The development of an ideal kindergarten through concept engineering/quality function deployment

This paper summarizes the application of quality planning tools to the development of an ideal kindergarten, built from the needs and perceptions identified for different sorts of customers (children, teachers and parents). For that purpose, intensive fieldwork was conducted on site at a rich sample of seven kindergartens, including 62 exploratory interviews. By adopting concept engineering and quality function deployment techniques, the several stakeholders were given the chance of freely expressing their ideas and expectations about an ideal kindergarten. In order to explore all the richness associated with all the qualitative data collected, tools such as MPM, KJ and Kano analysis were applied. Then, using the Pugh methodology, we built and determined an ideal kindergarten concept. Finally, the House of Quality was built to define the kindergarten specifications, identify adequate measurement instruments and assign targets to the most important parameters. The combined and creative use of these approaches resulted in a strongly customer-oriented kindergarten that actively encourages the involvement of the whole community and family generations in educational activities, and promotes interaction with its surrounding environment.