Quality function deployment (QFD) in the UK construction industry

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Idan, C.K., 2003. Quality function deployment (QFD) in the UK construction industry. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

In the face of increasing competition, striving for a competitive edge is a necessity for any commercial organisation to survive in the global market. To remain competitive an organisation must be able to develop high quality products more economically and faster than its competitors. This global competition is not limited to only the manufacturing industry, but also exists in the construction industry.

Whereas the manufacturing and service industries have invested in advanced technology such as CIM, CAD/CAM, and various management techniques such as TQM, JIT, MRPII, which have brought improvements in product quality and customer-focused operations, the UK construction industry has been slow to adopt these techniques. Several Governmental reports have shown that there is the need for improvement in the performance of the construction industry. These reports highlighted issues such as fragmentation and client dissatisfaction. Other publications also indicated that:

1. There is often little integration and co-ordination between the different functional groups involved in a construction project, resulting in poor quality and conflicts between project participants

2. Although the performance of each stage/phase in the construction process affects the quality of the project, the most critical phase, construction planning and design, is often poorly managed.

In the light of the above issues this thesis focused on the evaluation of a well- established technique in manufacturing systems, namely Quality Function Deployment (QFD), in a construction environment. QFD is a team-based technique that provides a means of identifying and translating customers' requirements into technical specifications for product planning, design, processes and production. The nature of QFD allows product-development teams to design quality into the product. Trade-offs are made where there is possible conflict and hence reducing mid-course changes and rework. It also enhances collaboration between project participants.

QFD was chosen as the technique for investigation because its very nature indicates that it has the potential of combating the problems highlighted above. However the literature on QFD also showed that QFD matrices could become difficult to handle when projects become large and complex. To overcome this weakness, a novel tool in the form of a software has been developed to aid its implementation in the construction industry.

In order to test the reliability of the software, three practical cases have been used as samples and the results presented. Even though the software developed proved to be versatile in terms of computational speed, and allowed changes to be made quickly it was found out that some improvements could be made in the QFD technique such as components and materials planning, and construction process planning. In addition, the integration of techniques such the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytical Neural Networks (ANN) will make it even more powerful in terms of information processing. Further research in these areas is therefore encouraged.

It is envisaged that the outcome of the research will enhance the performance of the construction industry, bring it up-to-date in best practices and guide it towards strategic exploitation and delivery of quality, responsiveness and customer service. It will also serve as a proof-of-concept and as a case example for the implementation of QFD in construction. In addition it will benefit a wide spectrum of the construction industry in achieving optimal interactions in the supply chain.