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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Transforming customer needs into road management requirements. Preliminary study

Asiakastarpeet tienpidon vaatimuksiksi. Esiselvitys

The purpose of the study is to describe on a general level, how customer needs are transformed into road management requirements, to illustrate by means of examples, how needs of various customer groups are taken into account in the planning activities of Finnish Road Administration, and to define, which additional studies should be carried out so that customer needs would be all-inclusively taken into account in various activities and in various planning phases of road management. The needs of two customer groups have been analyzed in ten road management documents. The case groups are children under the age of 15, and timber transport in forest industry. The case documents have been classified into those guiding planning, defining procurement, and describing contents of procurement. The customer needs are correspondingly exposed as impacts, goals, and quality requirements. In this study the identification of customer needs is based on previous studies. The conclusions are divided into two parts, the first being the observations made in the case documents, and the second proposals to develop the practices of Road Administration. Based on the findings in case documents, there are deficiencies in recognition of customer groups and customer needs as well as in the internal logic of the documents. The hierarchy of the planning system does not always make itself apparent in documents. Also, the suitable classification of customer groups varies on different levels of planning. The documents guiding planning cannot be assumed to include all the customer needs. Therefore, customer needs not in the focus of road management or not related to specific problems may not at all emerge in strategic planning documents. Customer needs can often be detected through problems experienced by customers. In order to deliberate different possible ways and means of road management to solve problems, it is necessary to identify the needs behind the problems. In order to better take into account customer needs in planning, a general model has been created for developing planning practices in Road Administration. In addition, the report describes principles in transforming customer needs into road management requirements, and principles in treating impacts, goals, and quality requirements on different levels of planning. The study includes a general assessment of quality management theories in transforming customer needs into road management requirements. The conclusion of the assessment is that at least Quality Function Deployment Theory (QFD) or Critical to Quality Theory (CTQ) provide tools the transformation. Further development to better take into account customer needs in planning is carried out in the development program SUUNTA 2010, for which the study has produced recommendations. This report may be found at http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/julkaisut/pdf2/3201064-v-astar-tienpidon_vaatimukset.pdf

Language

  • Finnish

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01081649
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: TRL
  • ISBN: 978-951-803-926-9
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Nov 29 2007 12:58PM