Executing Quality Management Tools to Enhance Customer’s Journey at a Clothes Laundry Firm

Purpose: This project aims to assess and enhance the customer’s journey at a laundry company in Saudi Arabia from when the customer arrives at the parking lot of the laundry store until receiving the services and payment. Design, methodology, approach: A mixed-method approach was employed, in which qualitative data were gathered from focus group interviews and solo interviews, and quantitative data were gathered through the survey. Moreover, Quality Management Tools were used to build the action plan and offer conclusions and recommendations that would enhance the customer’s journey and improve satisfaction. Findings: Services quality issues are categorized into five categories: promotions, human resources; services; detergent products, and facilities. House of Quality represents the highest 15 prioritized solutions. These recommended solutions' relative weights range between 9% to 4%. The use of these tools highlights areas for improvement and the root causes of each issue. The seven quality tools are trustworthy tools to conquer challenges faced by the company and may be effective in improving service quality to positively strengthen organizational performance, customer satisfaction, and success. Originality, value: There are limited studies practically employing the seven Quality Management Tools to enhance customer satisfaction and improve their journey. The Saudi laundry market specifically has a dearth of this type of study. Furthermore, this market has seen rapid growth since it is known as a part of the SME sector in recent few years

Executing Quality Management Tools to Enhance Customer’s Journey at a Clothes Laundry Firm

Purpose: This project aims to assess and enhance the customer’s journey at a laundry company in Saudi Arabia from when the customer arrives at the parking lot of the laundry store until receiving the services and payment. Design, methodology, approach: A mixed-method approach was employed, in which qualitative data were gathered from focus group interviews and solo interviews, and quantitative data were gathered through the survey. Moreover, Quality Management Tools were used to build the action plan and offer conclusions and recommendations that would enhance the customer’s journey and improve satisfaction. Findings: Services quality issues are categorized into five categories: promotions, human resources; services; detergent products, and facilities. House of Quality represents the highest 15 prioritized solutions. These recommended solutions' relative weights range between 9% to 4%. The use of these tools highlights areas for improvement and the root causes of each issue. The seven quality tools are trustworthy tools to conquer challenges faced by the company and may be effective in improving service quality to positively strengthen organizational performance, customer satisfaction, and success. Originality, value: There are limited studies practically employing the seven Quality Management Tools to enhance customer satisfaction and improve their journey. The Saudi laundry market specifically has a dearth of this type of study. Furthermore, this market has seen rapid growth since it is known as a part of the SME sector in recent few years

Asiakaslähtöisen tuotekehityksen hyödyntäminen Lean Startup -metodissa

Kandidaatintyö on kirjallisuuskatsaus, jossa käsitellään asiakaslähtöistä tuotekehitystä ja Lean Startup -metodia sekä yhdistetään niitä toisiinsa. Asiakaslähtöinen tuotekehi-tys eli QFD on 1960—luvulla kehitetty ideologia uuden tuotteen kehittämiseen ja tuomiseen markkinoille. Tässä työssä keskitytään moderniin QFD:hen, joka on uudis-tettu versio asiakaslähtöisestä tuotekehityksestä. Lean Startup puolestaan on Eric Rie-sin 2011 esitelty startup-yritysten tuotekehitykseen kohdennettu työkalu. Molemmissa metodeissa on tunnistettu hyviä ja huonoja puolia, joita pyritään kompensoimaan pro-sessien yhdistämisellä. Työssä syvennytään molempiin yhdistettäviin metodeihin syvällisesti sekä tutkitaan niiden hyviä ja huonoja puolia sekä taustoja. Työ on rajattu koskemaan kahta kyseistä metodia, joten sen pohjalta pyritään luomaan tiivis ja eheä kokonaisuus. Tutkimuksen lähteet pyritään rajaamaan viimeisen kymmenen vuoden ajalle, sillä tuotekehityspro-sessit kehittyvät jatkuvasti ja Lean Startup -metodi on ollut esillä kirjallisuudessa vain muutaman vuoden ajan. Työn tavoite on yhdistää metodit toisiinsa ja täten luoda prosessimalli, joka mahdol-listaa uuden tuotteen tuotekehityksen ja takaa sen onnistumisen. Prosessien heikkouk-sia pyritään kompensoimaan toisen metodin vahvuuksilla. Samalla pyritään ottamaan huomioon ja ehkäisemään kaikki mahdolliset kompastuskivet prosesseissa. Lopuksi keskitytään metodien yhdistämisestä saataviin hyötyihin sekä siihen, mitä hyötyä yri-tys saa käyttäessään yhdistettyä prosessia

Uncovering the Link Between Effectuation and Design Thinking in Early Stage Startups

This thesis looks at the research question - “what is the link between effectuation and design thinking in the entrepreneurial process?”. It answers this question, first with a comprehensive look at existing literature and theory on the two concepts and follows that with empirical research to determine if the question can be answered in practice. The empirical research is done in the form of a multi case study, with nineteen early stage startup entrepreneurs, with all but one of them being based in Finland and running their startup in this context. The cross case analysis revealed that the research question can be successfully answered in the affirmative - there are clear links between effectuation and design thinking. The findings section covers the 5 main findings which include links between “means” with the “challenge”, “goals” with “discover” and “define”, and also how “affordable loss” and “leveraging surprises” influences the “develop” and “deliver” elements of design thinking. These findings, when compared to existing theory, reveal practical validation for some existing concepts while also providing new theoretical contributions for others. Based on these findings, a hybrid, effectual design process model is proposed, which aims to account for the criticisms and gaps in the individual theoretical constructs by blending their strengths to cover for their weaknesses. Overall, this research provides strong evidence of the link between the theoretical constructs and suggestions on its relevance to practical application, entrepreneurial education and more. It also provides avenues for future research that can build on this and provide an even more comprehensive process structure on the path to creating a unified entrepreneurial process

Role of prosumer driven 3D food printing in innovating food value chains

Digital platforms have created an impact in almost all facets of our life in a short period. Today, they are an integral and critical part of consumer experience. When combined with revolutionary 3d printing technology, these platforms are great enablers of prosumption, i.e., production undertaken by consumers. The associated paradigm change is already visible in the specialized goods sector. With the emergence of 3d food printing technology, similar changes are very much anticipated in the food sector. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to create an understanding on how digitally-driven 3d food printing could be best utilized for food prosumption. Three research questions were raised with an aim of identifying key challenges, and uncertainties in prosumer driven 3d food printing; defining the characteristics and customization parameters of a prosumer platform for 3d food printing; and identifying most potential archetypes and use cases for prosumer-driven 3d food printing. To answer the research questions, 3 research themes were identified, namely food value chain, prosumption, and 3d food printing. After an extensive literature review process based upon the research themes, relevant data were gathered using Mixed Methods Research (MMR) approach. 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from industry and academia. This was followed by a quantitative survey with a pool of respondents from within the identified research themes. Finally, a stakeholder workshop was carried out to finalize and further refine the concepts generated through MMR. Personalized nutrition is found to be an area where 3d food printing has a lot of scope, especially for applications in fitness centres, senior homes, and hospitals. Also, utilization of prosumer driven 3d food printing in fine dining restaurants has one of the highest business potential and feasibility at this point of time. Overall, the research implies that leveraging digital platforms in 3d food printing has the potential to generate futuristic food value chains that are connected, collaborative, data-driven, and transparent

Exploring the role of design thinking in improving patient adherence to self-administered treatment technology

Poor treatment adherence is an increasing challenge for healthcare, especially for chronic diseases and patient-administered treatments. This research has investigated how design thinking can improve adherence in self-administered treatment technology. The study has three main objectives. The first is to investigate the current state of adherence and its involvement in the design process. For this objective, literature about adherence theoretical frameworks, design thinking, and medical technology was reviewed. Also, in five SME case studies, interviews provided evidence of consideration of adherence during the design process. The second objective was to explore consideration of adherence at an early stage of a design process. Postgraduate students on an MA Design project were observed while applying design thinking processes to develop a medical solution. The third objective was to assess a framework though an eDelphi study that built consensus from panellists on adherence factors that influence patient adherence to a treatment technology regimen, and the importance of each factor. A number of gaps were identified after addressing the first objective: 1) a lack of an adherence framework that considers the nature of self-administered treatment technology products, 2) There is a lack of a practical mechanism to consider adherence factors during the design and development of medical treatment technology, and 3) There is a need for a resource that can guide and help companies to consider adherence factors during the design process. Based on the research findings, the study claims two contributions to knowledge: an adherence framework that identifies factors that affect patient-administered technology treatment adherence and their level of importance, and a design-focused adherence canvas, based on the adherence framework (1st claim), which is a practical resource that record how adherence factors are being consideration and their level of importance