How to Build It So They Come: Using the Interrelationship Quality Function Deployment Matrix to Design a Professional Business Student Club

Abstract

This case study focuses on how the operational tool of interrelationship matrix of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tool was used by a group of operations management students to design an on-campus branch of a national professional organization, specifically the American Society for Quality (ASQ). To develop the QFD interrelationship matrix, secondary research was conducted to establish the Voice of the Customer (VoC) requirements in terms of potential future employers of business students. Because these requirements were derived from secondary sources, the weights of the importance of the requirements were considered uniform, as the research sources did not identify emphasis of any one requirement in preference of another. Primary research was also conducted by use of a business student focus group to identify the types of activities students would find desirable, thereby encouraging their alignment with the ASQ student group. Such activities constituted the design requirements of the group. These requirements were further weighted by the focus group and correlated to the VoC requirements to determine the specific student group activities that would be most advantageous to facilitate future employment opportunities for business students. The two key pursuits identified through the QFD process were live consulting projects and technical workshops. The results are useful for advisors and leaders of professionally-linked student groups in any profession as well as university career development offices.