Dynamic job shop scheduling research has previously assumed that the probability of the customer placing an order is always one, implying that customers will place orders regardless of lead times quoted from the producer and customer lead time expectations. As firms increasingly compete on the basis of the delivery speed and reputation, the relative performance of quoted versus actual realized ...

Satisfying customers is usually pursued by identifying their needs and translating their demands into design targets and thereby assessing the implementation of improvements on a continuous basis in order to attain the set targets. Quality function deployment is a planning tool used to fulfill customer expectations and in-depth evaluation of a product. The presented research aimed to get QFD mo...

Web-based customization self-services allow and encourage a diverse set of consumers to engage in creative work. In the nottoo-distant past most consumers purchased mass-manufactured products from a physical store, whereas today people can remotely acquire a variety of individually tailored items ranging from sneakers to wedding invitations. Increasingly, companies provide online configurator s...

Successful Project Managers understand in detail the customer requisites during project scope definition, avoiding therefore changes during the execution stage that will negatively influence the schedule, cost and quality of the project results. Unfortunately, the project manager and the customer have often different communication skills and scope changes are frequent throughout the project lif...

The fundamental role played by after-sales service in increasing the competitive advantage is the reason why several manufacturing firms are giving greater attention to its measurement. Following an in-depth analysis of the literature concerning the characteristics and dimensions of service in manufacturing, a model for measuring and managing after-sales service is proposed and applied to a lea...

Known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in recent years a concept for business that focuses customers is often discussed in research and practice. After initially extraordinary expectations, numerous CRM projects fail. Thereby as one of the major reasons an overestimated and poor data quality is very frequently mentioned. Many authors assume a positive correlation between data quality a...

Most quality and cost models use defect density to represent software quality. Customer’s quality expectations are not typically based on size and complexity of the product they buy and their satisfaction can be influenced substantially by other product attributes that are not typically mapped to defects (e.g. Ease of installation and use, timely support, etc.). Consequently, new ways to measur...

Customer expectations of gateway services as well as their information needs are dynamic. The Australasian Virtual Engineering Library (AVEL) has consequently taken an iterative approach to interface design, usability testing and customer needs analysis. User-centred design has ensured that AVEL remains relevant to the way its target audience seeks information to solve “real world” problems. Th...