Quality improvement of apartment projects using fuzzy-QFD approach: A case study in Vietnam

In Vietnam, the customers are becoming increasingly choosy when purchasing apartments. Enhancing the quality of real estate products in the design phase may raise competitive advantage in the real estate market. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an effective tool to improve the product quality and enhance competitive advantages in the market. The aim of this paper is to explore the applicability of QFD approach in enhancing the quality of a middle-grade apartment in the design phase. The seven-step procedure was used to develop the fuzzy-QFD system in the design phase of apartment projects. The study used a current apartment project as a case study to validate the approach. The customer's satisfaction and dissatisfaction on the current design was considered to determine design features a quality apartment meeting the customers' desires. The fuzzy numbers were used to rate the importance weightings of each customer requirement. The findings indicates that the balcony connected to the living room, the laundry with enough space for hanging the washing, and increasing the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation are major customer desires influencing on their decisions to purchase an apartment in Vietnam. The proposed design solutions for enhancing the quality of the apartment can be used as a guide to focus on what the customer desires throughout the design phase. The results of this paper suggested that QFD can help investors, real estate companies and consultants to produce quality apartments at the design phase. Since Korea has emerged as the first largest foreign investor in Vietnam, the customer's requirements, technical solutions, and proposed design solutions may be valuable lessons for Korean investors, who would like to invest in real estate projects in Vietnam. © Korean Society of Civil Engineers and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH 2009.