Assessment and quality improvement process in engineering and engineering education

Embedding quality improvement methods into the teaching of engineering processes is not new to engineering education. Engineering graduates are expected to be able to develop and design products and processes that meet the need of customers within given constraints and follow known procedures to ensure quality results. Quality function deployment (QFD) is an internationally accepted planning technique that is used to ensure that quality is designed into a product by incorporating customers needs. The QFD matrix, or "house of quality", (HoQ) depicts the components of this process for determining engineering characteristics, parts characteristics, key process characteristics and production requirements. The QFD process will be used as a tool for understanding the assessment of academic programs and meeting the continuous improvement requirements embedded in Engineering Criteria 2000. The authors compare the QFD process with the development of an assessment planning process and outline considerations needed in developing an assessment tool (both content and process). Necessary components of quality assessment are outlined and an example provided from EC2000 learning outcomes.