Title: Web-enabled integration of the voice-of-customer for continuous improvement and product development

Authors: N. Gunasekaran, V. P. Arunachalam, A. Vinu Selva Kumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641 006, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Govt. College of Technology (Anna University), GCT Campus, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641 013, India. ' Lanco Industries Ltd., Rachagunneri, Sri Kalahasti Mandal, Chittor Dist., Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract: The manufacturing of a product has been changing from a single geographical location to multi-locations due to the impact of information technology. The quality of the product manufactured is affected since gaps, such as a perception gap, an understanding gap, a design gap, a process gap and an operations gap, are widened due to business process outsourcing (BPO) activities. The lack of understanding of customer needs between various groups of people is one of the reasons why the quality of the end-product is not as expected. In order to overcome this situation a web-enabled model is proposed in this paper for integrating the voice of the end customer (VOC) in the product supply chain. A case study has been conducted in a heater manufacturing company and the continuous improvement possibly is put in place of product supply chain by integrating the VOC at all levels using quality function deployment (QFD).

Keywords: continuous improvement; product supply chain; quality function deployment; QFD; voice of customer; VOC; web enablement; internet; product development; product quality; outsourcing; supply chain management; SCM; heater manufacturing; information technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2006.009029

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2006 Vol.2 No.1, pp.78 - 94

Published online: 14 Feb 2006 *

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