Application of Feigenbaum's Cost of Quality Strategy on Engineering Firms

Abstract

It has been 50+ years since Feigenbaum first conceived of the strategy for the manufacturing sector, yet quality costing strategies have not found a foothold among engineering firms. This study was aimed at constructing a theory that explains possible barriers to acceptance of the Feigenbaum strategy by analyzing the attitudes and opinions of players in an actual engineering firm. Modeled after the Feigenbaum approach and tailored to the business model of engineering and architectural firms, a system was developed to classify and record costs of quality. A local office of a large engineering firm was recruited to apply the system on a hand-picked design project. Using an inductive approach and a grounded theory methodology, records were examined and participants were interviewed. The observed concepts and emergent hypotheses begin to tell an interesting story that might be the key to the ultimate success or failure of the Feigenbaum approach to quality costing in engineering firms.

Meeting Name

30th Annual National Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management 2009, ASEM 2009 (2009: Oct. 14-17, Springfield, MO)

Department(s)

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Architectural firms; Business models; Cost of quality; Design projects; Engineering firms; Grounded theory; Manufacturing sector; Timesheet; Costs; Engineering; Industry; Project management; Cost engineering

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-1-61738-105-8

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2009 American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Oct 2009

Link to Full Text

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