Abstract

Correlating customer requirements with system design elements leads to quality improvement. A key tool in this process is quality function deployment (QFD). At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Mechanical Engineering Department used QFD to align its curriculum system with the requirements of three customer groups: faculty members, undergraduate students, and employers. For each group, a QFD matrix displayed their requirements, the importance of each requirement, and the system elements correlated to the requirements. A survey and QFD analysis of faculty members identified important characteristics of a department chair: consistency, being a faculty champion, and having budget priorities. Undergraduate students required the curriculum: to reinforce and evaluate learning; to provide technical and communication skills; and to be run by faculty with appropriate credentials. An interview with the vice president of a local company suggested that employers rate department philosophy, faculty credentials, and curriculum design as important requirements. In response to these analyses, the department revised its curriculum. This included adding technical courses while reducing cycle time (years to graduation) from five years to four.