DOI 10.1007/s11135-006-9058-y
O R I G I NA L PA P E R
A case study on the application of Fuzzy QFD in TRIZ
for service quality improvement
Chao-Ton Su · Chin-Sen Lin
Accepted: 15 July 2006 / Published online: 4 January 2007 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006
Abstract The improvement of service quality so as to enhance customer satisfac-tion has been widely mensatisfac-tioned over the past few decades. However, a creative and systematic way of achieving higher customer satisfaction in terms of service qual-ity is rarely discussed. Recently, TRIZ, a Russian acronym which means “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving,” has been proven to be a well-structured and innova-tive way to solve problems in both technical and non-technical areas. In this study, a systematic model based on the TRIZ methodology is proposed to generate creative solutions for service quality improvement. This is done by examining first the determi-nants of service quality based on a comprehensive qualitative study in the electronic commerce sector. Then the correlation between the imprecise requirements from customers and the determinants of service quality is analyzed with Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in order to identify the critical determinants relating to customer satisfaction. After which, the corresponding TRIZ engineering parameters can be effectively applied in the TRIZ contradiction matrix to identify the inventive principles. A case study is illustrated to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in an e-commerce company, and its results are presented to show the applicability of the TRIZ methodology in the e-service sector.
Keywords Fuzzy QFD· TRIZ · Contradiction Matrix · E-Commerce
C.-T. Su (
B
)Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, 101, Kuang Fu Road, Sec. 2, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C.
e-mail: ctsu@mx.nthu.edu.tw C.-S. Lin
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Chiao Tung University, 1001, Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C.
1 Introduction
Service-oriented industries have experienced a significant growth over the past sev-eral decades, and service quality has become a frequently studied area in the service marketing literature. In the last three decades, this topic has been undertaken by researchers to understand and identify what service quality is (Kang and James 2004). Parasuraman et al.(2005) found from early researches that service quality stems from the comparison of what customers expect a company should offer with the com-pany’s actual service performance. Even though an increasing number of companies are realizing the importance of service quality and customer satisfaction, however, how to achieve these goals is not always clear for these companies. In this respect, a valid methodology for companies to achieve improvement in their services is rec-ognized as the pivotal recipe. In response to this concern, TRIZ researchers have provided a number of successful models to validate TRIZ’s effectiveness in creating and improving new services (Retseptor 2003;Zhang et al. 2003).
The strength of TRIZ as a method for developing creative solutions to problems lies in its removal of contradictions rather than the use of the conventional approach by means of compromise or tradeoffs. At this point, there are a number of ways forward, but within the TRIZ tool set, contradiction analysis is the most frequently and widely used method to resolve problems pertaining to the elimination of the problem’s con-tradictions. The contradiction analysis process requires a matrix which is formed by 39 parameters of the technological systems and 40 types of inventive principles. When a problem solver faces a conflict, he/she first searches for the appropriate parameters by matching the meaning of each contradiction from the 39 engineering parameters that have been defined in the TRIZ. Then through the contradiction matrix, the user can indicate the suitable inventive principles and can suggest ways to generate the ideal solutions.
Generally, the TRIZ process starts with stripping away the side issues and precon-ceptions in order to define the core problem. This involves breaking the problem down into its most elementary components, understanding each component, expressing the components in the most elementary or fundamental way, and then finally freeing one-self from the constraints of the language in which the problem is expressed (Webb 2002). At this point, the TRIZ process relies on the problem solvers to actually look at the essentials of the problem and conceptualize the critical characteristics of the problem. In the beginning, the problem solvers need to clearly discuss and analyze the contradictory relationship within the specified problem. In practice, when the problem solvers focus on the process of formulating the problems, the uncertain and ambiguous expression of their opinions usually impedes the consensus of the discus-sion. This will consequently affect the level of inventive solutions. Therefore, with the noticeable results of applying TRIZ in the technological field, this study attempts to present a systematic process based on the TRIZ methodology with the contradiction matrix to resolve the problems in the specified industry and develop a systematic pro-cedure to overcome the discrepancies in the problem-formulating process by using Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (QFD); this will help analyze the imprecise and subjective problem information. Meanwhile, a case study on the e-service sector is demonstrated to show the practicability of our proposed approach. Besides, in our case study, the determinants of e-service quality are extracted and used to translate the essentials of the problem into their principal characteristics, and consequently,
the relevant TRIZ engineering parameters and inventive principles can be effectively identified.
2 TRIZ
The TRIZ methodology offers a well-structured and high-power inventive problem-solving process. The application of TRIZ thinking tools in diverse industries has successfully replaced the unsystematic trial-and-error method in the search for solu-tions in the daily life of engineers and developers. Altshuller, the proponent of the TRIZ method, analyzed thousands of worldwide patents from leading engineering fields, and categorized these patents in a novel way by removing the subject matter to identify the problem-solving process rather than by classifying the patents by industry. From this, he found that the same problems were often solved over and over again using one of only 40 fundamental inventive principles.
In this respect,Mann(2002) indicated that TRIZ researchers have encapsulated the principles of good inventive practice, and then set them into a general problem-solving structure.Loebmann(2002) explained the general process by which the TRIZ method overcomes the psychological inertia barrier, and this is through the general-ization of the specific problem to an analogous TRIZ generic problem. Then through the comparison of this generic TRIZ problem with the analogous generic TRIZ solu-tion in the knowledge database obtained from scientific effects and patents research, one can generate the solutions for the specific problem. Some classical methods used to resolve the specific problem by directly jumping into a specific solution are fre-quently done by luck or by intuitively finding out the solution. Collectively, TRIZ has become a process that is reliable when it comes to achieving systematic innovation, and it helps avoid an inefficient route for problem solving by providing a systematic and efficient way to solve the problem.
In the application of the TRIZ methodology, one of the recent trends is to integrate TRIZ with other methods in order to strengthen its strong points.Yanashina et al. (2002) described a new method to systematically integrate QFD with TRIZ, and in the process, enabled the effective and systematic creation of new products. In the current study, we attempt to apply the Fuzzy QFD matrix to analyze imprecise and subjective problem information in order to clarify the essentials of the problem under a fuzzy environment.
3 Fuzzy QFD
Quality Function Deployment is often used to understand the voice of customers regarding products, and relate them with product design specifications or technical characteristics to be subsequently translated into production requirements. However, when capturing customer requirements from qualitative or linguistic data, for exam-ple, human perception, judgment, and evaluation on the importance of customer requirement or relationship strength which are often vague and imprecise in nature, these are difficult to estimate exactly such as numerical data. Thereby, the linguistic data that the conventional QFD process uses can be treated to approximate exactness with the help of the fuzzy set theory.
The fuzzy set theory, introduced by Zadeh, is widely applied to resolve problems that are subjective, uncertain, and imprecise in nature. It provides a strict mathemati-cal framework in which vague conceptual phenomena can be precisely and rigorously studied. The methodologies using Fuzzy QFD to convert qualitative information into quantitative parameters have been explored in various applications.Temponi et al. (1999) illustrated their approach, which is a fuzzy logic-based extension to House of Quality (HOQ) for capturing imprecise requirements to facilitate communication of team members and the formal representation of requirements, using a textile mill supply business application. Meanwhile,Sohn and Choi(2001) constructed a Fuzzy QFD model in order to convey the fuzzy relationship between customer needs and design specification for reliability in the context of Supply Chain Management (SCM).
4 Proposed approach
Based on the literature review in the context of TRIZ and Fuzzy QFD, and with our main focus on service quality improvement, we come up with a systematic framework in the problem-solving process for a specified sector. Figure1depicts the process flow of our proposed approach that comprises of five main stages.
Stage 1 Define the scope of the problem, and identify the sector under which it is classified. For example, depending on the service that an Application Software Provider (ASP) company provides, the problems arising from this company can be classified under the sector of electronic commerce (e-commerce).
Stage 2 The determinants which affect the quality of service and customer satisfac-tion can be extracted from the review of various perspectives regarding the specified sector. When we focus on service quality improvement especially, the reference mate-rials relating to this sector should be extensively analyzed to find out the dominant characteristics affecting the service quality in this sector.
Stage 3 Apply the TRIZ contradiction matrix to resolve the problem step-by-step according to the general TRIZ problem-solving process.
Step 3.1 Describe the specified problem with all the customers’ needs and expected requirements.
Step 3.2 Define the ideal situation to be achieved without using extra resources when the contradictions within the problem are resolved.
Step 3.3 With the items of determinants developed from stage 2, apply Fuzzy QFD to indicate the critical determinants relevant to the customers’ requirements specified in step 3.1. The computational procedures for the fuzzy numbers in the Fuzzy QFD system are shown in the following:
Step 3.3.1 Identification of linguistic terms: In order to identify the correlative rela-tionships between the customer requirements and the service quality determinants of the sector, we describe the importance of the relationship through linguistic terms with five distinct levels, which are extremely important (EI), very important (VI), important (I), a little important (LI), and not important (NI).
Step 3.3.2 Fuzzification of input data: The triangular fuzzy number which is shown in Fig.2is used in this study and all membership functions for the linguistic input data which is shown in Fig.3are standardized in the interval [0,1].
Step 3.3.3 Applying fuzzy arithmetic: The fuzzy arithmetic is applied to the calculation of the priorities of relevant service quality determinants, and the addition and multiplication of fuzzy numbers will be performed for the calculation. Suppose
Stage 1 : Define the scope of the problem and identify the sector under which it is classified.
Stage 2 : Extract the determinants which will affect the customer satisfaction of the specified sector and summarize to a table of determinants.
Stage 3 : Generate feasible solutions for the specified problem. 3.1: Describe the specified problem.
3.2: Define the ideality or ideal situation for the specified problem.
3.3: Apply Fuzzy QFD with the items of determinants from Stage 2 to indicate the critical determinants relevant to the specified problem.
3.4: Identify the conflict determinants which prevent the ideality from being achieved.
3.5: Detect the relative TRIZ parameters which will get worse and need to be improved.
3.6: According to TRIZ contradiction matrix, denote the intersection of the improving and worsening parameters we picked.
3.7: Indicate the numbers of the TRIZ 40 inventive principles.
3.8: Connect the suggested principles to the specific problem and generate all possible solutions to eliminating the conflict points.
3.9: Examine and present the feasible solutions.
Stage 4 : Implement the feasible solutions.
Identify the next problem need to be resolved. Stage 5: Are the results effective?
YES NO
Fig. 1 The systematic problem-solving process for the specified sector
1.00 NI LI x I VI EI Membership Function 0.0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1.00
Fig. 3 The membership
functions of the triangular fuzzy number 4x – 3, 0.75< x <1 1, x=1 0, others µEI(x) = 4x –2, 0.5< x < 0.75 1, x=0.75 –4x +4, 0.75< x < 1 0, others µVI(x) = 4x – 1, 0.25< x < 0.5 1, x= 0.5 –4x +3, 0.5 < x < 0.75 0, others µI(x) = 4x, 0< x < 0.25 1, x= 0.25 –4x +2, 0.25< x <0.5 0, others µLI(x) = 1, x= 0 –4x +1, 0< x < 0.25 0, others µNI(x) =
Sitj = (qitj, oitj, pitj) is the triangular fuzzy number of the jth team member assessing
the correlative importance between the tth customer requirement and the ith category of service quality determinants. Then Sit is defined as the average fuzzy number of the ith category of the service quality determinant for the tth customer requirement, where n is the number of the team members.
Sit= 1 n n j=1 Sitj. (1)
We have Sit= (qit, oit, pit) calculated by the following equations:
qit= 1 n n j=1 qitj, (2) oit= 1 n n j=1 oitj, (3) pit= 1 n n j=1 pitj. (4)
Suppose there is no weighting difference considered among the determinants of ser-vice quality, and the integrated fuzzy number of each serser-vice quality determinant (Qi, Oi, Pi) can be calculated by the following equations:
Qi= 1 k k t=1 qit, (5) Oi= 1 k k t=1 oit, (6) Pi= 1 k k t=1 pit. (7)
Step 3.3.4 Defuzzification of output data: It is suggested that the output results be presented in crisp data as they are easier to interpret, and the defuzzification method used in Chen’s research (1996) is applied in the current study. Let X denote the defuzzified value of the integrated fuzzy number for each service quality determinant (Qi, Oi, Pi), and the defuzzified values can be calculated with the following equation:
X=Qi+ Oi+ Oi+ Pi
4 . (8)
Step 3.3.5 Ranking the defuzzified values of service quality determinants.
Step 3.4 From the most important determinants selected from the rankings, we discuss to identify the conflicting determinants which will enhance and prevent the ideal solution to be acquired.
Step 3.5 Detect the corresponding TRIZ engineering parameters which become worse and need to be improved from the contradiction matrix based on the determi-nants which were identified from step 3.4.
Step 3.6 According to the TRIZ contradiction matrix, the denoted numbers of the 40 TRIZ inventive principles can be gathered from the intersection of the improving and worsening TRIZ parameters.
Step 3.7 When we indicate the 40 TRIZ inventive principles based on the content of the specified problem, we suggest that the appropriate re-explanations and exam-ples of the 40 TRIZ inventive princiexam-ples developed in distinct areas be examined and benchmarked. For instance, the studies ofMann and Domb(1999),Rea(2001), Retseptor(2003,2005), andZhang et al.(2003) are relevant to service quality in the non-technical field.
Step 3.8 Following the indicated principles and suggested ways, all possible solu-tions may be generated through various discussing meetings.
Step 3.9 Examine to obtain the feasible solutions with concerned criteria such as cost, time, available human resources, technological level, etc.
Stages 4 and 5 After the feasible solutions have been examined and presented, the confirmed feasible solutions can be implemented in the fourth stage. After a period of implementation, the results can be evaluated with various specified performance criteria in the fifth stage. If the results indicate that the conflicts of the problem were not effectively resolved, the third stage is repeated to examine which step involved the problem.
5 Case study
The studied company, EC.COM, specializes in the development of online database application and has achieved the largest market share in Taiwan, as well as the larg-est market share in online database software in Asia. The products of EC.COM are designed to help enterprises solve data management problems. With absolute compet-itive advantages, EC.COM’s products have obtained a number of worldwide patents and won appraisal from customers.
The case study focused on providing a systematic way of idea generation to solve EC.COM’s problems in service operations and to create valuable services in order to enhance the satisfaction of customers. However, since the delivery of new infor-mation technology services and business solutions to their clients, many of the client companies adopting their services experienced various problems in the areas of soft-ware availability, online security, maintenance of cost, and technical support. Hence, the company hoped that the true nature of the problems could be studied in depth, and they endeavored to generate solutions that will provide customers with overall value-added services.
We started by organizing a problem-solving team in EC.COM in the first step. Investigations were done on the business map, and interviews with relevant individ-uals in certain divisions of the company were likewise conducted. Finally, we found that there were various service contradictions contained within the services provided by the company, for instance, the contradiction of “Functionality versus Ease of use” remained unresolved among the division of software design for such a long time, and it might be possible to use TRIZ to resolve the service problems which have embedded contradictions. Therefore, we recognized that our proposed approach is suitable to resolve the problems, and we attempted to follow the steps in Fig.1to generate the inventive solutions to resolve the company’s problems.
Stage 1 In our studied case, the company delivers and manages computer applica-tions and services from remote data centers to multiple users. Thus, depending on the type of services this company provides, the problem of this company can be classified under the scope of the e-commerce sector.
Stage 2 Service quality is indicated as one of the best performance-based mea-sured factors of success. Hence, in this stage, we studied various perspectives from the existing literature in order to extract the major determinants of service quality in e-commerce. Through the categorization of the related academic papers within the scope of the case problem, we concluded how customer satisfaction is influenced through the identification of the dominant characteristics of e-commerce: determi-nants of e-business operation, the measurement of the determidetermi-nants of e-service quality, and the determinants of e-service satisfaction.
After extensively discussing the papers relating to the determinants which affect service quality and customer satisfaction in e-commerce, the items perceived to be similar in explanatory meanings were gathered in the same category and redefined after comparing the definitions of similar determinants. To compute for the total, 29 categories were classified as the dominant characteristics of e-service quality. We summarized and described all these categories of determinants in Table1.
Stage 3 The feasible solutions were generated through the following steps: Step 3.1 Software availability, online security, maintenance of cost, and technical support were the four main customer requirements specified in this problem.
Ta b le 1 T h e Summary of the e -service quality d eterminants Category Determinants Interpretations Referenced papers Name of the referenced p apers 1 A ctive feedback T h e a ctivity to find out the b est solution [1], [2], [6], [7] [1] Parasuraman e t a l. ( 2005 ) for the customer , notification about delays , [2] Stauss ( 2002 ) feedback about procedures and d ecisions . 2 A dequac y T h e a dequac y of the p roblem’ s [2] [3] Madu and M adu ( 2002 ) solution, fairness of the compensation, and fi t-to-task information o ffered. 3 A esthetics T h e a ppearance of the w ebsite including [2], [11] [4] S zymanski and H ise (2000) Appearance the clarity and readability o f texts , [5] Ribbink et al. ( 2004 ) V isual appeal and site creativity . Aesthetic d esign 4 A ssurance T he ability to convey trust a nd confidence [3], [6], [8], [11], [15] [6] Cox and D ale ( 2001 ) in the o rganization with respect to security and p rivac y. 5 Communication T h e integration o f internal a nd external [3], [5], [9], [14] [7] Surjadjaja, Ghosh a nd Antony ( 2003 ) External communication communication systems , and the ability [8] Santos ( 2003 ) Internal communication of the w ebsite to tailor its products and [9] Iwaarden e t a l. ( 2003 ) Ease of understanding services to m eet customers’ expectations . [10] Rea ( 2001 ) F riendliness Integration o f traditional and W eb-based communication 6 Compensation T he degree to which the w ebsite [2], [6–8], [11], [14] [11] Loebmann ( 2002 ) Return process compensates customers for problems . [12] W o lfinbarger and G illy ( 2003 ) Service recovery 7 Contact T he availability o f a ssistance through [1], [7], [13] [13] Zeithaml et al. ( 2002 ) telephone or online representatives .
Ta b le 1 continued Category Determinants Interpretations Referenced papers Name of the referenced p apers 8 Content T he presentation and layout of factual [8], [13] [14] Li et al. ( 2003 ) Quality o f information information a nd functions on the w ebsite Up to date information 9 Convenience T he trading hours , absence o f queues , [7], [8], [14] [15] Y o o a nd Donthu ( 2001 ) availability o f m ore alternatives , a nd faster transactions . 10 Customer service Responsive a nd helpful service that [7] [16] Y a ng and Jun ( 2002 ) responds to customer inquiries quickly . 11 Customization T h e d egree of change according [1–3], [6–8], Personalization to customers’ requirements a nd the Product o r service ability to learn their needs in o rder to differentiation and customization anticipate . their future p references [9], [12–14], [16] 12 Ease of use Concise , orderly , easy-to-understand, [12] Intuitive operation and easy-to-navigate w ebsite contents . 13 Effort T h e v isible effort to resolve customers’ problem. [3], [7], [16] 14 Empathy T he willingness to take customers’ perspective . [5], [8], [11], [15], [16] Understanding Flow or emotional a ppeal 15 Incentives T h e e ncouragement g iven by the w ebsite to [1], [3], [4], [7], [8], [11], [13] Relative advantage consumers in consideration o f the Better than a lternative channels alternatives already available 16 Interactivity T he services p rovided to e nable interaction [2] Real time assistance by a CSR between a customer a nd a company Support representative o r a nother customer of the w ebsite .
Ta b le 1 continued Category Determinants Interpretations Referenced papers Name of the referenced p apers 17 Perceived risk T h e level of perceived risk with the a ctivities [2], [3], [6], [9], [11], [14] provided by online service providers . 18 Performance T he ability o f the website to a ccess the [3–5], [7–9], Efficienc y information needed and m ake it easily Navigability available to its customers when n eeded Online convenience [11], [12], [14] Linkage Online completeness Storage capability 19 Price T h e cost which customers a re willing to spend in [1], [3], [4], [7], [8], [12], [13], [15] engaging in online a ctivities . 20 Credibility T he ability to p erform the p romised service [8], [10], [11] Reliability e ffectively , dependability , Fulfillment a nd consistenc y in p erformance . 21 Reputation T he perception which is affected by past experience , [2], [3] Organizational reputation the site’ s performance , and o ther Consistent image unexplainable intangibles that the customer may p erceive . 22 Responsiveness T he processing speed of a company to provide [7], [8], [11] Response time a ccurate and consistent response , promptness Speed of response o f response to customers’ complaints , a nd Processing speed speed of online p rocessing .
Ta b le 1 continued Category Determinants Interpretations Referenced papers Name of the referenced p apers 23 Privac y T he degree to which the site is considered safe and [3], [10], [11] Security and system integrity p rotects customer information, including assurance Security of personal a nd of shopping behavior data and credit card information. financial information 24 Serviceability T he quality o f p rovision of various services , [10] Individual h andling a nd the resolution o f conflicts a nd complaints from customers . 25 F eatures How information is effectively p resented including all Site design elements affecting consumers’ experience in [7] Site effectiveness a nd functionality the website . Structure a nd layout T a ngibles Innovativeness 26 A vailability E asy a nd convenient access to various sources in the website [1–3], [7], [11], System availability [13–15] Accessibility Access 27 Systems integration Internal integration o f the company’ s system o r external [3], [7], [9], [11] integration w ith its business p artners . 28 Responsibility E xact d elivery o f p romised services a nd the w illingness [7] T rusted service to help customers in p roviding prompt service . Tr u st 29 W e b store policies Customer -oriented policies like the provision o f e ffective warranty programs available in online purchases and the assurance o f convenience for customers . [3]
Step 3.2 Following the principle of ideality in the TRIZ definition, we defined the ideal situation as the “provision of an easily operated environment for users without any effort”.
Step 3.3 The Fuzzy QFD process was proceeded to indicate the critical service quality determinants. First, the correlative importance between the specified cus-tomer requirements of the problem in step 3.1 and the determinants of service quality in Table1was collected in linguistic terms from the opinions of three managers in EC.COM. Then the linguistic variables were translated into triangular fuzzy numbers from Fig.2. Computing from Eqs.1to4, the average fuzzy numbers of the translating results for the determinants of service quality were obtained. The integrated triangu-lar fuzzy numbers for the determinants of service quality were computed by Eqs.5–7, and the defuzzied values of integrated fuzzy numbers for each service quality deter-minant were calculated by Eq.8. Consequently, the prioritized importance of each determinant was ranked by the defuzzied values.
We identified the first five ranked categories of determinants as the major charac-teristics which influenced the client’s inconvenience when it comes to manipulation and application of the software. The primary determinants selected from each cate-gory were the following: Aesthetic design, Ease of use, Interactivity, Reliability, and System availability.
Step 3.4 In order to achieve the ideal situation, with the exclusion of the five impor-tant determinants identified in step 3.3 to achieve the ideality, there were relatively two main issues which called our attention:
(1) The design complexity in software and application environment will be increased.
(2) The training cost that EC.COM provides to clients will be increased.
Refer to Table 1 with their intent, and these two conflict points were made to correspond to the determinants of “site effectiveness and functionality” and “price” in e-service quality, respectively.
Step 3.5 Compare the major enhancing properties pointed out in step 3.3 with the 39 TRIZ engineering parameters, and the corresponding TRIZ parameters to be improved were the following: No. 12 Shape (referred from “aesthetic design”), No. 27 Reliability (referred from “reliability”), No. 32 Ease of manufacture (referred from “system availability”), No. 33 Ease of operation (referred from “ease of use”), No. 35 Adaptability or versatility (referred from “interactivity”).
Similarly, the corresponding TRIZ parameters which became worse were the fol-lowing: No. 11 Stress or pressure (referred from “site effectiveness and functionality”), No. 26 Amount of substance (referred from “price”).
Step 3.6 According to the TRIZ contradiction matrix, we denoted the numbers of TRIZ inventive principles in the intersection of the improving and worsening TRIZ parameters which were identified in step 3.5.
Step 3.7 We ranked the orders of the denoted numbers of inventive principles by their frequencies: No. 35 occurred six times; No. 1, No. 3, No. 10, No. 12, No. 15, No. 19, and No. 24 occurred two times; and the rest occurred only once. We suggested using those inventive principles occurring at least twice as our targeted reference principles to start with.
Step 3.8 We iteratively analyzed each of the inventive principles and examples from the related researches, and conducted discussions with the managers of the
business development and customer service divisions to generate the following ideas for solutions:
Idea 1 Referring to the subprinciple “change an object’s physical state” of the inven-tive principle No. 35, there was an example which suggested “virtual shopping” in the study ofMann and Domb(1999), and this idea gave us a hint to provide an “online training program” to a client company instead of sending people to train on-site. This suggestion reduced the cost of EC.COM in sending engineers to train the client on how to use the software. The proposed online training service could also be accessed easily at any time and place for the client’s convenience.
Idea 2 As to the subprinciple “dividing an object into independent parts” of the inven-tive principle No. 1, there was an example from the work ofRea(2001) which stated the “division of a system into autonomous components.” The customer service divi-sion of EC.COM proposed an idea called “Web 080,” and this aimed to provide clients with direct online communication through a virtual service representative rather than communicating with the service provider on the telephone only. With a live represen-tative to talk to online, the interface between the service represenrepresen-tatives and clients become friendlier.
Idea 3 Referring to the example of the subprinciple “make each part of an object or system fulfill a different and useful function” of the inventive principle No. 3 from Zhang et al.’s work (2003), it is stated that “in most service industries, service package is a mix of tangible and intangible goods.” From this example, we appended one more suggestion to idea 1. Besides the “online training program” provided on the website which targets primary or specific customers, it was also helpful to provide an on-site training program to client companies in order to extend relations with them.
Idea 4 From the subprinciple “perform, before it is needed, the required change of an object or system (either fully or partially)” of the inventive principle No. 10, we sug-gested that EC.COM provide an online chatting session on its website for customers. The new policies or products of EC.COM can be published in advance, though not formally, enabling the company to get opinions from chatting with clients. Through this, the company can realize the needs of customers, and the customers’ response can in turn provide valuable information to amend policies or products.
Idea 5 From the example of the subprinciple “allow the characteristics of an object, external environment, or process to change to be optimal or to find an optimal oper-ating condition” of the inventive principle No. 15 from the study ofMann and Domb (1999), it is suggested that a “customer response team” be organized. Likewise, we suggested that EC.COM organize this team which should consist of members from various divisions, including all the divisions relating to customer services.
Idea 6 The example of the subprinciple “if an action is already periodic, change the periodic magnitude or frequency” of the inventive principle No. 19 from Retsep-tor’s study (2003) stated that “monthly and weekly feedback reporting should be done instead of annual reviews.” We suggested that the managers of each division in EC.COM should shorten the customer response time period, and focus on the direct customer service divisions from 1 day to 4 h. It was really challenging for these divi-sions to do so because this practice differed from their current one, but for the sake of obtaining a competitive advantage in this market, it was worthwhile for EC.COM to work out this policy.
Step 3.9 After the solutions were generated, we attempted to prioritize them in the grading based on the following scale and its corresponding values: not feasible (0), weak (1–3), intermediate (4–7), and strong (8–10). We proposed the generated
solutions to the president of the company, who in turn opined that there are three criteria which should be addressed in making the final decision: cost, time, and man-power support. The five proposed ideas were evaluated through the grading done by three managers, and, according to priority, ideas 4, 2, 1, 6, and 5 were arranged, respectively.
Following stage 4 of the problem-solving process in Fig.1, these solutions were suggested to the company for implementation. Stage 5 is the process to be iterated for the evaluation of the results and for the resolution of new problems which are not further demonstrated in this case study.
6 Discussion and conclusion
As compared to other problem-solving methodologies, TRIZ provides a powerful knowledge-based and systematic procedure to generate quality and innovative solu-tions without compromise. Specifically, when some aspects of the TRIZ methodology have been successfully applied to challenge the human psychological inertia that aims to break the conventional mindset, the emergence of the TRIZ methodology has therefore been an attempt to stimulate a creative way of thinking and to develop various new solutions.
In this study, in order to capture the characteristics of the e-commerce sector, an extensive literature analysis in the e-commerce sector was used to extract 29 signifi-cant categories of the determinants of e-service quality which are closely related to customer satisfaction. We tried to narrow down to a specific scope of work in e-service quality in order to identify the specific vital elements which are valued by e-service providers. Thus, it may be necessary to further discuss the various facts and charac-teristics of the e-commerce sector and then precisely define the determinants which can be completely acquired.
The other main point emphasized in this study is that when applying the TRIZ method in practice, especially in the primary stage of formulating a problem, the subjective and ambiguous expression of opinions among the problem solvers fre-quently impedes consensus in the achievement of results. However, the influence of this circumstance is rarely discussed by TRIZ practitioners. As a matter of fact, there-after, the level of inventive solutions generated from the TRIZ process will be affected by the vague and inappropriate identification of TRIZ engineering parameters. In this regard, the application of the TRIZ method in our study is focused on applying the Fuzzy QFD method to analyze the correlation between the imprecise requirements from customers and the determinants of service quality in order to identify the critical determinants which pertain to customer satisfaction. Consequently, the correspond-ing TRIZ engineercorrespond-ing parameters from the specified problem can be efficiently and precisely extracted.
Following the case example demonstrated in EC.COM, the proposed approach is illustrated to help companies get rid of previous non-systematic practices in develop-ing new services, and as was shown, it is obvious that this methodology is feasible and can be efficiently implemented. From this research, we can foresee the applicability of extensively applying the TRIZ model to a broader arena in the near future.
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