An Application of Quality Function Deployment Technique to Improve Business Process After COVID-19: Case Study of Calibration Center for Industry, Faculty of Engineering

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the change of customer needs of the calibration center for industry, faculty of engineering, Burapha University (CIB) due to the COVID-19 epidemic situation. The research also proposes the improvement for service operations appropriate for the current COVID-19 situation so that CIB can operate its business more efficiently and sustainably. The research began with interviewing 100 customers concerning their needs and impacts of instrument calibration tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the interviews were collected and grouped into 20 primary needs and used as closed-ended questionnaires to explore the importance of the service quality issues. The sample group used in the survey consisted of 380 employees working in industries in the Eastern Region (EEC). Surveyed data were analyzed with the I-S model and the SERVQUAL model to select the quality issues that were critical to service delivery. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique was then applied to convey the service quality attributed to the service specifications. Results of the research indicated that the top 5 significant service specifications in the situation of the COVID-19 epidemic are 1) the laboratory must be accredited to ISO/IEC17025: 2017, 2) calibration period must not exceed 5 days, 3) calibration fee is reasonable and not expensive. 4) laboratory must have clear measures to prevent the spread of virus Covid-19, and 5) there are more than 3 convenient and diverse communication channels to the CIB. After that, CIB applied the OKR's technique to improve the services based on these top 5 service specifications. The results from implementing the new service operations showed that the overall satisfaction of the customers increased from 4.10 to 4.75. For this reason, CIB has included guidelines for service during the epidemic of Covid-19 into the implementation plan according to the document quality system ISO/IEC17025 : 2017 to create effective service standards that can increase customer satisfaction.