Identifying passengers’ needs in cabin interiors of high-speed rails in China using quality function deployment for improving passenger satisfaction

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This study aims to propose a methodology for understanding the needs of passengers of the second-class cabins of high-speed rails (HSRs) in China. Addressing these needs is important to improve service quality and passenger satisfaction. We initially utilize the most important and also the first step of quality function deployment (QFD) to collect and organize data. Multiple methods, including scene deployment/gemba, social media analysis, and critical incident approach, are used to collect the voice of the customer (VOC). With aid of the VOC table (VOCT), the collected VOC is interpreted from passengers’ perspective and deployed as need items, which are grouped into passenger needs using the technique of affinity diagramming. To determine which of the passenger needs are important, we present the need items in a questionnaire in the form of pairwise comparison to obtain the opinion of frequent passengers. The collected responses are processed with the interval-valued analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to obtain the relative importance of the needs. Comfortable seat, sensory comfort, and proper luggage storage are identified as the major concerns of passengers. The obtained results should serve as valuable reference for planning and improving the design of cabin interiors and the quality of passenger service of HSRs in China. The study also provides a method for understanding customers’ needs related to the infrastructure and facilities of rails and those of other modes of public transportation.