The application of quality functional deployment to modular offsite construction products
Year: 2017
Editor: Anja Maier, Stanko Škec, Harrison Kim, Michael Kokkolaras, Josef Oehmen, Georges Fadel, Filippo Salustri, Mike Van der Loos
Author: Wee, Tanawan Pang Yew; Aurisicchio, Marco; Starzyk, Ireneusz
Series: ICED
Institution: 1: Imperial College London, United Kingdom; 2: Laing O'Rourke, United Kingdom
Section: Design Methods and Tools
Page(s): 523-532
ISBN: 978-1-904670-92-6
ISSN: 2220-4342
Abstract
This paper investigates requirement management practices in the construction industry, and proposes and evaluates the application of Quality Functional Deployment as a requirements analysis tool for offsite construction products. Two case studies were carried out. The first involved analysing technical documents and conducting interviews with engineers from the collaborating company to understand current requirements management practices. The second evaluates the application of QFD to a modular plant-room product. A QFD model was developed using a reverse engineering approach, which involved extracting requirements information from technical documents. The QFD model was subsequently validated by engineers from the collaborating company during a workshop. This research highlights that QFD has a strong potential as a requirements analysis tool for advanced offsite construction. This is because QFD offers a more systematic, holistic and structured approach to requirements management than current processes adopted in the industry. The novelty of this study lies in the implementation of a functional approach to QFD and how QFD has been tailored and organised to handle modular products.
Keywords: Design management, Systems Engineering (SE), Requirements, Quality functional deployment (QFD), Advanced offsite construction