Applying quality function deployment to the design of engineering programmes: approaches, insights and benefits

ABSTRACT

Tertiary programmes in a discipline such as engineering must balance the competing needs of two key stakeholders: the university that designs and delivers the programme, and the professional body that accredits it . Programme and curriculum design in universities is traditionally bottom-up in nature, with courses designed by individual academics, and assembled into cognate programmes. Graduate qualities and accreditation criteria are mapped retrospectively onto the structure. Designing programmes from the top down, driven byuniversity and the accreditation body needs, is a desirable goal. However, without proper support tools, balancing competing needs across multiple courses and year levels is a complex task. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was created for this precise purpose. Treating the design of a tertiary programme the same as the design of a system suggests that QFD, and the implementation tool known as the House of Quality (HoQ), should be ideally suited to this purpose. The aim of this paper is to show how QFD and the HoQ can be applied to the design of an engineering programme, creating a specification that accurately reflects the voices of stakeholders, and serves as a benchmark for validating that these needs have been met in the implemented design.

KEYWORDS:

• QFD
• House of Quality
• engineering
• programme
• curriculum
• design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In traditional HoQ methodology, these mappings are indicated at one of three strengths. ‘1’ indicates a weak relationship, ‘3’ a moderate relationship, and ‘9’ a strong relationship. In the example presented here it is assumed that all relationships are strong, and the tick represents this strong relationship.

2. Full details of the Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies, and the 16 mandatory elements of competency, can be found at: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2017-03/Stage%201%20Competency%20Standards.pdf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David H. Cropley

Professor David Cropley is the Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia. He teaches systems engineering concepts and principles to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Professor Cropley's research addresses a range of issues in creativity and innovation, including the role that these factors play in engineering design.