The Application of Six Sigma Improvement Process on Enhancement of Product Quality and Service Quality of Internet-Marketing

Abstract Internet marketing is believed to have many advantages over traditional marketing, such as limitless time and boundless distance, low cost and home delivery, and therefore has become another trend of marketing nowadays. It success is determined critically in two aspects: product quality and service quality. Product quality refers to the customer’s acceptability of product’s Research and Development (R&D) and manufacturing at the backstage while service quality means the customer’s acceptability of product’s marketing and maintenance at the proscenium. Most research on customer’s satisfaction on Internet-marketing generally limits itself within product quality and service quality and analyzes and improves customer’s satisfaction through one single aspect. Such method is not able to find critical causal categories on customers’ whole acceptability. Therefore, this study used Six Sigma MAIC (measure, analyze, improve and control) to ameliorate procedure and meanwhile considered product quality and service quality of Internet-marketing in order to establish a system to enhance customer’s whole satisfaction. This study included three steps. First of all, focusing on the product quality at backstage, we conducted a customer acceptability survey (containing dimensions of importance and satisfaction), conducted product quality performance matrix to measure low importance, high satisfaction and high importance, low satisfaction of abnormal products, which determined the reducing or increasing R&D and manufacturing resources for such products. For abnormal products with high importance but low satisfaction, Cause-and-Effect Diagram was used to analyze and identify the critical major causes of such products. Moreover, with focus on importance, satisfaction and process capability of critical major causes, a process-capability performance matrix was established. Then the worst critical main causal category would be the priority target as to enhance and improve R&D and manufacturing resources. Secondly, emphasizing on the survey of the customer’s acceptability at the proscenium, containing dimensions of importance and satisfaction, we conducted service quality performance matrix to measure low importance, high satisfaction and high importance, low satisfaction of abnormal service items, which decided on the reducing or increasing marketing and maintenance resources of such service items. For abnormal service, characteristics cause-and-effect diagram was conducted to analyze and identify specific service strategies. Then Quality Function Development would be used to determine critical service strategies for improvement. Thirdly, after improvement, focusing on abnormal products, Machine Parameter, Optimum Tolerance, and conditions for best manufacturing were used as criteria to enhance process capability and ensure that each critical major cause are under control. Furthermore, for abnormal service, we ensured each critical service strategies under implementation. Finally, with emphasis on the department of R&D and manufacturing at the backstage and the department of marketing and maintenance at the proscenium, standard operating procedure and knowledge manage system were established in order to standardize operation and to maintain the control effect. Such Six Sigma Improvement Process provides practical method to manage the information of the importance and the satisfaction in the aspects of product quality and service quality step by step, and to holistically consider R&D, manufacturing, marketing and maintenance at the same time. Such application of Six Sigma Improvement Process on Internet-marketing is believed to reinforce customer’s purchase inclination and enhance business performance

Remote Sensing and Field Assessment of Tsunami Effects on Coastal Pond Aquaculture in Northern Sumatra

An attempt was made to conduct spatial assessment of the pattern and extent of damage to coastal aquaculture ponds along the east coast of Aceh province in Sumatra, Indonesia, resulting from the tsunami event of 26 December 2004. High-resolution satellite imagery, i.e., SPOT-5 multispectral scenes covering the 700 km stretch of the coast, acquired before and after the tsunami, were digitally enhanced and visually interpreted to delineate pockets of aquaculture ponds that were discerned to be damaged and relatively intact. Field checks were conducted at 87 sites in the four eastern coastal districts. The results indicate that SPOT-5 multispectral imagery was minimally sufficient to detect areas of damaged and relatively intact aquaculture ponds, but the 10-m spatial resolution poses limitations to evaluating the extent of pond damage. Nevertheless, the 60 km swath of the imagery makes it reasonably affordable for large-area assessment to identify pockets of severe damage for targeting more detailed assessments. The image maps produced from a mosaic of the SPOT-5 scenes can also serve as base maps for spatial planning in the challenging task of reconstruction and rehabilitation of the disrupted livelihoods of the coastal communities

Remote sensing and field assessment of tsunami effects on coastal pond aquaculture in northern Sumatra

An attempt was made to conduct spatial assessment of the pattern and extent of damage to coastal aquaculture ponds along the east coast of Aceh province in Sumatra, Indonesia, resulting from the tsunami event of 26 December 2004. High-resolution satellite imagery, i.e., SPOT-5 multispectral scenes covering the 700 km stretch of the coast, acquired before and after the tsunami, were digitally enhanced and visually interpreted to delineate pockets of aquaculture ponds that were discerned to be damaged and relatively intact. Field checks were conducted at 87 sites in the four eastern coastal districts. The results indicate that SPOT-5 multispectral imagery was minimally sufficient to detect areas of damaged and relatively intact aquaculture ponds, but the 10-m spatial resolution poses limitations to evaluating the extent of pond damage. Nevertheless, the 60 km swath of the imagery makes it reasonably affordable for large-area assessment to identify pockets of severe damage for targeting more detailed assessments. The image maps produced from a mosaic of the SPOT-5 scenes can also serve as base maps for spatial planning in the challenging task of reconstruction and rehabilitation of the disrupted livelihoods of the coastal communities.Remote sensing, Disasters, Spatial analysis, Coastal zone, ISEW, Indonesia, Aceh,