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S03
QFD As A Necessary Catalyst In Infrastructure Innovation
Tjerk Gorter 1, Biljana Visnjicki 2
1 Qanbridge Strategy and Innovation [email protected] Netherlands2 Coddel Business Development [email protected] Netherlands Abstract
Worldwide, there is a strong need for infrastructure innovation. Flood protection, safe
drinking water, better road networks for enhanced safety, reduction of food waste, waste
management, clean mobility, there is a crying need for significant infrastructure
improvement. The related programme budgets range from several million to several billion
euro investments. The infrastructure innovations more often than not are characterized by
high technical complexity, involvement of many stakeholders, endless rules and regulations
and thus long decision-making processes. As a result, the quality and speed of public
innovation in most cases does not match the (urgent) need for infrastructure improvement.
This too often leads to intolerable situations, ranging from the recent disastrous flooding in
the Balkan (22.000 square kilometers flooded, estimated damage $ 4.5 billion) and earlier
disaster in and around New Orleans to out-of-control pollution and congestion in major
cities. There is no silver bullet for improving the speed and effectiveness of public
innovation. That said, the structured, transparent and integrating methodology of modern
QFD could well be a key catalyst to significantly improve and accelerate innovation in the
public domain. In The Netherlands, focused programmes have been launched to achieve
exactly this. This paper is not about a new sophisticated tool in modern QFD nor does it
describe the application of modern QFD in the development of a highly complex piece of
equipment. This paper describes how modern QFD can make a significant and necessary
difference in the design and realization of modern infrastructure.
Keywords
VOC, innovation, smart infrastructure
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1. Introduction: the enormous task of infrastructure innovation
Governments of all nations are faced with a host of infrastructure-related challenges that
are both substantial and complex. Some of these challenges are specific for certain regions,
e.g. the reduction of severe food waste in developing economies, a problem leaving 842
million people go hungry every day [1]. Some challenges spread across developing and
developed economies, for example the struggle of developing cities to absorb the ongoing
urbanization and autonomous growth of the population whilst ensuring an good quality of
life and a minimal environmental/energy burden. To keep populations save and dry,
existing levees have to be replaced by a new generation that is “erosion free” and able to
withstand higher sea levels. Road safety has to improve despite higher traffic flows, the
effect of an aging population and the increasing level of distraction of drivers due to feature
rich cars that are continuously on-line. And to stick with the example of roads: not only
road safety is an issue, these roads need to have a lower total cost of ownership, emit less
noise, cause zero pollution to the ground water, allow higher traffic flows per square meter
of road surface and so on. All buildings, private and public, must be re-invented in order to
achieve maximum mental and physiological health of their users (maximizing their well-
being, productivity and learning performance) and to minimize the use of non-sustainable
energy and non-recyclable materials. These are just a few examples from a long list of
public responsibilities.
The related innovations require at a global scale, trillions of dollars of investments. The
challenge for both the commissioning governments and the executing private parties is to
realize the desired innovations in a framework of ever-tighter constraints. The combination
of the rapidly growing population, much tighter constraints dictated by the need for more
sustainable solutions and a coming tidal wave of end-of-life cycle infrastructure
replacement in many developed economies will require both technical ingenuity and taking
the innovation process to a next level in terms of methodologies applied and tightness of
the cooperation between all parties involved.
Are the innovations in infrastructure keeping up with the need for infrastructure
improvement? This is always a subjective to judgment. An article in The Economist of
March 22nd 2014 states: “If you have been to New York’s La Guardia airport recently,
taken a train during London’s rush hour, tried to drive in Lagos or endured one of India’s
ubiquitous power cuts, you will have first-hand knowledge of the world’s infrastructure
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deficit. According to the World Economic Forum, global spending on basic
infrastructure—transport, power, water and communications—currently amounts to $2.7
trillion a year when it ought to be $3.7 trillion. The gap is almost as big as South Korea’s
GDP. And it is likely to grow fast.” [2] The article goes on, suggesting that public
investments will not be sufficient to close the gap between required and actual
infrastructural innovation. It states: “The potential pot of gold is elsewhere, in the $50
trillion of capital managed by pension funds, sovereign-wealth funds, insurance companies
and other institutional investors. Only 0.8% of this is currently allocated to infrastructure. A
tenfold increase would be a good target.”
2. Modern QFD as core element in accelerating infrastructure innovation in
developed economies
The challenges of infrastructure renewal are too vast to cover in one article. For this paper
we will narrow it down to relatively high-tech innovation in infrastructure in the developed
economies. This covers for example the development and implementation of sustainable
industry estates, smart levees, new water purification systems, smart roads and lightweight
bridges. We will describe an effective and stimulating inroad to strengthening those
responsible for public innovation in the way they challenge and steer the industry to come
up with smart, affordable and lasting solutions for the difficult renovations and innovations
in public infrastructure now on our doorstep. The core of this approach is modern QFD
[3],[4],[5].
For national, regional and municipal governments, improving the process of specification
of new solutions is probably the key to making a quantum leap in the quality of solutions
for the complex infrastructure challenges they have to deal with. Moving from the classic
“call for proposals” and public tendering approach towards a much more professional
modern QFD based way of working may take these public players to a next and necessary
level of performance as an effective principal for public renovation and innovation projects.
In addition it will enable the private partners, i.e. the industry and engineering companies,
to develop significantly better products and systems. This way, the industry and
engineering companies will develop solutions that are strongly differentiating and will help
them to open up international markets.
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3. Hurdles in the current practice of infrastructure innovation
The current innovation approach in many countries has a built-in handbrake. This
handbrake is the classic way of defining the specifications of a renovation or innovation in
infrastructure.
Current standard practice is that once municipal, regional or national government have
decided to repair, renew or replace an infrastructural object, they define an outline request
for proposals, that is vented out to a number of parties, the tender. Usually the requirements
put in the document are more or less standard sets of requirements for the object in
question, e.g. a new stretch of road, to which a number of situation specific requirements
have been added. This outline request for proposals is then the start of a supplier selection
and negotiation procedure. Candidate suppliers are challenged, within fairly standard
constraints like budget, throughput time, rules & regulations and risk profiles to come up
with technical and project-management proposals. An accepted practice with some serious
built-in weaknesses: in most cases, there is insufficient insight in the real need of the
relevant stakeholders (infra users, maintenance teams, local residents, local companies,..),
the dominant logic is far too much that of price negotiation rather than bundling brains
across the public and private domain to come up with real breakthrough solutions.
Tight rules and regulations have forced the government in a corner that they hardly can or
dare to interact with private parties without even creating the impression that they are
providing un-allowed support to individual companies. Another worrying driver is the fact
that in many cases the government does not have the in-depth know-how and competencies
to fully define the required functionalities of a solution that satisfies the most important
needs of the key stakeholders in a future proof way.
Currently, governmental organisations often belief or hope that this handicap is solved
through the tender process, in which companies will stretch to the best possible solutions at
a very competitive price. In reality, in the majority of cases this does not work and the more
complex the challenge, the less effective this approach. One obvious shortcoming is that
potential suppliers are tempted to sell their existing solutions, with or without minor
modifications, whether it has an optimal fit with the desired customer benefits or not.
Another more serious shortcoming is that by working with a standard template-like
approach, the government has not invested sufficient time and energy to obtain an in-depth,
integrated understanding of the aspects of the required renovation or innovation. This
increases the risk of non-effective solutions and limits the chances of creating value beyond
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the obvious. A regional government can for example order twelve kilometers of road
repair, i.e. a new road surface using commodity tarmac and some additional requirements
with respect to rain water handling, cost of maintenance, ground water pollution and road
noise. This will result in a price driven competition for the assignment, with quality of
project and risk management as underlying factors. The new stretch of road will be
realized, however a host of (latent) needs of road users, maintenance companies, insurance
companies, citizens living adjacent to the road, health organisations and others will not be
fulfilled. In other words, a host of benefits that could have been realized in domains like
road safety, more stringent noise reduction, environmental progress like avoiding of salting
the roads in winter time, reduced fuel consumption, much higher “utilization rate per m2
tarmac” (e.g. through dynamic lining) will not even be looked at.
What would have happened if the government would not use a standard template tender
approach but would start the projects with an in-depth need analysis of the key
stakeholders? We will answer this question on basis of a number of recent (and on-going)
cases of infrastructure innovation in The Netherlands.
4. Industrial cooperation and new ways of innovation
4.1. AMMON (Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Eastern Netherlands)
AMMON is a programme for industrial co-operation in the eastern part of The Netherlands
that aims to enable established companies like Royal Ten Cate, Pentair and TKH, that have
been predominantly parts suppliers, to team up and develop further towards a position of
innovative systems suppliers. The programme already has led to many new systems. An
example is GreenSource, an artificial turf field developed in first instance for Africa and
Asia that enables children to play and do sports but that also delivers fully reliable drinking
water as a turnkey system. For many communities this means that for the first time in their
existence they are no longer dependent on trucks with plastic water containers with more or
less clean water that will or will not arrive on time in the village… Currently, the unreliable
water quality leads to a lot of disease and diarrhea…
Many AMMON projects are business-to-business, but more than half of the projects are
aimed at large step infrastructure innovation. This way, AMMON should provide the
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government with breakthrough solutions against a lower total cost of ownership, helping
the state to handle its innovation agenda as well as its huge infrastructure investments. The
companies are supported to build demonstrators of their innovative designs and to have the
government as a launching customer to enable faster ramp up to higher volume production
and sales which speeds up cash flow and lowers their cost price, important factors for
business development. In theory a smart set up and win-win situation, but as it turns out, in
practice a tough challenge to realize the first concrete projects. The Programme Director of
AMMON, Tjerk Gorter, together with its technology director, Martin Olde Weghuis of
Royal Ten Cate, observed the cumbersome attempts to get infrastructure innovation off the
ground. They both realized the huge value that could be generated if only innovation
across the interface of the public and private domain could indeed be taken to a next level.
The vast worldwide market for infrastructure solutions, the often-urgent need for solutions,
the AMMON partners with their well-matched technologies and need to move further into
system innovations …. a golden match. The question was: how to significantly and
systematically improve the quality and speed of innovation at the interface of industry and
government to unleash this potential?
As said, there is no silver bullet, yet QFD was taken as an important building block for this
joint innovation. Since the beginning of the AMMON programme in 2008 modern QFD
“light” was used to boost the quality of the projects. Modern QFD naturally guides the
AMMON partner companies from their dominant focus on traditional manufacturing
quality control to product design quality control. It is also a perfect platform to support
companies in their development towards the broader business scope of system developers
and solution providers. Gorter and Olde Weghuis decided that to unlock the innovation
potential of infrastructure innovation, especially at the interface with the government,
modern QFD should be much broader deployed in AMMON and peripheral infrastructure
innovation projects.
4.2 Case 1: The start: transforming the renewal of an industrial estate
Openness: The power of the beginners’ mind
The first case is a renovation of an industrial estate in the town of Haaksbergen.
Haaksbergen is a small town blessed with a municipal government with an open, curious
mindset. Their standard method of specification of infrastructure projects was fairly much
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“the classic template approach”. In this case, one of the potential industrial project partners
was member of AMMON and thus had some basic familiarity with the power of the QFD-
process. The company invited Dr Biba Visnjicki to introduce a Voice-of-the-Customer
approach to the municipal government and other stakeholders. The key players of the
municipality were curious and decided to give this a chance. In a good dialogue with the
municipal government they decided, as an experiment, to change from a classic generic
“specification & tender” process to a QFD based approach.
This led to a different start, namely a voice-of-the-customer process with nine key
stakeholders, from governmental managers, companies established at the industrial estate to
architects. All were part of a VoC searching for the benefits they would like to get out of a
newly developed industrial estate. A systematic, open-minded approach through which the
municipal government obtained wholly new insights in what economic and societal benefits
an innovated industrial estate could bring in the future. An approach that also provided a
much better insight of what is important to industrial parties at the industrial estate, opening
doors for Haaksbergen to create conditions that would really attract new companies to the
town, strengthening its local economy and employment. The result of the VoC was the
development of an integrated concept of a fully sustainable industrial estate with smart
underlying technological solutions that can be exported to a host of other towns.
Instead of doing a straightforward maintenance project with some small innovation steps
(reflecting tarmac in combination with dynamic lighting to save energy) the project has
now developed into a much richer design that integrates road management, area security,
park and green belt management, water management up to the creating employment for
people with a minor mental handicap in joint services for the industrial partners. A value
creation embraced by all stakeholders. One of the local companies, Unipro, a focused and
successful market leader in development, manufacturing and renovation of sustainable
flooring systems, provided great support in the project.
The project was an interesting learning for the local government but equally for companies
established at the industrial estate and the consortium that was formed to realize the plans.
One of the consortium parties initially showed strong resistance to the VoC approach,
claiming that it was too time consuming. The manager indicated he was under pressure of
his management to shorten the route to sales. It is an old wisdom that the longest path
between two points is a shortcut. By taking the VoC approach a much richer and much
more differentiating concept has been developed, creating significant value for
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Haaksbergen and at the same time leading to much higher commercial value for the
consortium partners.
4.3 Main case: building an innovation platform between regional government, local
government, the user community and industrial players
The strategists of the Province of Overijssel, led by Cees Timmer, through their strong
participation in the architecture of the AMMON programme, became increasingly aware of
some current weaknesses in infrastructure innovation. AMMON introduced the principles
of QFD to the joint industry innovation projects. The development of GreenSource,
mentioned earlier, is one of them. Others include a new municipal water purification
systems (membrane bio reactor that combines biological treatment with UF membrane
separation), the design of new permanent levees, new temporary levees (fast to install
“replacement of the sandbag”), a smart low cost flow controller (to manage the different
energy contents of various gas sources feeding the grid both financially and for reasons of
payment systems), new composite bridges, the (soccer) stadium of the future and a
breakthrough One Step Filter that combines 6 different water treatment steps in one
application. These innovations were the product of the co-operation of leading innovators
from the various AMMON industrial companies. However, the innovation in joint, public –
private projects with the government as launching customer was hard to get going.
The Province of Overijssel took a bold step: in 2014 it approved a million investment
programme that is to run to 2017 to initiate breakthrough infrastructure innovations, taking
the role of launching customer. It decided to kick-start cross-university and industry
innovation from the Business and Science Park Twente (KennisPark Twente) in city of
Enschede. The new launching customer approach must result in better quality infrastructure
innovation, leading to better solutions for the government and power export products of the
industry partners involved. An important spin-off is this tangible initiative must attract high
tech companies as well as individual talent to the region. The industry already for a long
time expressed a strong need for the government to act as a launching customer, so when
the “Launching Customership” programme was announced this was strongly welcomed by
all regional players. The Provincie Overijssel assigned Mrs Jantsje Op de Hoek, responsible
for ensuring sound public innovation investment policies and deployment, as manager of
the programme.
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As a very high-level indication of “needs”, the Provincie of Overijssel defined four key
domains of (public) innovation for the programme: Sustainability, Mobility, Safety, Health
& Productivity. The assignment now is to identify the key needs of the stakeholders related
to those domains and define projects to fulfill them. Obviously, normal economics apply:
each case must have a sound business case. Solutions developed for the Business and
Science Park preferably should be exportable to other markets inside and outside The
Netherlands.
Mrs Op de Hoek, supported by Dr Biba Visnjicki, developed a program that is perceived by
key stakeholders as a breakthrough in public innovation as it integrates four dimensions in
one approach, each of them totally new to those responsible for public innovation
1. a full-blown Voice-of-the-Customer approach
2. professional, quantified market intelligence
3. concept development using Maximum Value Tables
4. integrated monitoring of the innovation project portfolio in terms of progress with respect to the public challenges or innovation targets defined.
The learnings from the Haaksbergen case inspired the team to test a more rigorous
approach in the “VoC with the government”. In the Haaksbergen project, the VoC was
executed in multidisciplinary teams with all stakeholders, including the industrial parties
that would later be responsible for realizing the desired innovations. This worked well, but,
as said, short-term commercial motives of some of the players caused unrest in the project
execution. Therefore a new set up was tested in two projects, wherein as a first step the
VoC was executed by independent QFD experts, the municipal/regional government and
potential users of the infrastructure, for instance the users of and professional organisations
related to a new composite bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. Industrial parties that might
later obtain a role as contractor/supplier were to be involved in the next phase. Reason for
this first VoC step is to ensure a pure distillation of (latent) customer needs, without
influencing by industrial players. Most of the time industrial players point out possible
innovation steps in good faith, but it can never be free of commercial bias. Too early
and/or improper industry involvement can limit the real insights harvested from the VoC, it
can lead to “jumping to solutions” and last but not least it can be perceived by the public
parties as a lack of genuine interest in their needs and headaches or worse as a covered
attempt to sell products and services, causing them to become less open in the discussion.
On top of that, the independent VoC guarantees a totally open process in terms of later
supplier selection.
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Fig
ure
1:
The
impl
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Lau
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For the Launching Customership programme, the top VoC was executed in two steps. First
the needs of the regional and local government were mapped. As a second step, a
comprehensive VoC of the local community was conducted to mine their (latent) needs in
the four public innovation domains defined by the Province of Overijssel. In total 135 voices
across 35 companies were worked-out. Additional interviews were done with the seven
largest companies in the Business and Science Park, in their role as users of the
infrastructure. As background research, five extensive reports on regional infrastructure
development over the period 2008 – 2014 were analysed.
The VoC has been executed following the modern QFD process flow, using the Customer
Needs Affinity diagram, the Customer Need Priorities with AHP. The results of the
Customer Needs Hierarchy Calculation are presented in figure 2.
The final selection of top community needs has been presented by using the Customer Needs
Hierarchy Diagram (figure 3).
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Figure 2 Customer Needs Hierarchy Calculation Launching Customership programme
Values
Visibility
REPRESENTATIVE LOOK should to add value to my business
Memorable effects or objects to get innovation in focus
Attractive for new generations of young professionals to stay in the region
Attractive for outsiders to start new business
Full visibility and friendly and clear information of the facilitated companies
Total 3,70 3,86 3,39 3,56 3,16 3,85
Local priority: 25% 30% 14% 20% 6% 30%
Global priority: 7,6% 3,5% 5,0% 1,4% 7,5%
Values
Business integration, acceleration and
synergy
Area has to reflect clearly the power of UT innovation valorisation
Development of the area has to create conditions for local innovation to be demonstrated
Accessibility and confortable parking solutions
Public wifi Full visibility of next door business and businesses in same industry-market-business domain
Total 3,40 3,53 3,72 3,72 3,55 3,22
Local priority: 8% 19% 26% 26% 20% 8%
Global priority: 1,5% 2,1% 2,1% 1,6% 0,6%
Values
ComfortLife in working hours should contribute to thequality of life
Confortable commuting in any weather circumstances
Attractive and affordable coffee-lunch facilities
Nice walking routes: happy- healthy business hours
Fast and safe transfer from train station to UT
Total 3,41 3,62 3,36 3,64 3,62 3,75
Local priority: 8% 15% 12% 11% 21% 41%
Global priority: 1,2% 1,0% 0,9% 1,7% 3,3%
Values
SafetyCommuters should be
protected day and nightFacilities and surrounding should be protected from hooligans
Safe feeling for commuters andvisitors
Total 3,39 3,35 3,76 3,62
Local priority: 9% 20% 44% 36%
Global priority: 1,8% 4,0% 3,2%
Values
Maintenance
Maintenance by Gemeente is not sufficient. Has to be a joint effort in order to get a high quality place.
Park management has to be developed , first focus joint energy management
Smart solutions should minimised costs of maintenance
Total 3,78 3,40 3,25 3,76
Local priority: 30% 9% 6% 17%
Global priority: 2,7% 1,7% 5,2%
Values
Sustainability
Sustainability first targets: Reduction of energy consumption + alternative energy solutions
Sustainability as a general topic and business life style
Total 3,67 3,70 3,54
Local priority: 20% 17% 13%
Global priority: 5,0% 3,8%
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Fig
ure
3C
usto
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Nee
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Dia
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Lau
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usto
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pro
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After conducting the VoC and identifying the key needs of the three main stakeholder
groups, a national team of experts has now started on concept development using the
Maximum Value Table principles.
Once the VoC has been fully executed, technical / industrial players are invited to learn the
true needs of the stakeholders. Using a Need – Functionality table, in a joint effort between
those responsible for the infrastructure, technology institutes and the industrial solutions
providers, the needs are translated to required functionalities of the solution. At this point,
the public parties feel comfortable, as they are sure their genuine needs form the basis of
this transition towards technological solutions. As a result of the industrial co-operation in
AMMON, the functionalities are taken on by a wide array of players and their
competencies, creating a platform for breakthrough technology and system development.
An example is the recent development of a prototype of a fully sustainable, non-polluting
crash barrier made from hemp composites. The transparency of the Need – Functionality-
table approach does help a great deal both in the in-depth approach towards effective
solutions and in the trust and mutual understanding between the public and private players.
The new approach, with a first VoC with the Province of Overijssel, the municipal
government of Enschede, potential users of the infrastructure and other non-commercial
stakeholders proved to work very well. It led to a sound definition of (latent) stakeholder
needs and the participants expressed strong appreciation of this way of working. A first
project, the composite bridge for pedestrians and cyclists, has been started. In the second
half of 2014, other projects will be defined on basis of the VoC and Maximum Value
Table. The Province of Overijssel has obtained many insights from these to steps, which
enables them to sharpen their objectives in the four innovation domains. Visnjicki and Op
de Hoek have defined a simple tool to monitor the project portfolio and the project results
on the one hand and the related fulfillment of the higher-level objectives of the Province of
Overijssel on the other.
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5. Strengthening the abilities and motivation of talent in governmental organisations
One major hurdle in infrastructure innovation and especially in complex innovations (e.g.
full traffic bridges or new levees) is the level of domain know-how at the side of the
government. The downside of having insufficient technological expertise at the side of the
government is obvious. A principal that cannot sufficiently comprehend the technological
aspects of an infrastructural problem and the ins and outs of potential solutions loses its
grip and ends up in a position that it is too much at the mercy of contracted engineering
companies and industrial suppliers. As more and more people with a technological
background prefer working in the industry, several governmental organization foresee they
will suffer from a serious competency gap in the near future.
This lack of know-how in combination with a strong objective to minimize the total project
costs too often leads to giving the green light to ill-conceived project proposals made by the
lowest cost contender. This leads to sub-optimal or even non-working solutions. It shows
the deficiency of the European tender system, which hampers innovation and leads to huge
additional costs caused by the faulty solutions (legal issues, technical repairs etc). As a
consequence the “sharpest offer” way too often turns out to not only be a missed
opportunity in sustainable infrastructure improvement but also to be an expensive one.
To make matters worse, regional governments are increasingly struggling with a brain drain
as domain specialist retire and, as said, the in-flow of talent is insufficient. Therefore, for
the government it is important to be perceived (again) as an attractive employer for
technological talent. For this to work, it is essential the government can show that it is
working with passion, speed and quality on challenging innovations. Not in splendid
isolation, but in an open innovation interface with industry and research institutes.
During our projects, we experienced that QFD-approach not only provides a powerful tool
for the government to obtain better insights in the key needs and possible solutions beyond
the obvious. All participants, both from the industry and the government were strongly
motivated by the results, the systematic approach, the integration power and the strong
team effects of modern QFD. A way of working that effectively stimulates and attracts
talent.
6. Enabling the government to make larger innovation steps
When the governmental stakeholders are not certain about an infrastructural challenge and
its possibly solutions, as a natural consequence, the responsible managers of the
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governmental organisations will seek to mitigate the perceived risks of a project. A clear
outcome both of the Haaksbergen project and the Launching Customership programme is
that the full involvement of the municipal respectively regional government in the
systematic definition, weighing and prioritizing of needs and their opportunity to obtain a
good insight in how these needs are integrated in the concept development, resulted in a
high level of trust of the regional and local government in the process, the parties involved
and the on-going concept development. This trust translates into open, more effective and
much faster cooperation between the parties involved.
The importance of joint, transparent processes cannot be overstressed. A lack of
transparency or insights leads to an overkill of risk mitigation. This will cause the issuing
government to hesitate to in larger-step innovations. In the best case it will seriously slow
down the innovation process, adding cost and postponing the harvesting of the desired
economic and societal benefits. In the worst case the government will not intervene in the
quality of the infrastructure at all, leading to New Orleans like situations.
Conclusions
Boosting the quality and speed of public-private innovation is key in addressing the huge
infrastructure challenges facing us. The complexity of the challenges too often causes
progress to be slow, even in areas where structural solutions are urgent. The logic,
transparency and trust between parties modern QFD creates in the process of infrastructure
innovation makes it a very powerful methodology that could play an important role in
creating the necessary acceleration and improvement in the way we take on the renewal of
our public infrastructure.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge importance of KennisPark Twente [7] as a facilitator of the
Launching Customership program. Especially we are grateful to Mrs. Jantjs Op de Hoek,
program manager, for allowing us to present the program and it’s first results.
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References
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worlds-savings-pay-new-roads-airports-and-electricity
3. Visnjicki, B., Gorter, T., Mazur, G. (2013), “QFD as integrating framework for
differentiated business positioning, business development and related product
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7. KennisPark Twente www.kennispark.nl
About the Author(s)
Tjerk Gorter started his professional career at Philips Electronics, working in the field of
pre-competitive research cooperation, optoelectronics and real-time software engineering.
After 6 years he founded Createch, which focused on the development of decision support
software. As a partner in Rijnconsult he was responsible for Industry and Technology in the
group Topstructure and Strategy. He focused on strategy development for players in the
chemical, technical fibers, machine building and diagnostics industry. In 1999 he joined
Friesland Foods as Director Corporate Innovation and Technology, with global
responsibility for innovation and technology management, Corporate Research, strategy
development and business intelligence.
As a member of the Innovation and Technology Committee of the Dutch Employers
Federation he became actively involved in national innovation efforts. He has built four of
the private-public technology programmes. In 2005, Tjerk founded Qanbridge in 2005 as a
vehicle to support fast track business development, with an emphasis on companies
creating technology solutions that enable the development of sustainable businesses.
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20th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT
Tjerk is co-founder of PamGene a biomarker company. Tjerk’s current roles in Dutch
innovation include: Member non-executive board for Food & Nutrition Delta, Member
Supervisory Board Technology Foundation STW, progamme director of AMMON, the
regional industry-led innovation program for the Eastern Netherlands.
Biba Visnjicki started her professional career at “Stark” company in Serbia as a product
and business developer. In 1998 she become regional Managing Director of Mobile Oil for
the former Yugoslavia region. After finishing PhD studies she joined Demcom Twente
B.V. as Business Development Manager focusing on advanced methodologies for business
and product development practice.
She received a PhD for her research on renewable energy production from biomass at the
University of Twente’s Faculty of Science and Technology in the Netherlands. She
received QFD Black Belt status at the QFD Institute of America. Biba joined Qanbridge in
2009 and focuses on Advanced Business Analytics, Fast track business development and
QFD. In 2008 Biba has founded Coddel, a company dedicated to real-life coaching of
professionals in business development and modern QFD.