Application of Quality Function Deployment in Chinese Urban Management(2005年公共管理国际会议论文).doc

Application of Quality Function Deploymentin Chinese Urban Management 1.SHOU Yong-yi 2.YING Ying 3.WU Xiao-bo School of Management, Zhejiang University, P.R.China, 310027 Abstract Quality function deployment is a structured approach to listen to and understand the requirements of customers and it helps managerial personnel) to manage the development process so as to improve the quality of products or services. The authors attempt to adopt this method in the process of urban management and aim to identify the key demands of citizens in order to help the local municipal government to improve the quality of its public goods and services effectively. An application in Hangzhou City shows that this method is suitable for the purpose of urban management. Key words Quality function deployment, Urban management, Public services 1 Introduction Modern cities are the key platforms for the global economies. Municipal governments have endeavored to establish an environment of quality living, working and business so as to assume a major global or regional role for the benefit of all its residents, visitors, investors and at the same time, to ensure that the infrastructure, environment, city management, cultural, social and community facilities meet the highest expectations [1]. Due to the high-speed economic development and technological advances, the uncertainties of social and economical environment of modern cities increase significantly, and so does the complexity of urban management. It has been a major challenge for municipal governments to meet the ever increasing demands from the local citizens, visitors and investors. Managerial innovations played an important role in this process, and have been a major contributor to upgrading the competence of cities. China is still in its rapid process of urbanization and Chinese cities encounter numerous complicated problems concerning social, economic and other issues. For Chinese municipal governments, it is a key task to und