Madeleine E. Pullman

A Comparison of Quality Function Deployment and Conjoint Analysis in New Product Design

Abstract In this work, we compare two product design approaches, quality function deployment (QFD) and conjoint analysis, by applying each to the design of a new all-purpose climbing harness for the beginning/intermediate ability climber that would complement a leading manufacturer’s existing product line. While many of the optimal design features were the same under both approaches, the differences allow us to highlight the strengths of each approach. With conjoint analysis, it was easier to compare the most preferred features (i.e., ones that maximized sales) to profit maximizing features and also to develop designs that optimize product line sales or profits. On the other hand, QFD was able to highlight the fact that certain engineering characteristics or design features had both positive and negative aspects. This tradeoff could point the way to “out of the box” solutions. QFD also highlighted the importance of starting explicitly with customer needs, regardless of which method is used. Rather than competing, we view them as complementary approaches that should be conducted simultaneously; each providing feedback to the other. When the two approaches differed on the optimal level or importance of a feature, it appeared that conjoint analysis better captured customers’ current preferences for product features while QFD captured what product developers thought would best satisfy customer needs. Looking at the problem through these different lenses provides a useful dialogue that should not be missed. QFD’s ability to generate creative or novel solutions should be combined with conjoint analysis’ ability to forecast market reaction to design changes.

Service Design and Operations Strategy Formulation in Multicultural Markets

Abstract Businesses that service multicultural customer segments face unique challenges in developing the appropriate service strategy. While the strategic implications of expanding services from a domestic market to an international location have been well documented, multicultural customer segments at one location is a unique problem that has largely been neglected by researchers. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a conceptual framework and method for determining the extent of service product and process attribute standardization versus customization in these settings. The paper presents an approach for modeling the preferences of different cultural segments, evaluating the differences between the segments and determining the appropriate service strategy for service providers. We evaluate the effects of competitors adopting their revenue maximizing strategy both independently of each other and simultaneously while assuming the size of the market is viewed as a zero sum game. In an actual application at an international airport terminal, one food-service vendor implemented the suggested operations strategy and the result was a significant revenue gain over the previous year’s sales during the same period. The method has valuable implications for managers when developing strategies for delivering a service to multicultural customer segments.

Optimal service design: integrating marketing and operations perspectives

This paper develops an optimal service design model by combining a conjoint analysis‐based optimal product design model from marketing with capacity and demand management strategies from operations management to determine a profit maximizing service facility. It extends optimal product design models to services by specifically modeling the interactive relationship between potential attractiveness of a service, capacity and waiting times. Additionally it extends current capacity‐demand operations models by modeling the impacts of different capacity/demand matching strategies in a competitive market. Combining these two perspectives provides a more direct link between customer perceptions of various service attributes, including waiting time and profitability. An example is shown where the model is applied to an existing ski resort. Data are incorporated from resort management, existing customers, potential customers and industry experts to determine the profit maximizing mix of capacity and demand management strategies for an actual ski resort. The results show that important insights about profit maximization are gained from a model that captures the effects of capacity and demand management strategies.

Sustainability Practices in Food Supply Chains: How is Wine Different?

Environmental stewardship has received much attention in the wine industry, but firms must also address social sustainability to be considered a ‘sustainable’ company. In this research, we compare qualitative and quantitative evidence of sustainability practice adoption of wine and other food producers. To this end, we first performed interviews with 14 winery and 18 food processing operations managers or owners in the northwestern United States. We then used the interviews to develop a questionnaire and surveyed all wine and food producers in the same region, receiving responses from 56 wineries and 61 food processors. The results indicate differences in sustainability practices and performance impacts across the two sectors. Specifically, we find that winery managers place more emphasis on certain environmental practices, which in turn improve product quality. Additionally, wineries with higher adoption rates of social sustainability practices find that these efforts pay off in better wine quality and better overall market perceptions.

A framework for evaluating the customer wait experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model which defines the psychological processes that mediate the relationship between perceived wait duration (PWD) and satisfaction. This model will provide a framework for evaluating the impact of situational and environmental variables in the servicescape on customer reaction to the wait experience.Design/methodology/approach – The approach included one field study and two laboratory experiments in which subjects participated in a service with a pre‐process wait and evaluated their experience on a survey.Findings – Perceived wasted time, perceived control, perceived boredom, and perceived neglect mediated the relationship between PWD and wait experience evaluation. When tested using filled versus unfilled wait time as the situational variable, the model showed that having something to do during the wait decreased perceived boredom, resulting in a more positive wait experience.Research limitations/implications – The services used in this paper...

A Comparison of Conjoint Methods When There Are Many Attributes

This paper compares several methods of performing conjoint analysis when there is a large number of attributes. National parks were described in terms of 17 attributes and 56 levels. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups and each person responded to a calibration questionnaire that allowed the estimation of one of the following conjoint analysis models: full profile, ACA, individual-level hybrid, or full profile on the persons eight stated most important attributes. Validations were performed in terms of individual choices and aggregate choice shares. Reliabilities were assessed on both ratings and choices.Surprisingly even with a large number of attributes, the full profile method consistently validated best. Second was a full profile model estimated on the respondents stated eight most important attributes. ACA and individual hybrid conjoint analysis performed similarly, but worse than these two methods on most measures. Validation differences were more strongly related to differences in attribute importances than desirabilities for levels within an attribute. It appears that these respondents were not able to accurately report self-explicated importances with a large number of attributes.

Values based supply chain management and emergent organizational structures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an emergent supply chain management system that supports a sustainable values based organization (VBO) using a structuration theory‐based framework.Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a sustainable beef cooperative employing a structuration theory framework provides insights into sustainable supply chain management models.Findings – The supply chain design and management afford the key to the VBOs success. In order to attain the necessary price premium, the unique product attributes acquired through the natural beef production process must be sustained along the entire supply chain and communicated to the end customer. Structuration theory is useful in understanding supply chain management in VBOs.Research limitations/implications – The paper has implications for studying VBOs, particularly those prioritizing sustainability values. The descriptive model presented is useful in settings where organizational structure and the supply chain are need...

Optimizing Service Attributes: The Seller's Utility Problem*

Service designers predict market share and sales for their new designs by estimating consumer utilities. The services technical features (for example, overnight parcel delivery), its price, and the nature of consumer interactions with the service delivery system influence those utilities. Price and the services technical features are usually quite objective and readily ascertained by the consumer. However, consumer perceptions about their interactions with the service delivery system are usually far more subjective. Furthermore, service designers can only hope to influence those perceptions indirectly through their decisions about nonlinear processes such as employee recruiting, training, and scheduling policies. Like the services technical features, these process choices affect quality perceptions, market share, revenues, costs, and profits. We propose a heuristic for the NP-hard service design problem that integrates realistic service delivery cost models with conjoint analysis. The resulting sellers utility function links expected profits to the intensity of a services influential attributes and also reveals an ideal setting or level for each service attribute. In tests with simulated service design problems, our proposed configurations compare quite favorably with the designs suggested by other normative service design heuristics.

Strategies for Integrating Capacity With Demand in Service Networks

Service managers face the problem of simultaneously developing and implementing both capacity and demand management strategies. Often they must chose between marketing options, for shifting or increasing demand, or operations management options such as adding additional capacity via more equipment or employees. The interaction of these two functional area strategies can have surprising, unintended, and often detrimental outcomes from a profit perspective. This article looks at the outcomes of various combinations of these decisions in a service network, a service with multiple activities within one site. We develop and apply an integrative model for determining the profit-maximizing capacity management strategy for a service network. We implement the model by combining a conjoint analysis-based optimal product design model from marketing with a simulation model investigating capacity and demand management strategies from operations management. We tested the model using data from an actual service network, a ski resort. Our results indicated that queue information signage was the most effective strategy for improving profitability. We also found that a decision that management believed would increase revenues—changing the customer class mix—actually decreased profitability substantially.

Let Me Count the Words Quantifying Open-Ended Interactions with Guests

Customer surveys and comment cards are all well and good, but the best way to gain a full understanding of a customer’s feelings about a hotel is to analyze the context of the customer’s comments. Heretofore a laborious process, qualitative data analysis is rapidly becoming feasible for hoteliers, using software applications that support content analysis and data linking and those that offer advanced linguistic analysis. The content-analysis applications allow an analyst to assess the number of times a customer uses a particular word or phrase in written material or transcribed remarks. By counting the frequency ofwords and noting the association of certain words, one can categorize themes and concepts. By thus “quantifying” the qualitative communication, an analyst can associate the resulting information with demographic or other quantitative data. A more sophisticated analysis is possible with linguistic analysis, which examines the semantics, syntax, and context of customers’ verbal communications. Linguistic analysis applications help the analyst identify the key ideas in a text, gain an indication of the relative importance of each idea, and then develop a prediction of a customer’s behavior based on the context of the remarks. Thus, unlike the typical five-point customer survey, the resulting analysis gives a strong indication of a customer’s emotional connection to a particular hotel.