Abstract:

Quality has been one of the major concerns of education across all levels. With globalization of economy, demand for quality in education has become more prominent. All over the world there is a massive search for implementable strategies for management of quality. Quality function deployment offers a unique opportunity to respond to this challenge though it has been successfully implemented at various levels of manufacturing activities and service industries. It had its origin in industry. The QFD methodology needs intelligent adaptation to suit education. This paper covers philosophical underpinning of QFD its instrumentalities as well as methods of strategic planning and implementation in technical institution.
The project was carried for technical institute which is 7 years old, has developed minimum infrastructure and just adequate number of qualified staff. At the time of admission to first year of engineering, the institution is facing a problem of filling the available seats and good quality of students. The institute is in a nascent stage and management wish to develop it as one of the leading technical institutes. Looking on the way to the students, it is decided to develop the existing institution.

Objective of study:
From this perspective the project is undertaken and the detail objectives were chalked out. The main objectives of this project were:
1. To identify the student’s expectation and requirements from the institution.
2. To prepare the development plan as per the student requirements.
3. To allocate the funds as per the magnitude and high up requirements of student.
The secondary objectives were derived from the first two objectives so as to accomplish the project systematically. These were:
1. Prioritizing the customer/student requirements so as to start the action plan.
2. To assess the strength and weaknesses of the institute under study with reference to other institutions in vicinity.
In order to furnish the said objectives QFD tool found to be the most suitable.

Methodology:
A team of seven members was formed. The team consists of two staff members of the institution, principal, and management representative and two students. In order to accomplish the first objective of the project survey were conducted. The questionnaires were circulated to 145 students out of which 102 responses were considered for the further analysis. All the way through the survey, customer/students expectations and needs have been identified.
Steps followed in QFD Process
Step 1- List Customer/Student Requirements (WHATs)
Step 2- List Technical Descriptors (HOWs)
Step 3- Develop a Relationship Matrix between WHATs and HOWs
Step 4-Develop an Interrelationship between HOWs
Step 5-Competitive Assessments
Step 6-Develop Prioritized Customer Requirements
Step 7-Develop Prioritized Technical Descriptor
Step 8- Computation and Calculations of Degree of Difficulty, Target Value, Absolute Weight, Relative Weight

Result and Action - The greater value of relative weight was the decider of priorities of technical descriptor. After calculating the absolute and relative weight the action plan was chalked out. Conclusions were derived on the basis of results.

Keywords:

Quality Function Deployment, Student's Expectation, Technical Discriptor, House of Quality.