Quality Function Deployment in Air Europe Airlines - Term Paper Example

Quality Function Deployment in Air Europe Airlines Executive Summary The Europa airlines face pressure relative to the industry dynamics such as competiveness and quality services delivery to the passengers. Quality Function Deployment is an attitude-oriented response to delivery of quality service and it forms a systematic approach and response to air passenger transportation systems. It is notable that, the Quality Function Deployment was the first attempt to offer quality services in the Europa airlines. The following are the attributed challenges to the airline. Air Europa face air traffic management and capacity crunch challenges. This problem is expected to escalate to uncontrollable heights by the year 2030. Flight delays are cause by doubling air traffic. There is a problem of ageing technology. Airline systems are not evolving substantially. Poor air quality is a public health aspect, which is currently facing air Europa. Some of the pilots of Europa airline are not competent Some of Air Europa aircrafts are more than five years old Over the past 6 weeks, ovens of 45 aircrafts have failed in flight. Ovens are not critical safety equipment. Failures in ovens are attributed to faulty wiring systems. OFE supplier was assigned the duty of supplying and installing ovens. Numerous complaints have been raised to the Catering department of Air Europa. The airline crew has issued a strike threat. Business class and first class passengers have complained about the quality of catering services in the airline. The Air Europa management has issued goodwill gestures to passengers in form of $85, 000 vouchers Airline passengers expect technical bus specification, services free of errors, competent employees and emphatic approach to customers. Airline passengers choose an airline based on service quality. The Quality Function Deployment is a measurable tool of quality in the Europa airlines and it is attributed to the internal strategic plan of the organization. Quality Function Deployment considers both service providers and customers’ viewpoint in a bid to design services. Regulations in the aviation industry are there to offer quality and standardized services to the customers. Quality functions are offered for special passengers during travelling. For instance, the pregnant women are required to provide medical certificates before travelling. On the other hand, the children should be accompanied with an adult depending on the age during travelling. Quality designs and customer expectations require aircraft seats to meet customer comfort and safety standards. Introduction The report dissects the role, relevance, functionality of the Quality Function Deployment in the Air Europa relative to the oven failure issue and the approach to avoid supply related faults in future. The report will analyze applicability of quality function deployment in the aviation industry relative to the Air Europa (HEIZER & REINDER, 2014). The main objective of quality function deployment is to ensure utilization of fleet renovations and use of environmental friendly sources of energy. The report will evaluate and analyze uses of quality function deployment relative to the Europa airline. Challenges facing the Europa airlines range from satisfaction of the dynamic customer demands to the need for more travelling comfort. The aspect of product differentiation and stiff competition attributed to the quality services and superior supplier standards from the Asian region airlines, poses a bigger challenge to the Europa airlines. This is a long side the internal challenges relative to quality and capacity, which faces the airline. For instance, in the case of the Europa, there is a wide gap of capacity crunch and it is projected that the air traffic management will be the biggest challenge by the year 2030. In addition, the flight delays compromises quality services in the Europa airlines. It is imperative to note that, almost seventy per cent of airline delays are caused by poor quality of services in the airports. As a point of counter, the Europa airlines are currently struggling to cope up with the use of 4D Technologies in air traffic management, however, this technique has not fully functioned relative to the airline needs (FRIEDMAN & LINTON, 2009). Hence, the Quality function deployment tool will be used in Europa airline to match customer needs and supplier requirements in a bid to avoid cases such as that of the Oven failure. Analysis Analysis and Evaluation of Quality Function Deployment in Europa Airlines Quality Function Deployment involves quality, function and deployment of quality towards meeting customer expectations. Quality means ability to meet customer requirements. A quality function deployment can be defined as the analysis of customer needs and wants, technical specifications, costs of a process and functional characteristics of a process before design. In addition, this tool represents a qualitative approach of converting customer expectations into quality characteristics (BENMELECH & BERGMAN, 2008). Relationships between quality and characteristics of customer needs guide final design of final product in the industry. There is a special process of relating customer needs to product design to achieve reliable, quality demands, and technological offerings in the industry (LAMATA & VEGA, 2014). Role of the Quality Function Deployment The role of quality function deployment is three fold. To begin with, QFD permits users to acquire greater quality services at minimal cost. The second role is to make sure that customer driven designs are produced in the airline industry and the third purpose is to provide a tracking system for future process improvements (MEN, 2014). Europa airlines face industry pressure to deliver quality services to the passengers. Quality function deployment is an attitude-oriented response to delivery of quality service. It is systematic approach and response to highway passenger-transport systems. QFD was the first attempt to offer quality services relative to the high supplier standards in the Europa airlines. Airline passengers expected technical bus specification, services free of errors, competent employees and emphatic approach to customers (DAY, 1993). It is imperative to note that, the airline passengers choose an airline based on service quality, which range from reception to catering. It is notable that, the QFD is a measurable tool of quality in the Europa airlines, which considers both service providers and customers’ viewpoint for designing services. The Oven Case There have been complains concerning quality of catering services offered by the Europa Airline. Failure of ovens is attributed to faulty wiring systems. Ovens are used to cook food for crew and passengers. Airline oven is not a critical safety equipment of an aircraft. The crew has issue strike threat concerning the faulty ovens. In order to avert the strike and maintain goodwill gesture; the airline has issued vouchers worth $ 85, 000 to the travelling passengers. The supplier has refuted claims to distance themselves from faulty wiring of ovens. OFE suppliers were awarded the contract to supply ovens to the airline (BAIDA & MORCH, 2008). The supplier argues that subsequent wiring of ovens by Europa airlines will breach the contract. This situation requires the Air Europa to use the quality function-deployment approach to catapult the airline to the leading position in terms of competitiveness and expansion of the market niche. The benefit of quality function deployment to the aircraft manufacturer can be seen in the supply of light and durable materials, which do not cause faults as in the case with the ovens (SHIELDS, 2010). Quality Function Deployment relative to the customer needs and suppliers’ standards The feasibility of the quality function deployment in Europa airline depends on the training levels of technical staff. The Quality function deployment consists of production planning, part deployment, house of quality and critical customer-supplier operations. The QFD starts with listing of customer needs relative to what the suppliers are able to supply. It is imperative to note that, the customer needs are rated from one to five, where one represents needs, which are least important while five shows needs, which are most important. Potential actions to respond to the customer needs are listed and applied to the process progressively. In the case the level of quality or type of equipment the suppliers are supposed to supply, the QFD should be used in the supply chains to ensure that the supplier’s equipments are vetted relative to the airline requisite standards before a purchase is done (SHIMIZU, 2006). For instance, in the case of the Ozland Flight Equipment (OFE) who supplied the airline with ovens, which were later discovered to be faulty, a point of failure can be directed towards the management over the process of tendering and vetting of the supplier. In essence, the fact that the supplier got accolades from Air New Zealand and South African Airways does not add to the standards of judging and making a contractual agreement with the supplier without in depth check on the quality of the equipment in comparison with other suppliers. It is imperative to note that the e-auction process of tendering is not reliable in tendering sensitive equipments, which are fitted in the airplanes (AHMED & ABONAMAH, 2013). This is because there is no chance offered to ascertain the quality standards of the equipment before making an order. In addition, the online tendering does not offer an opportunity to compare with the quality of the equipments offered by other suppliers (DON, 2012). This situation calls for the application of the Quality Function Deployment tool in resolving this situation as it has been attributed to the numerous customer complaints, which has led the airline to spend 85,000 on passenger vouchers as good will and a counter measure to keep the customers satisfied. However, this is a short-term measure, which is expensive to the airline and it might pose a serious challenge for the airline to meet its anticipated profit margins. The question that arises is how the Quality Function Deployment can be used to solve the quality issues facing the airline. Use of the Quality Function Deployment in the Oven Supply Issue The QFD will be sued to establish the relationship between the product which in this case if the oven and the demands of the customers. The oven supplied to the airline are discovered to be faulty and thus costing the airline an extra cost of vouchers to customers. The QFD will help in establishing the sales ability and help in enhancing the levels (DE SILVA, 2010). The current case of faulty ovens can be avoided in future by listening to the customer’s voices and analyzing their needs before making a decision of who to supply. The suppliers need to accredited, vetted and tested before given the tender. This will help in harmonizing the needs to be met with the standards of the equipment. In essence, the use of QFD represents a shift from general product quality to a more apt approach, which involves design analysis relative to the customer needs (AHMED & ABONAMAH, 2013). This implies that the management of the Air Europa would have inspected the needs of the clients in terms of design before giving consent to the OFE to supply the equipment. On the other hand, the current standoff between the OFE and the Air Europa concerning the supply of faulty ovens attributed to the wiring systems issues can be solved by the use of the QFD tool to establish whether the design of the ovens supplied match with the aircraft systems (AKAO, 1990). This is because the faulty attributed to the ovens causes the cutouts. This is an indication that the designs quality was not considered when tendering for the ovens. On the tendering agreement relative to dealing with the fault ovens, the OFE is likely to handle only those ovens that the airline did not try to replace. However, with 10 ovens repaired and the attributed wiring and labor expend may be met by the airline. DMAC Tool analysis The DMAC analysis involves use of structures, which utilize lean and statistical tools. It is applied in the manufacture of small and medium enterprises in European airlines. DMAC involves define, measure, analyze, improve and control in the Europa airline. Customers who make regular trips are allowed by the Europa airlines special treatment and booking advantages over the customers who rarely travel. Europa airlines define defects in the airline such as engine failures and delayed flights in the company (BAIDA et al, 2008). The current performance levels of the airline are measured in terms customer feedbacks from previous flights. Solutions such as regular servicing of aircrafts will improve quality of services in the airline. Improved processes such as design of safety belts and aircrafts seats are controlled through continuous matching of supplier requirements and customer expectations (AHMED, 2013). Conclusion Quality function deployment is a design tool, which is used in Europa airline to match customer needs and supplier requirements. The feasibility of quality function deployment in Europa airline depends on the training levels of technical staff. The Quality Function Deployment consists of production planning, part deployment, house of quality and critical customer operations. Air Europa coordinators assist passengers with special needs to board planes. Recommendation The application of quality function deployment needs to be extended to other services in the industry. There is serious emphasis of QFD in the standards of equipment such as ovens and seats than in the operating of airports. The six-sigma process is a sufficient complement of quality function deployment in the Europa airline. Expansion of airport capacity will solve capacity challenges in the Europa airlines. The 4D technologies can assist in the management of aircraft traffic since it is a time dimension (IEEE AEROSPACE CONFERENCE, 2014). List of References AHMED, A. M. M. B., & ABONAMAH, A. A. (2013). Innovative System for Measuring SMEs Performance. International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management (IJCRMM). 4, 1-26. AKAO, Y. (1990). 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Quality Function Deployment: a modern competitive tool. Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England, Technical Communications (Pub.). Read More