Abstract
In the earlier days, civil and construction engineering projects were perceived to be purely technical. That is, engineers were focused on the technicalities like the specifications, the design, the materials, the strength of the construction materials, the equipments needed and the processes involved. However, as technologies improved and the demand of clients increased, projects, even it is technical in nature, have required business skills, thus project management emerged. Project management basically involves the business side of a project as well as the legal, ethical, and social aspects. Engineers today are required to hone not only technical skills but also business skills such as having an understanding of the market, good leadership in handling team members, and management skills to ensure that the projects do not only meet technical requirements but equally important, satisfied customers and are competitive enough to have the advantage against the competitors in the industry.
Due to these requirements, the construction industry has learned to integrate what is called Quality Function Deployment (QFD) with every construction projects it engages. QFD was first conceived in the 1960s for automobile manufacturing industry in Japan, by Yoji Akao, as a method or concept for new product development (Akao, 1997). After that many manufacturing industry in America and Europe adopted the concept to improve project management in their companies, focusing on the design quality and customer satisfaction.
For this study, how and why QFD was adopted in the construction industry is determined since it was initially created for the manufacturing industry. The paper focuses on how QFD is implemented in construction projects and its importance in the success of a project. The primary objective of the paper is to demonstrate how QFD is being implemented by Project Managers in construction projects.
The paper is organized as follows: the first part is an overview of QFD, its origin, definition, concept and application, while the second part is the background on construction project management which includes the practices in construction projects especially the practices involves in assuring that the project is at the best quality possible, that is there is time management and proper budgeting. The third section focuses on how QFD helped in improving the practices in project management in construction, exploring the advantages of QFD and its downsides if there was any. At the end of the study, a strong conclusion is established.
The paper uses secondary sources such as published articles and earlier studies as well as case studies of different construction projects where implementation of QFD has been successful.
1. Introduction
Companies have been seeking and adopting different practices to address the increasing demands of consumers today. These demands have become more complex due to the rapid development of technology, globalization and improved lifestyle. Different practices have emerged since the time of industrialization. These practices were adopted for cost reduction, improved processes, improved quality, increased customer satisfaction and to address fierce competition in the global market.
Before, companies can only compete if they have enough financial and physical resources to support the needs of a company as well as human resources to develop innovative products that can attract customers. But today, it is not enough that you have these resources. It is also important and necessary that companies adopt strategies and practices to maximize and take advantage on the available resources. This has been the reason why some small companies have expanded and developed into larger companies. These small companies have learned to deploy strategies and practices needed for the improvement of the company, in developing new products, in finding ways on how to maximize available technologies for the advantage of the company and to attract customers that make the business profitable.
Manufacturing companies are the first to developed practices in search for strategies on how to improve the products and services they provide the customers and to improve the processes to be able to save resources. The Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management (TQM), Keiretsu, outsourcing, custom-built manufacturing, direct marketing and other are just some of the popular practices and strategies today. These practices are applied on different processes and business aspects where they are applicable and when aligned with the vision and mission of the company.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is one of the practices that were adopted by manufacturing companies today not only in Japan where it was originated but also in the United States and other countries. It has been proven to be effective in achieving customer satisfaction and improved quality in products and in processes. QFD is not only effective in the manufacturing industries but also in the service industry such as business consultancy, telecommunication and engineering and construction services.
This study is focused on the application of Quality Function Deployment in the engineering and construction services more specifically in project management. The paper investigates on the views and perception of project managers on QFD as well as its advantages on a project in construction and engineering.
2. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) 2.1 Origin of QFD
There were already manufacturing companies in Japan even after the World War II. This was the time when statistical quality control (SQC), was the central quality activity of companies especially in manufacturing (Akao, 1997). SQC was used extensively in the chemical industry in Japan (Ofuji et al, 1990), which in that case, quality control focused more on production, on how to improve the products and ensure quality on the products they produce using statistical data, whereas, statistical data were only obtained after all the products are produced. Manufacturing industries in Japan grew rapidly especially the automotive sector thus new practices were introduced and SQC was changed to Total Quality Management (TQM) in the years between 1960 to 1965 (Yamamoto et al, 2005). This change was driven by the effort of Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa who promoted the Company Wide Quality Control movement by convincing the top management of companies that employee participation is important in achieving quality control (Akao, 1997).
During this time, Yoji Akao presented the concept and method of QFD just in time for the rapid growth of the Japanese mobile industry, which was undergoing extensive change, from product imitation to new product development and model changes (Akao, 1997).
The concept of QFD was conceived to address the following issues: (1) people started to recognize the importance of design quality, but there are no available books about the importance of design quality during that time; and (2) companies were already using quality control (QC) process charts which was conceived from SQC, but theses charts were produced at the manufacturing site after the new products were released (Akao, 1997).
Akao wanted to address these issues due to the realization that there should be predetermined control points during the design process before the production activity. That is there should be quality assurance even before the production processes. Mr. Kiyota Oshiumi of Bridgestone tire Corporation presented a process assurance items table in 1966[1], which showed the links form substitute quality characteristic which were converted from true qualities, to the process factors (Akao, 1997). From this, he added a field called Design Viewpoints to create a new table that can be used in new product development (Akao, 1997).
Akao’s idea was introduced to different companies followed by the publication of his article entitled “New Product Development and Quality Assurance- Quality Deployment System”[2] where his concept and ideas were described (Akao, 1997). He used the term hinshitsu tenkai, which means quality deployment, to describe the method to deploy important quality assurance points before the production to ensure the design quality throughout the production process (Akao, 1997). His idea of quality deployment (QD), however, was still not enough to set up design quality.
The Kobe Shipyards of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, with the guidance of Dr. Mizuno and Dr. Furukawa (Takayanagi, 1972), created a quality chart that resolved the inadequacy of Akao’s QD. Their table, which was made public, was considered to be a table that systematized the true quality and satisfied customers’ needs, in terms of functions (Akao, 1997). The table also showed the relationship between the functions that satisfy customers and the quality characteristics (Akao, 1997).
This meant that QFD technically was not only Akao’s idea but also that of Mizuno, Furukawa, and Oshiumi who each had their contributions to the development of QFD. These integrated ideas were called Quality Deployment (QD), which became Quality Function Deployment overtime. Akao himself defined QD as a methodology that converts user demands into substitute quality characteristics, determines the design quality of the finished good, and systematically deploys this quality into component quality, individual quality and process elements and their relationships (Akao, 1990). Dr. Mizuno also correlated QFD from Value Engineering to link QFD on business processes. Mizuno described QFD as a step-by-step deployment of a job function or operation that embodies quality into their details through systematization of targets and means (Akao, Mizuno, & Shigeru, 1978).
In 1983, QF was adopted by America and Europe when an Akao’s article was published in the journal of the American Society of Quality Control called Quality Progress (Akao, 1997) followed by a seminar in Chicago[3] and some other lectures not only in America but also in Europe. The American automotive industry had begun adopting QFD after knowing its significance in the manufacturing industry. It was even translated as Quality Function Evolution in 1978 (Akao, Mizuno, & Shigeru, 1978) by a researcher at an American university the term Quality Function Deployment was the most appropriate term according to Mr. Masaaki (Akao, 1997).
2.2 Quality Function Deployment Defined
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is defined as a technique to deploy customer requirements into design characteristics and deploy them into subsystems, components, materials, and production processes (Hoyle, 1998). This implies that the requirements of the customer will be the bases of the product design as well as the materials and components of the products a company provides. QFD is basically considered as part of strategic management, in which it is a strategy of addressing customer satisfaction.
QFD requires that before a product or service is manufactured or processed and presented to the customers, the requirements of the customers are known beforehand and have integrated with the technical aspects of the product or service. Traditionally, the company or the engineers in particular are the ones who design the product because they have the knowledge enough to create products and services. But today, the trend is that the knowledge of engineers or the product designers are aligned with the customer requirements. For example, a personal computer (PC) manufacturer knows the technicalities of making a computer, the design and the processes that a PC must undergo to function properly, but customers required that their PCs can be brought anywhere, so it should be small and compact, thus PC manufacturers created laptops and palmtops.
Another example is with automobile; there are customers who want their cars big and tough while others want elegant and small cars, thus car manufacturers developed ways and methods on how to determine and assess these requirements, integrate these to the designs and development while ensuring quality. The qualities we are referring to are the qualities that can satisfy the end-user. These are the reasons behind the development of QFD: the correlation and integration of customer requirements in the design and processes of products and services to ensure that customers are satisfied because one of the objectives of a business must be customer satisfaction. These requirements must be translated into design values, or the needs of the customers must be translated into technical characteristics.
It was also a tradition that quality assurance is done by inspecting the products after it has been made. In QFD, from the design stage up to the sales, quality is assured, that is company shifted from inspecting the product’s quality to designing quality into the product (Guinta et al, 1993).
According to Sullivan (1986) every company’s operation including marketing, planning, design and engineering, prototype evaluation, production process development, production, sales and others should be driven by the “voice of the customer”. The definition of QFD to Hauser and Clausing (1988) gives more emphasis on organizational communication; that is “quality function deployment focuses and coordinates skills within an organization, first to design, then to manufacture and market goods that customers want to purchase and will continue to purchase.
[1] Oshiumi Kiyotaka. 1966. “Perfecting Quality Assurance System in Plants,” (Japanese) Quality
Control Vol. 17 (May 1966): 62-67
[2] Published in 1972 in Standardization and Quality Control Vol. 25, No. 4. pp. 7-14
[3] Akao Yoji, Kogure Masao, and Yasushi Furukawa. 1983. Seminar on Company-Wide Quality
Control and Quality Deployment. Oct. 31-Nov. 3, 1983. The Arlington Park Hilton. Chicago.
Sponsored by the Cambridge Corporation and co-sponsored by ASQC.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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