Quality function deployment in management information systems

This paper utilizes QFD concepts as a structured approach in integrating the customer\u27s voice in the development of software and hardware products. QFD\u27s emphasis is a team approach to problem solving by various functional areas of a company to develop information technology tools by improving communication, product development, and measurements of end products

Information Quality Measurement Using Quality Function Deployment – A Korean Case Study

Contemporary business organizations understand the criticality of quality of data, yet they struggle to enhance it. Establishing, enhancing, and maintaining data quality in organizational information systems has been the focus research and industry for the last two decades. There is, however, nothing denying the fact that improvements in information quality require its objective assessment. This objectivity is necessitated due to the range of information quality dimensions, where lacking quality in each dimension affects other dimensions. Therefore, such an assessment provides for actionable learning that facilitates tangible improvements in system and practice. This paper presents a case study on assessment of information quality in a manufacturing organization. It utilizes product perspective of information applied to six sigma methodology, analytical hierarchy process to find the correlation between various information quality dimensions, and quality function deployment to develop critical to quality trees

Application of quality function deployment in redesigning website: A case study on TV3

Internet technology has been used by most of the organizations in the world today. One of the primary vehicles of information gathering and dissemination in today’s world is organizational website. This research evaluates the performance of the present TV3 (a popular private television station in Malaysia) website. By means of an on-line survey and a few focus group discussions, it also identifies the website viewer requirements and their corresponding importance level. Subsequently, the technical requirements are identified that can fulfill the viewer requirements. A House of Quality (HOQ) is built to find the relationship between the viewer and technical requirements. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) exercise provides the prioritized technical requirements, which is expected to guide the TV3 website development and maintenance team in its future website redesigning project. The findings of the research are also expected to provide some insight in other organizations in similar need.Quality Function Deployment; Website development; Erbsite quality evaluation; TV3;Malaysia

Improvement to quality function deployment methodology : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Statistics at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Content removed from thesis due to copyright restrictions: Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., Govindaraju, K., & Campbell-Allen, N. M. (2016). A distance-based methodology for increased extraction of information from the roof matrices in QFD studies. International Journal of Production Research, 54(11), 3277-3293. doi:10.1080/00207543.2015.1094585 Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., & Govindaraju. (2017). Performing competitive analysis in QFD studies using multipole moments and bootstrap sampling. Quality Engineering, 29(2), 311-321. doi:10.1080/08982112.2016.1181181 Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., Govindaraju, K., & Campbell-Allen, N. (2014). Statistical comparison of final weight scores in quality function deployment (QFD) studies. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 31(2), 184-204. doi:10.1108/IJQRM-06-2013-0092 Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., Govindaraju, K., & Campbell-Allen, N. M. (2015). Enhancing prioritisation of technical attributes in quality function deployment, 64(3), 398-415. doi.10.1108/IJPPM-10-2014-0156Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a quality improvement methodology which translates true customer requirements into technical solutions. The major purposes in implementing QFD are enhancing quality, decreasing production cycle time, and lowering costs. QFD methodology utilises a system of matrix like structures known as the House of Quality (HOQ) which work collectively to determine final weightings of the technical characteristics. The derivation of final weights of the technical characteristics and their prioritisation is the final key in QFD process. One of the main theoretical difficulties in employing QFD is that it deals with multidimensional categorical (ordinal) data variables. The rating data of these categorical variables varies from person to person and case study to case study. In prioritising the technical characteristics, QFD practitioners often fail to fully integrate the diverse information extractable from ordinal data and ignore some sections of QFD, House of Quality (HOQ). It is also observed that in each matrix of QFD-HOQ, numerous heuristics have been introduced to suppress the variation, uncertainty and vagueness. During the QFD process, any mistakes such as selection and interpretation of rating scales, application of methods, or integration of various matrices can fail the whole process. In this project with the rationale to improve QFD methodology, a systematic emphasis is placed on the following issues i) Application of methods, procedures, techniques for the appropriate selection of likert scales within each matrix of QFD-HOQ. ii) Application to each matrix, data and their integration towards statistically valid conclusions. iii) Close observation and interpretation of the final prioritisation of technical characteristics (TCs), and its enhancement

Augmenting the Participatory Design Concept in Systems Development

Participatory Design (PD) is an effective tool for designing organizational systems where views, aspirations and the input of both the system users and developers are sought and reconciled in the development of a system. This paper attempts to highlight and identify the fit between the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as applied in systems development and the tools of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as applied in manufacturing and how that fit does enhance Participatory Design in systems development. By recognizing the complementarities of the tools of these two approaches (SSM and QFD), we can enhance Participatory Design in systems development. Findings from literature review show that a comprehensive application of this concept is yet to be done in information systems development. The approach builds on the seven phases of Soft Systems Methodology by applying the Quality Function Deployment techniques to elicit information from complex and amorphous real-world situations to augment the Participatory Design process.Keywords: Participatory Design; Soft Systems Methodology; Quality Function Deployment; House of Qualit

Developing quality heathcare software using quality function deployment: A case study based on Sultan Qaboos University Hospital

Development of software is one of the most expensive projects undertaken in practice. Traditionally, the rate of failure in software development projects is higher compared to other kinds of projects. This is partly due to the failure in determining software users’ requirements. By using Quality Function Deployment (QFD), this research focuses on identification and prioritization of users’ requirements in the context of developing quality health-care software system for Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) in Oman. A total of 95 staff working at eight departments of SQUH were contacted and they were requested to provide their requirements in using hospital information systems. Analytic Hierarchy Process has been integrated with QFD for prioritizing those user requirements. Then, in consultation with a number of software engineers, a list consisting of 30 technical requirements was generated. These requirements are divided into seven categories and all of them are purported to satisfy the user needs. At the end of QFD exercise, continuous mirror backup from backup category, multi-level access from the security and confidentiality category, linkage to databases from application category emerge as technical requirements having higher weights. These technical requirements should receive considerable attention when designing the health-care software system for SQUH.Software quality; Quality function deployment; Healthcare software; Analytic Hierarchy Process

Eco-design case-based reasoning tool: the integration of ecological quality function deployment and case-based reasoning methods for supporting sustainable product design

Several methods and tools have been developed to facilitate sustainable product design, but they lack critical application of the ecological design (eco-design) process and economic costing, particularly during the conceptual design phase. This research study overcomes these deficiencies by integrating eco-design approaches across all phases of the product life cycle. It proposes an eco-design case-based reasoning tool that is integrated with the recently developed ecological quality function deployment method, which supports sustainable product design. The eco-design case-based reasoning tool is an intuitive decision-support tool that complements the ecological quality function deployment method and proposes solutions related to customers’ requirements and the environmental and economic impacts of the product. The ecological quality function deployment method ensures that customers’ needs are considered within the context of product sustainability. The novelty of this article is in the development of the eco-design case-based reasoning tool which is based on the premise that if experiences from the ecological quality function deployment process can be captured in some useful form, designers can refer to and learn from them. This approach helps industrial decision-makers propose solutions by reusing solutions from similar cases and from their past experiences. The novelty is in the way the cases are structured and new cases are generated, using life-cycle assessments, cost estimations, and information about related manufacturing processes and means of transportation. This article demonstrates the applicability of the proposed approach through an industrial case study

Information quality assessment in Korean manufacturing organization

Information quality is a complex problem. Issues relating to information quality are strongly embedded in the context of the operations of information systems. Information quality issues, therefore, have qualitative as well as quantitative underpinnings, which affect on the various dimensions of information quality. In order to improve information quality, it is essential to assess its various dimensions. This assessment provides the gaps that work as the building blocks for improving quality of information. However, assessing information quality dimensions is extremely intricate because each dimension depends upon other dimensions, which makes it difficult to objectively assess these dimensions. This research utilizes a product perspective of information and applies Six-Sigma methodology to assess information quality. It describes a case study of a Korean manufacturing organization where analytical hierarchy process and quality function deployment was utilized to determine the mutual relationships of information quality dimensions and critical to information quality factors.<br /

Information Quality Assessment in Korean manufacturing Organization

Information quality is a complex problem. Issues relating to information quality are strongly embedded in the context of the operations of information systems. Information quality issues, therefore, have qualitative as well as quantitative underpinnings, which affect on the various dimensions of information quality. In order to improve information quality, it is essential to assess its various dimensions. This assessment provides the gaps that work as the building blocks for improving quality of information. However, assessing information quality dimensions is extremely intricate because each dimension depends upon other dimensions, which makes it difficult to objectively assess these dimensions. This research utilizes a product perspective of information and applies Six-Sigma methodology to assess information quality. It describes a case study of a Korean manufacturing organization where analytical hierarchy process and quality function deployment was utilized to determine the mutual relationships of information quality dimensions and critical to information quality factors