Enhancing the quality of municipality services using four-dimensional house of quality

In some organizations, there are various departments, each having customers with different wants. The purpose of this research is to use a new tool named 4-Dimensional House of Quality (4DHOQ) and combine it with a mathematical model for determining and prioritizing the optimal list of technical requirements for satisfying customers’ wants in different departments of an organization regarding the budget constraint. Using 4DHOQ creates an integrated approach within the organization and leads to better use of the organization’s resources, increasing coordination between different departments, eliminating reworks, and enhancing efficiency. The proposed method is implemented in the municipality of Shahreza county in Iran. First, the customers’ wants at three different departments of “city services”, “social and cultural” and “public transportation” were identified and their weights were calculated. Then, technical requirements that fulfill these customers’ wants and their weights were determined with the help of the 4DHOQ. Finally, with the use of a mathematical model the budget constraint was considered. Results identified 21, 15, and 12 customers’ wants in the “city services”, “social and cultural” and “public transportation” departments, respectively. Moreover, 41 technical requirements to satisfy these customers’ wants were introduced and the optimal list of the technical requirements for implementing in the organization was determined.