Quality Function Deployment Approach In Condominium Construction Project: A Case Study

Improving customer satisfaction has been identified as one of the most important challenges facing businesses over the past decade. As industries and companies worldwide face increasing competition, slower growth rates, and price pressures, greater attention continues to be placed on customer satisfaction (Johnson et al, 1991 cited in Syed et al, 2003)

Vietnam is experiencing many changes as it integrates into the global economy. As one of the developing country on its way towards the world economy, Vietnam now is opening the free market for the economy development in almost all its fields. With a growing population of more than 80 millions, property development is playing a very important role in the national economy. With its newly entrance in the World Trade Organization (WTO), opening the real estate market to international arena is inevitable. Furthermore, the Vietnamese government has made changes in regulation to rouse the market by introducing Decree 17CP which is considered an “opened door” policy for the real estate market (Vietnam Economy News, 2006). According to the CB Richard Ellis report (2006), the real estate industry has so far attracted 18% of total FDI in Vietnam.

Residential housing in Vietnam is a rapidly growing business especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The demand of residential housing, especially condominium units has increased compare to previous years. Due to the increasing demand, Vietnam now is a potential market for both local and oversea home builders. Satisfied customers are said to be the back bone of the home building industry. Home builders have come to realize that the ability to correctly assess the desirability of their housing units and the quality of service is crucial to their financial viability. But Vietnam housing developers faced many problems since they do not know what exactly the customers need. This is because different customers have different needs. And to address this question, developers’ answers is prioritization and take into account the customers’ needs and try to satisfy each one according to what’s important.

Ms. Pham Nguyen Quynh Huong made a research which aimed to improve the quality of apartments and give customer satisfaction in terms of housing quality. Her study objectives were: (1) identifying the needs of the customers in housing quality (focus on condominium residential) using QFD approach; (2) develop a House of Quality for apartment based on customers’ demands; and (3) give recommendation to the developer so that they could better allocate resource in order to offer the improvement according to the clients’ requirements and needs.

Conclusion

One aspect that the construction industry can improve is its ability to determine the customers’ requirements, interpret them and transfer these requirements into plans to construct a facility. This research was conducted to identify factors influencing the quality of condominium. The first step is to list the customer requirements or needs. These needs were divided by two groups, general condition factors and internal condition factors and then evaluated for theirs importance indicated by assigning a number from 1 to 5. After that the satisfaction level of actual status based upon the respondents’ perceptions were evaluated. Gap analysis was done to examine the differences between the importance of these factors and their level of satisfaction of actual status towards the customers’ attitudes. The purpose of this was to evaluate how close to optimum (most satisfactory) the present condominium was compared to each of the defined needs. Based on the survey conducted in two new urban areas Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh and My Dinh – Me Tri in Hanoi, the general factors which have the largest gap are basic facilities, workmanship, building materials, and current amenities of the over all project. The internal factors which have the largest gap are living room, kitchen, height of flat and special installation.

Quality Function Deployment was applied on this case as a tool to prioritize important point that could offer improvements according to the customers’ requirements and needs. The result indicated that the architecture work play a very important role to improve the quality of condominium. It has the highest relative degree of importance which is 26% in improving the overall general condition and about 65% in improving the overall internal condition. Construction work has relative degree of importance of 13% in improving the general conditions and 25% in improving the internal condition. The research indicated that good specifications ensure no miscommunication between the designers and the builders on site to reduce any mistake with unsatisfied customers. Besides, standard requirements are needed to be set by the developer to avoid any improper construction work. Stricter control and supervision should be established to ensure that the building is build according to the design and method specified. Further more, good building management also make a better home quality for the customers.

The development of House of Quality can be used as a guide to focus on what the customers want throughout the planning, design and implementing condominium project.

Recommendation for developer

In general, the house of quality aims to let the developer know the needs of the customers. As a developer, its his duty to satisfy all the needs of the customers. However, due time constraints, budget constraints of the developer, the developer cannot improve all the needs. The HoQ serves to guide the developer in choosing which solution based on the tabulated absolute important score. The developer should concentrate more on the solution that have high score of absolute importance. The developer can also set priority base on interaction matrix (the roof of House of Quality). The developer can decide on the type of solution effectives

In this case, from the absolute importance score, the group with the highest score in both general conditions and internal condition is architecture. This is because good specification and standard requirement in the design ensures the quality of the apartment. Therefore, the developer should concentrate on the architectural work and then move to the following group.

Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.

ABSTRACT


Many developers has been investing and developing in residential housing to cope with the increasing demands, especially condominium residential. Satisfy the need of customers is the critical factor which contributes positively and significantly to the business. In order to get better satisfaction from customer, home builders need to know what the qualities the customer desires are and how they can best provide what their customers want.

The study aims to identify the needs of the customers in housing quality especially in condominium project. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an effective approach with a wide range of applications. This study present a application of QFD in construction projects with special focus on middle- class condominium scheme. QFD approach was used as a tool in improvement quality of condominium project. House of Quality was developed to interpret the needs of customers. The developers therefore can better allocate resource in order to offer the improvement according to the clients’ requirements and needs.