A model for using quality function deployment in engineering project development

The planning, design, and construction of a major engineering or architectural facility is a highly complex task requiring hundreds of major decisions to be made by a large number of people acting individually and collectively under some form of contractual arrangement. The environment often is highly charged by urgencies of schedule, imperatives of cost limitation, and expectations of error-free performance. These and other factors work to make the original definition of the project a sensitive process, requiring extraordinary thoroughness in approach and communication among the parties. Once the initial development is complete, the criticality shifts to preserving the full intent of the project owner throughout the multiple stages of planning, design, construction, startup, and operation. Historically, the development of the original project scope has suffered from deficiencies in thoroughness and communication among the diverse parties to the project. This has resulted in cost and schedule overruns, in failures to achieve the functional performance intended, and many times in litigation over different interpretations of the project content. This work presents a structured approach to engineering and construction project development, employing the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique used in recent years by manufacturing and mass-market service industries to develop new products and services or to improve existing ones. A comprehensive model is presented for implementing QFD in the engineering and construction (E&C) project development process. The implementation model is based on superposition of the QFD process onto the E&C project process. The research included field testing of QFD concepts on two actual projects, followed by development of a multi-phase application example. The model deals both with the mechanics of applying the QFD technique, and with factors having to do with organizational readiness to undertake an innovative departure to a main-line business process. Procedural guidance is provided in three areas: (1) setting up the implementation, (2) carrying it out, and (3) following up. The main research findings are that (1) QFD has great potential as a tool for improved project definition, and (2) QFD can be procedurally and organizationally adapted to the E&C situation.