Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015

Dhaka, Bangladesh

QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT IN BANKING

Mohammed Shaukat Ali1, Dr. Engr. Md Mamunur Rashid2
1
Millennium Corporate Branch, Trust Bank Limited
2
Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM)
1
zia21ali@gmail.com, 2mamun87245@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: In the beginning of New Product Development, organizations need to match customer
requirements and firms resources; this is eventually translated into developing products and services
that feature such characteristics and attributes that feed the need and expectations of consumers. Even
though, the fact that product development is only a partial phase of the entire product life cycle, the
decisions made during this stage are critical for the overall success and performance of the new
products. Organizations must be ready to develop products that will gradually be valued by the
market, which can be achieved through the use of Quality Function Deployment models and
applications. This paper tries to use the quality function deployment framework to ascertain customers
voices as fundamentals for product development and estimating the relationship among customer
requirements and product characteristics and finally identifying those design features that more
effectively fit the customer needs.
Keywords: Quality Function Deployment, QFD, Customer Requirements, Product characteristics.
1.

INTRODUCTION

In the beginning of New Product Development, organizations need to match customer requirements
and firms resources; this is eventually translated into developing products and services that feature
such characteristics and attributes that feed the need and expectations of consumers. Even though, the
fact that product development is only a partial phase of the entire product life cycle, the decisions made
during this stage are critical for the overall success and performance of the new products.
Organizations must be ready to develop products that will gradually be valued by the market, which
can be achieved through the use of Quality Function Deployment models and applications.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a way of making the 'voice of the customer' heard throughout
an organization. It is a systematic process for capturing customer requirements and translating these
into requirements that must be met throughout the 'supply chain'. The result is a new set of target
values for designers, production people, and even suppliers to aim at in order to produce the output
desired by customers. QFD is an important tool for translating the voice of customer into products
specification (Akao, 97). It has been widely used for product development and quality improvement
around the world. It is a customer-oriented approach, supporting design teams in developing new
products based on an assessment of customer needs. Basically, in the QFD, customer needs are
translated into design attributes. To begin the design process in the QFD, the design team needs to
listen to the voice of the customer.
The voice of the customer contains the customer needs expressed in their own words. It can be
captured through questionnaire, observation and so many other ways for an existing product or service.
However, for a new product, questionnaire will be the only way in most of the cases. From the
responses as collected, the team will identify the level of satisfaction of customers. If the satisfaction
level is so poor, customers grievances should immediately be heard. Customers will not spend a single
penny in the long run to purchase dissatisfaction. Even if the customers are satisfied, their voice should
be considered to make them more satisfied. The House of Quality is the most commonly used tool in
the QFD methodology. This matrix translates the voice of the customer into product specifications. The
paper deals with designing a house of quality as a QFD tool to capture voice of customers that leads to

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh

Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh

devising the way out for ensuring more satisfaction. The use of QFD in manufacturing industry is very
common, and from such an assumption, here QFD is used in a service industry to devise out the way of
ensuring more customer satisfaction.
2.

OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH

The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of satisfaction of the respondents regarding the
service at a Bank, to study and understand the customer satisfaction among the customers, to
understand the customers attitude toward the bank and to offer suggestions to the Bank to
improve their customers satisfaction level on different factors.
3.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this literature review is to gain an understanding of quality function deployment
process for service sector especially banks with concepts, frameworks, strategies and components that
are current and emerging in the field. The crucial elements of identifying and implementing
customers voice in production development and service improvement are examined in detail. Specific
information is given on the implementation of house of quality, its existing frameworks, trends and
important considerations.
Yoji Akao (1997) presented a paper at International Symposium on QFD 97 Linkping titled QFD:
Past, Present, and Future reflecting on the early days of QFD, the current status, and future challenges.
Much more progress is expected in the QFD world, as it renders a tangible method to manage new
product development, an area that will be most important in future TQM. QFD will be also positioned
as an effective tool for quality assurance of systems in the information age. For these goals, QFD
methodology needs to be standardized and incorporated in the ISO.
Jinea Akhtar (2011) stated that the physical aspects were positively and moderately related to service
quality. The customer services determinant had insignificant relationship with service quality.
Luis Bernal, Dr. Utz Dornberger, Alfredo Suvelza and Trevor Byrnes (2009) published a QFD
handbook for services providing step by step procedure for completing house of quality for completing
quality function deployment in a dental clinic.
4.

METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

The nature of this report is descriptive, so instead of doing any survey or using sampling method,
observation and selective questionnaire method is used to complete this qualitative research. Most of
the necessary information has been collected by personal interview with customers of the branch; both
descriptive and inferential research were conducted to identify existing practices in their organization.
The following steps are involved in this researchStep-1: Variable selection
Step-2: Questionnaire Preparation
Step-3: Data Collection
Step-4: Data Processing and Analysis.
In the primary stage of this study, secondary data has been collected from the relevant publications,
newspapers and books. An in-depth questionnaire survey was carried out in the study area where 30
respondents were selected randomly for necessary information.

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh

Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh

5.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a means of translating customer requirements into the
appropriate technical requirements for each stage of product or service development and production.
This approach seeks answers to the following six questions:
Voice of the customer: What do our customers need and want?
Competitive analysis: In terms of our customers, how well are we doing relative to our competitors?
Voice of the technical team: What technical measures, relate to our customers needs?
Correlations: What are the relationships between the voice of the customer and the voice of the
Technical Team?
Technical comparison: In this comparison, product or service performance compares to the
competitors to identify the improvement needs and to guide the design of the product or services.
Tradeoffs: What are the potential technical trade-offs?
5.1.

QFD Deployment Phases

QFD is essentially a process where customers voice is translated into design attributes. A typical QFD
process has four successive phases as depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 1: QFD Process

Product planning: This phase begins with customer requirements. A set of design requirements is
determined, which, if satisfied, will result in achieving customer requirements.
Product development: It involves design /redesign and fabrication of new or modified product and then
testing it to find its usefulness. Product development is essential in order to meet changing consumer
needs, maintain sales position and profit margin etc. The various steps involved in developing a
product are given below:
get new ideas
evaluate ideas technically
evaluate ideas from markets point of view
take the final decision
get into production and
introduce product into the market
5.2

House of Quality: A QFD Tool

The primary tool used in QFD is the house of quality. The house of quality translates the voice of the
customer into design requirements that meet specific target values and matches those against how an
organization will meet those requirements. It is a collection of six interrelated matrices clustered in
such a way that essentially gives shape of a house having boundaries, pavements, ceiling, roof etc. as
shown in Figure 3. Different parts of the house of quality are stated below:
1.

The customer attributes: The left exterior walls of the house represents customer requirements
determined by the market research is essentially the Voice of the Customers.

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh

Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh

2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

The technical descriptors: The ceiling or second floor, of the house contains the technical
descriptors describing how the product may achieve its required performance in general terms
which are not solution specific that represents the Voice of the Designer.
Relationships: The interior walls of the house are the relationships between customer
attributes and technical descriptors indicating where there are strong, moderate or weak
relationships.
Technical matrix: The foundation of the house is the prioritized technical descriptors based on
the relationships between customer attributes and technical descriptors.
Technical correlations: The roof of the house is the technical correlations representing the
interrelationship between technical descriptors. This correlation is important to show to what
extent the technical descriptors may be mutually supporting and contradictory.
Planning matrix: On the right side are the prioritized customer requirements or planning
matrix providing quantitative market data for each of the customer attributes based on user
research, competitive analysis or team assessment.

Figure 2: House of Quality

5.3

Building House of Quality

Building a house of quality is not a simple task. Marketing experts, quality team (or, say, QFD team),
and technical experts should work collectively to design the house that will ensure better quality for the
customers. However, the designing of a house of quality follows seven consecutive steps as mentioned
below:
Step 1: List Customer Requirements (WHATs)
Step 2: List Technical Descriptors (HOWs)
Step 3: Develop a Relationship Matrix between WHATs & HOWs
Step 4: Develop an Interrelationship Matrix Between HOWs.
Step 5: Competitive Assessments
Step 6: Develop Prioritized Customer Requirements.
Step 7: Develop Prioritized Technical Descriptors.
5.4

Customer Requirement Related Issues

Major wants / requirements are identified from the questionnaire survey of customers of the branch.
After analyzing primary data it is tabulated as below:

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh

Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Table-1.1: Major wants / requirements of the sample clients of the bank

Issues
Total points
Cheque payment from the credit available in short term account
135
Withdrawal of money from current account by ATM card
190
Sending bank statements to you at the end of each month
172
Possibility of cheque payment from an account into another one via internet
158
Payment of loan installment via internet
151
Demand and receipt of various currency & cash facility via internet
177
Demand and receipts of various reports via internet
153
Receipt of Bank statement via internet
187
Checking credit balance via internet
177
Cheque payment by bank upto a certain limitation
148
Interest payment to current account
152
Transfer of credit balance from one account to another
185
Receipt of documents in envelop after service providing
174
Provision of all services needed by customers in all branches
187
Good and spruce looking Bank employees
162
Secrecy of Bank employees
155
Friendly and intimate attitude of Bank employees
256
Employees can remember customers names
235
Duration of waiting in line (waiting for turn)
227
Availability of waiting area
168
Cleanliness of branchs environment
160
Beauty of branchs decorations
158
Provision of financial consultancy
250
Sufficient and cheerful environment of branch
221
Delays in cash receipt
268
Delays in cash payment
261
Provision for POS
160
Provision for Mobile Banking
201
Provision for Internet Banking
225
Provision for ATM Cards
212
Provision for Online Banking
155
Attractiveness and beauty of bank advertisements
210
Quality and content of bank advertisements
214
Provision for adequate rest rooms
189
Provision for adequate cash counters
223
Friends judgments about service quality
172
Own judgment about service quality
159
Past service performance of the branch
230

Sl.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38

Rank
38
15
23
30
36
20
34
17
20
37
35
19
22
17
26
32
3
5
7
25
27
30
4
10
1
2
27
14
8
12
32
13
11
16
9
23
29
6

Source: Questionnaire Survey, 2014.

5.5

Developed Consequences

After getting the results of the questionnaire considered as voice of the customers as simplified above,
the following consequences have been developed:

I got prompt service from cash counters.

There were no delays in receiving services.
I received account statements monthly.
I received internet banking service from home.

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh

Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh

5.6

I got any branch service from the bank.

The bank employees were well mannered and groomed.
The bank employees were empathetic and knowledgeable
My financial queries were answered accurately and timely.
Provision for financial consultancy.
The branch was neat, clean and spacious.
Bank advertisements were attractive and informational.
The past performance of the branch was very good.
Bank offers technologically advanced services.
Bank offers ATM services.
I received bank statements as and when required.
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

After the completion of analytical section, the major findings of this research can be listed as below for
the bank to improve:
Advertisements;
Branch management;
Employee training;
Queue management;
Technology improvement.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The main recommendations in relation to this research are given as below:
Improve the quality and emotional content of the advertisements.
Improve employee training on various aspects customer service.
Improve queue management to reduce redundant delays in providing service.
Have to invest in improve technological advancements to provide e-banking services.
Improve some necessary aspects of branch management.
7.

CONCLUSION
Both manufacturing and service industries should implement quality function deployment to
improve the process continuously to improve the products and services. Customers now-a-days
are very choosy for spending paisa. Quality is the first and foremost preference. Even, they like
to state that we are paying not for the product but for the value. Therefore, it becomes a
challenge for every company to pay heed to their customers continuously and also to show
proper respects to their feelings. QFD is the right tool to listen to the customers and responding
to what they want continuously. Once customers get the idea that they are rightly addressed,
they will take care of the bank.

REFERENCES
Akao, Y. (1997). QFD: Past, Present, and Future. International Symposium on QFD 97 Linkping ,
1-12.

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh

Proceedings of the 7th IMEC &16th Annual Paper Meet

02-03 January, 2015
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Amoah-Mensah, A. (2010). Customer Satisfaction in the Banking Industry: A Comparative Study of

Ghana and Spain. Spain: Universitat de Girona.
Chapman, A. T. (1993). A Tutorial On Quality Function Deployment. Engineering Management
Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, 24-35.
Jayshree Chavan, F. A. (2013). Factors Affecting On Customer Satisfaction in Retail Banking: An
Empirical Study. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, Vol. , Issue 1,
55-62.
Luis Bernal, D. U. (March 2009). Quality Function Deployment for Services Handbook. International
SEPT Program, 1-25.
Ma, Z. (July 2012). Assessing Serviceability and Reliability to Affect Customer Satisfaction of Internet
Banking. Journal of Software, Vol. 7, No. 7., 1601-1608.

Authors
Authors Name: Mohammed Shaukat Ali
Authors profile: Mr. Mohammed Shaukat Ali was born at Adamjee Jute Mills under
Narayanganj district in 1975. He completed MSS in Economics and MBA in Finance from
Dhaka University in 1997 and 2007. Now he is serving his as Vice President & Manager
(Credit & Foreign Trade) in Trust Bank Limited, Millennium Corporate Branch, Dhaka. In
addition, he is at the last step in completing PGDHRM degree from Bangladesh Institute of
Management.

Dr. Engr. Md. Mamunur Rashid

Dr. Rashid is Bangladeshi National, Author, Researcher, Academician, Trainer and Consultant. He was born
in November 1, 1970. He has been serving as a Faculty and Management Consultant at Bangladesh Institute
of Management (BIM), Dhaka since 16 February 2004. As a faculty and top level national master trainer he
has been facilitating for the Graduate and Professional training programs more than 100 in the areas of
TQM, HRM, Compliance of ISO9001:2008, SA8000, WRAP, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, Productivity and
Competitiveness, Project Management with MS Project-2007/2013 and Industrial Safety Management . Now
he is as adjunct faculty at Jahangirnagar University and BUP. He also worked as adjunct faculty at IEB, DIU,
BOU, IBAISU, BUBT, BUET, IPM, DIPTI and Planning Academy. Prior this job he worked as a
Mechanical Engineer of Jamuna Fertilizer Company, Bangladesh for around seven years. He obtained BSc in
Mechanical Engineering degree from RUET (erstwhile BITR) in 1993 with 1st class and 8th position, MSc in
Mechanical Engineering degree from BUET in 1996 under NST Fellowship Program of GoB and MBA
degree from BOU in 2004. He completed a Diploma in Computer Science and Applications from BOU, a
PGD in Human Resource Management from IPM with 1st Class and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing
Management from BIM. He completed almost 30 training programs/short courses at local and abroad. He
also completed Management Accounting, Project Management, Technology Management, Safety and
Maintenance Management, Information Technology in Business and Artificial Neural System courses in
Graduate level study at Industrial and Production Engineering Department of BUET, Bangladesh. Now he is
pursuing for LLB degree from National University of Bangladesh. He has around 42 publications in
renowned Journals (20) and International Conferences (22). He also obtained Doctor of Engineering in
Manufacturing Engineering degree under Bangabandhu Fellowship program of GoB at Kitami Institute of
Technology, Japan on March 18, 2013. He also awarded the Scholarship from class IX- Graduation degree
from GoB. His journals are indexing almost Universities of the world. He is life member of the following
professional organization/body: IEB, BSTD and IPM. He is also member of the following professional
organization/body: JSPE, BSME, and BCS. He is the founder and Chairman of Birganj Technical and
Business Management College, Dinajpur since 2002. He can be reached by e-mail:
mamun87245@gmail.com and cell-01712700412.

Mechanical Engineering Division

Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh