large projects.

LORD (Local Opportunity – Regional Development) and TASQUAM (Technical Assistance Services Quality Management) : Applying QFD-based Applications for Quality Management of  Technical Assistance Services in Regional Development Areas.  Witold Edmond Witowski, Ph.D., Ministry of Economic Affairs & Labor, Poland.

In Poland, over 400 business support organizations have applied for assessment and accreditation from the National Support Systems program overseen by the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Labour since its initiation in 1996. The program provides public financing to regional and local development projects and related technical assistance, training, and other services.This involves a significant amount of public funding that the Ministry is responsible for managing. A budget of 900.000.000 EUR is allocated for Small and Medium Enterprise technical assistance alone for the period of 2005-2008. Additionally, over 1,500.000.000 EUR will be spent on human resource development activities including trainings and advisory services, and over 3.000.000.000 EUR on regional and local development projects.It is important, therefore, to implement a clear and transparent method for evaluating the projects and programs in such way that efficiency and adequacy of public money spending can be accounted for. EU Directives of Polish regulations also recommend applying quality factors for programming, contracting and evaluating public-financed projects. Hence, a QFD-based methodology was developed to address the specific problems of the Technical Assistance services as well as compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 requirements. The author of this paper has used this method since 1996 and states that it could be also used as a tool for creating, evaluating, and improving quality systems. The presentation will include the modification details and application history and examples.

Large Scale System Redesign Using QFD. Robert Gerst, Converge Consulting Group Inc., Canada. This paper will report QFD applications in the public sector large system design. It will describe the consulting firm's experience in using QFD to: 1) analyze and redesign the system of funding and service delivery in providing support for those living with HIV/AIDS in southern Alberta; and 2) analyze the entire social and health services (human services) system for the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta; and 3) analyze and redesign the system for providing services to the deaf and hard of hearing in the city of Calgary. The resulting benefits and reactions of the local government agencies are also included in the report, as well as other potential areas of QFD application.

Adapting QFD for Evaluating Employment Initiatives.  Geert M.J. Clijsters, Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Belgium; Maurice J. Oude Wansink, OWP Research, The Netherlands; Ludo M.K. Peeters, Limburg University Centre, Belgium; and Wolfgang E. Baaske, Studienzentrum für Internationale Analysen, Austria. QFD is applied to obtain quality scores for local employment initiatives, enabling them to monitor, evaluate and benchmark themselves. Calculating quality scores of products (employment initiatives), instead of identifying core quality characteristics (performance measures) expands the standard application possibilities of QFD. However, several methodological issues arise due to this extension of the methodology. In order to overcome scaling problems, the authors introduce a nonparametric approach to scale efficiency. Nevertheless, some other problems could not be solved yet within the framework of this research and are pointed out for further research. This publication partly refers to the interim results of the European project Evaluation Tools in Support of Local Commitment for Employment, a European Community funded project with partners in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands and Austria.

QFD and Administrative Knowledge Management. Yoji Akao, Ph.D. and Kei Inayoshi, Lecturer, Faculty of Management Studies, Asahi University. This Keynote proposes the use of Knowledge Management to accommodate the short and long-term needs of citizens. Traditional QFD tools such as Scene Deployment, Affinity Diagrams, AHP, and Quality Tables will be employed to identify and prioritize public sector job functions and detailed governmental tasks.

BEST Deployment: Desperately Seeking an Integrative Solution for Critical Times by Dr. Rick L. Edgeman, QUEST Teaching Professor & Executive Director - QUEST Program, Robert H. Smith School of Business University of Maryland; Douglas A. Hensler. W. Edwards Deming Professor of Engineering Management, Lockheed-Martin Engineering Management Program, College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, University of Colorado - Boulder; Glenn Mazur, Executive Director, QFD Institute.  This paper examines environmental, economic, social, and technical sustainability as a model for future business excellence. It tries to link best business practices as defined by EFQM, Baldrige, and even Deming to the future of humanity. QFD can light the path for both sustainability and customer satisfaction.

The Application of Quality Function Deployment In the Los Angeles River Rescue Task Force by Kathleen Butler, Robert Litwin, John Marzec, Rocketdyne, Rockwell International Tony Ennis, Los Angeles City Fire Department.   Each year, on average, six people drown in the L.A. area flood control system. After a highly publicized tragedy in 1992, the City Council formed the River Rescue Task Force. One of the objectives was to develop new technology as may be necessary to assure rescue of people from the flood channels. QFD was used as a means to sort through the various concepts. Rocketdyne provided training and team facilitation to the Task Force as they worked through the QFD process. They have completed the House of Quality and the Pugh concept selection. Prototypes will be tested and recommendations made to the City council.

Application of QFD to a "Soft" Issue by Jonh Crossley, The Clorox Company.   The Clorox Technical Center Health and Safety Team had a concern. But an unusual application of the QFD process quickly solved the problem. The paper describes how QFD was able to surface the cause of the H&S committee's problems and allow them to develop a recommendation, that in combination with other data from the analysis, resulted in a much improved system.