Automated stochastic quality function deployment system for measuring the quality performance of design/build contractors

This paper introduces an automated tool named Stochastic Quality Function Deployment (SQFD) system, which measures the quality performance of a Design/Build (D/B) contractor. SQFD integrates stochastic simulation modeling and analysis techniques into traditional QFD to deal efficiently with the uncertainties in the input data, to support the quality performance measurement that is involved in multi-attribute and multi-participant decision-making, and to predict the variability in the output. D/B construction owners who are in the process of selecting a D/B firm for a project would benefit from SQFD, because the system allows an owner to expeditiously assess the quality performance of potential D/B firms in their bidding list. An example in D/B contractor evaluation is presented to illustrate the functioning of the system. This quantitative method is a significant contribution to the field of quality performance measurement, because (1) SQFD is totally automated, (2) SQFD's reliability is higher than conventional QFD, and (3) SQFD efficiently deals with uncertainties in multi-attribute and multi-participant decision-making, and therefore generates more accurate results. The system helps to improve the D/B project bidding system.