APPLICATION OF KANO MODEL FOR CLASSIFYING THE REQUIREMENTS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Transcription

1 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN (Print) ISSN (Online) Volume 1 Number 1, January - December (2010), pp IAEME, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN (Print), IJMET I A E M E APPLICATION OF KANO MODEL FOR CLASSIFYING THE REQUIREMENTS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS ABSTRACT Mr. P.S.Senthil Kumar Research Scholar Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Anna University Coimbatore Dr. S.Balasubramanian Research Supervisor Anna University Coimbatore s_balasubramanian@rediffmail.com Dr. R.K.Suresh Principal PA College of Engineering and technology Pollachi Dr. S.Arularasu Professor Department of Production Engineering Government College of Technology Coimbatore Technical Universities are formulated to provide wholesome engineering excellence in academics and in related field of education to the students who desire to become engineers. This paper reveals the importance of technical education in southern part of India and the functioning of engineering colleges by providing education, facilities and all other parameters concerned with the development of knowledge, talent and leadership qualities in each individual as an engineering student. Engineering Colleges are one of the most important institutionalized sectors that are in the modern service sectors. Like all over India and the world, southern part of India is also facing stiff competition and is forced to develop new promotional strategies to cater the needs of the customers. 1

2 Thus colleges use customer based service options in order to meet the requirements of customers/students better. In modern competitive markets, customers satisfaction depends on customers expectation. The quality of service provided is measured by the level of satisfaction of customers expectations. The very first quality technique is to listen to voice of customers. One of the approaches used to determine customer expectations is the Kano Model. This model reveals the relationships between the meeting of customer requirements and consumer satisfaction. A lot of difference is displayed in the study of increase in the customer satisfaction. A small development provides considerable satisfaction and a great deal of development in some requirements brings little increase in customer satisfaction. Kano Model explains the differences of these requirements. In this study, the requirements of students/customers who take education services at Anna University are aimed to determine. The questionnaires were prepared to determine the requirements by doing with the focus groups. The questionnaires were applied to Anna University students and the requirement obtained as data were classified by means of Kano Model as basic requirements, expected requirements and exciting requirements. Thus the requirements contributed to the increasing needs of customer/student satisfaction was attempted to determine. The results by comparing with similar studies conducted in different colleges in other states were discussed. The study is considered to contribute for further research. Keywords: Kano Model, Student requirements, Satisfaction level and Engineering Colleges INTRODUCTION In the present educational competition, services are increasingly gaining prominence toward providing wholesome education. Engineering educational services for the students are gaining rapid momentum in which global and national standards are compared to refine and to find the best solution possible and are modified to suit the local specifications. Colleges have become rational service providers in which demand and supply cooperate to improve satisfying outputs. At this juncture, the colleges face 2

3 intensive international and national competitions and consequently choose in the same way as firms (Jarvis 2000). John and Lyth 1991; Cronin, 1992; Christou and sigala,2002;sigala,2004; suggested that the higher the service of quality is the more satisfied customer become. Thus, satisfaction is based on customer expectations and perception of service quality. Management perspectives have a great role in finding out the requirements and determining their differences becomes more important. It is not only the customers demands are to be considered but also for what those specific requirements are for Okul,(2007) debated that other than classical methods of interviews and focus groups, Kano Model is used in classifying the requirements. Kano Model is used to categorize the customer requirements. This also determines the levels of satisfaction. In this study, Kano Model is used in classifying the expectations of the engineering students from the service point of view that they get. The first part of the study general information about Kano Model is given and in the second part of the study, the analysis of the data taken in the form of questionnaires from the engineering college students of Anna University and their expectations from the services and the results are given. Some suggestions have been made according to the results taken at the end of the complete analysis. KANO S MODEL AND THEORY Everyone has to understand the potential customers requirements completely and based on the same, quality of service and consequent adjustments is required in the service offering toward expected requirement. By using Kano s model one can clarify the different to see customer requirements by classifying them into a few groups and by locating each requirement on a graph. By assumption, Kano model s customer satisfaction is always not proportional to how fully functional may be the product is or in other words, higher quality does not necessarily lead to higher satisfaction for all the product attributes or service requirements. In this case, the type and intensity of service requirements may be considered must-be (Expected) and should be satisfied at all levels. Some service requirements (Attractive as delighters, unexpected or exciting) don t make any difference in case of deficiency of these requirements but elevate satisfaction 3

4 levels when fulfilled. These are neither explicitly expressed nor expected by the students. The third type of service requirement in one-dimensional aspect (existing) and how these requirements are with high level of satisfaction (Sofyal and Kartal, 2005).The lack of explanatory power of one-dimensional recognition of quality has brought a new concept called theory of attractive quality by Kano (2001).For example, people are satisfied if the expiry date of a cough tonic extends and dissatisfied if the cough mixture shortens the expiration. For a quality attribute such as quality in medicine, people are satisfied if there is no adulteration in the medicine, but very much dissatisfied if it does. The one dimensional view of the quality can explain the role of adulteration but not expiration. To understand the role of quality attributes, Kano et al (1984) presents a model that evaluates patterns of quality, based on customers satisfaction with specific quality attributes and their degree of sufficiency. The following Figure 1 depicts the necessity of sufficiency and satisfaction. The horizontal axis in the Kano graph shows the physical sufficiency of a certain quality attribute and the vertical axis shows the Figure 1 Kano Model 4

5 Satisfaction with a certain quality attribute is given below. This can be classified into five quality attributes namely Attractive quality (A) One dimensional quality (O) Must be quality (M) Indifferent quality (I) Reverse quality (R) Table 1 Five level Kano Classification FIVE LEVEL KANO QUESTIONNAIRES A survey is done based on the original version of the theory of attractive quality (Kano et al., 1984) and the Kano questionnaire. This questionnaire is constructed through two pairs of customer requirement questions. How do you feel if that feature is present in the product (functional form of the question), and how do you feel if that feature is not present in the product (dysfunctional form of the question) (see Kano et al., 1984; Berger et al., 1993). For each question the customer selects one from the five alternative answers. The alternatives are like, must be, neutral, live with it and dislike. The perceptions were then evaluated into quality dimensions on the basis of how the respondents perceived the functional and dysfunctional form of a quality attribute. 5

6 Depending on the answers the grades are given like A,O,I,M,R that given a different meaning. PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF STUDY There is a dynamic competition prevailing in the education service sector and especially in the engineering education. Each state of south India is striving hard to start as many engineering colleges as possible. For example the state of Tamilnadu has 450 Engineering colleges and still about 100 colleges are awaiting approval for the coming academic year. Like this, there are so many institutions which are awaiting approval in other Southern states. Like any other product, education also has come in the purview of customer orientations and expectations. The requirements of customers or students and their expectations are different and higher. In this study, we have tried to determine how effective those students expectations are on the satisfaction they get. From the results taken from the study, some suggestions will be made how engineering colleges can use their services to satisfy the students. In this study Kano Model has been used which is widely used in the classification of the requirements. DATA AND SAMPLES An extensive analysis and literature review was done on the subject regarding quality improvement in technical education, many potential student requirements are identified and these requirements are discussed with a focus group comprised of 15 students. The focus group ended up with a total of 25 potential students requirements. The Anna University students accepted to join the study. A 300 questionnaire forms were prepared. The data tool was questionnaire forms and was evaluated. The data obtained were tested using SPSS frequency analysis and Kano s Model. Different department students were considered for the same. The variables of this study shown in Table 2. 6

7 TABLE 2 VARIABLES FOR KANO MODEL STUDY 1. Conformity of teaching faculty in the best of standards (National/International) 2. Class lecture hours 3. Facilities in class rooms-lcd, Projectors and modern equipments, online class room 4. Facilities in the laboratories 5. The possibility of having good communication with teaching staff members 6. The possibility of having good communication with the administrative members 7. Hostels/Dormitories cleanliness and hygine 8. Food & dining hall services 9. Sig boards on campuses and identifying signs of buildings 10. Shopping services and centers in colleges 11. Students forum and clubs 12. Psychological counseling services 13. Transportation facilities on campus 14. Scholarship services and by the concerned universities 15. Sports and entertainment facilities 16. The promotion of the colleges nationally and internationally 17. The positive attitude of the people of the town towards the students 18. Organizing social and cultural services in the villages through colleges 19. Availability of internet services in the college labs and hostel premises 20. Organizing value added certificate courses during college days & week ends 21. Availability & Accessibility of Library services with rich data base 22. Reunion club or Alumni association to follow up students after graduation 23. Professional development services during college 24. Evaluation methods & internal assessment regulations 25. The security system on campus 7

8 FINDINGS Demographic display of students Table 3 Demographic display The classification of requirement according to Kano Model Attractive quality (A) One dimensional quality (O) Must be quality (M) Indifferent quality (I) Reverse quality (R) 8

9 Table 4 Frequency of quality attributes As per the results of the frequency analysis, 09 are indifferent frequencies and 15 are one dimensional requirement. The following are the one dimensional representations 9

10 like: Conformity of teaching faculty in the best of standards (National/International), Facilities in class rooms-lcd, Projectors and modern equipments, online class room, Facilities in the laboratories, The possibility of having good communication with teaching staff members, The possibility of having good communication with the administrative members, Hostels/Dormitories cleanliness and hygiene, Food & dining hall services etc. After the first classification and most frequently answered, customers satisfaction coefficients have been calculated in order to find out the variables which are closer to one dimensional requirements and attractive requirements. The following formula has shown in table 5 for calculation of customers satisfaction coefficients. Table 5 Calculation of customer s satisfaction coefficient (CSC) Table 6 Total Customers satisfaction Coefficient Thus the customer satisfaction coefficients are calculated and the variables with the negative coefficients have been identified in the following table as those requirements are closer to one dimensional requirement. With the help of the requirement strategy, the customer satisfaction dimension and dissatisfaction dimension are calculated. The total customer satisfaction is calculated with the results achieved. Some of the attributes are one dimensional oriented and some are attractive oriented. Must be quality is given importance and hence a few relate to Must-be quality. The results that show negative are tabulated and the results that show positive sign are tabulated. Some of the requirements are Conformity of teaching faculty in the best of standards (National/International), Class lecture hours, Facilities in class rooms- LCD, Projectors and modern equipments, online class room, Facilities in the laboratories, The possibility of having good communication with teaching staff members, The 10

11 possibility of having good communication with the administrative members, Hostels/Dormitories cleanliness and hygiene, Food & dining hall services, Sign boards on campuses and identifying signs of buildings, Shopping services and centers in colleges, Transportation facilities on campus and Psychological counseling services. The following table 7 shows the entire result of customer satisfaction and its total requirement. Table 7 Total customer requirement table 11

12 From this table all positive results are considered to be closer to attractive requirements & all negative results are considered to be closer to one-dimensional requirements. The requirements that is closer to ATTRACTIVE requirements Table 8 Attractive requirements ONE DIMENSIONAL REQUIREMENT Table 9 One dimensional requirements 12

13 CLOSER TO REVERSE REQUIREMENTS The below mention result is considered to be Reverse requirement and hence the students are not in favour of the present evaluation and internal assessment regulations. They are in need of an alternate system of evaluation and internal assessment regulations. The requirements which are closer both to ATTRACTIVE and ONE DIMENSIONAL requirements are shown in table 10. Table 10 closer to both attractive and one dimensional requirement Transformation table 13

14 The X and Y values from the Kano s Transformation table are taken as the result of the transformation which is depicted in the table 11 given below. The important levels are considered to be above 4 and that is closer to one dimensional requirements and must-be requirements. There is no variable among the requirements which has the importance level as 3.No transformation process has been applied to the variables with the level of importance between 3 and 4 so that the results can be easily understood. The X and Y values of the levels of importance of the requirements: Table 11 he X & Y important values From the study, the results are taken and it has been evident that no requirement is below 3 & above 4.5.The position of the requirements as per the result is shown in the figure 2. Figure 2 The position of requirements according to X & Y values 14

15 RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS The Kano Model was applied to the engineering college students to find out their expectations and satisfactions of the engineering colleges,25 questions were framed and out of that 09 variables were out to be indifferent requirements, and the remaining were considered to be closer to one dimensional requirement s and attractive requirements. In the study, one requirement happened to be reverse and so the students are not satisfied with the present evaluation system and internal assessments. An alternate requirement is very well expected from the engineering colleges students. From the results it is evident that most of the requirements are in the negative side and hence the variables should move to the attractive requirement category.in order to increase the satisfaction level, the college should improve or bring changes in Conformity of teaching faculty in the best of standards (National/International), Psychological counseling services, Class lecture hours, The possibility of having good communication with teaching staff members, Availability of internet services in the college labs and hostel premises and Evaluation methods & internal assessment regulations. REFERENCES 1) Witell, L. and Löfgren, M., (2007), Classification of quality attributes Managing Service Quality Vol.17, No: 1., pp ) An Empirical Study on the Use of Kano s Model In A Higher Education Institution In Turkey, 11th International Symposium on Quality Function Deployment, 26-30, September 2005, s. 365, Kuadaszmir.). 3) Sigala, M. (2004a), Investigating the factors determining e-learning effectiveness in tourism and hospitality education, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education,Vol.16 No. 2, pp ) Kano, N. (2001), Life cycle and creation of attractive quality, paper presented at the 4 th International QMOD (Quality Management and Organisational Development) Conference, Linko ping University,Linko ping. 5) Christou, E. and Sigala, M. (2002), Conceptualising the measurement of service quality and TQM performance for hotels:the HOSTQUAL model,acta Touristica,Vol. 14 No. 2, pp

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