KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering (2009) 13(5):305-315 Construction Management

DOI 10.1007/s12205-009-0305-3
www.springer.com/12205

Quality Improvement of Apartment Projects Using Fuzzy-QFD Approach:

A Case Study in Vietnam
Van Truong Luu*, Soo-Yong Kim**, Trinh-Quan Truong***, and Stephen O. Ogunlana****
Received February 15, 2008/Revised 1st: July 7, 2008; 2nd: October 16, 2008/Accepted April 14, 2009

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Abstract

In Vietnam, the customers are becoming increasingly choosy when purchasing apartments. Enhancing the quality of real estate
products in the design phase may raise competitive advantage in the real estate market. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an
effective tool to improve the product quality and enhance competitive advantages in the market. The aim of this paper is to explore
the applicability of QFD approach in enhancing the quality of a middle-grade apartment in the design phase. The seven-step
procedure was used to develop the fuzzy-QFD system in the design phase of apartment projects. The study used a current apartment
project as a case study to validate the approach. The customer’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction on the current design was considered
to determine design features a quality apartment meeting the customers’ desires. The fuzzy numbers were used to rate the importance
weightings of each customer requirement. The findings indicates that the balcony connected to the living room, the laundry with
enough space for hanging the washing, and increasing the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation are major customer
desires influencing on their decisions to purchase an apartment in Vietnam. The proposed design solutions for enhancing the quality
of the apartment can be used as a guide to focus on what the customer desires throughout the design phase. The results of this paper
suggested that QFD can help investors, real estate companies and consultants to produce quality apartments at the design phase.
Since Korea has emerged as the first largest foreign investor in Vietnam, the customer’s requirements, technical solutions, and
proposed design solutions may be valuable lessons for Korean investors, who would like to invest in real estate projects in Vietnam.
Keywords: apartment projects, building design, House of Quality (HoQ), fuzzy, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Vietnam
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1. Introduction advantage in the real estate market.

Vietnam is recognized as a country with the second fastest
growth rate among the countries in East Asia and the fastest in
Southeast Asia. Membership of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) has helped Vietnam become prominent on the world
investment map (VNECONOMY, 2008). Investors are increas-
ingly interested in office building, retail store and housing projects
(VNECONOMY, 2007). The rapid growth of the Vietnamese
real estate market over the past ten years has fostered the
development of real estate products. This also implies that
customers are fastidious in making selections. To cope with the
challenges in the economy, investors and/or developers of apart-
ment projects have to change their strategy towards customer-
orientation and customer satisfaction. These developments sug-
gest that enhancing the quality of real estate products at the
design phase is an effective means of achieving competitive
The design phase for housing is a critical stage to achieve client’s
requirements (Gargione, 1999). Since the design of an apartment
depends on the designers’ experience, thus better decision-
making process during design stage of an apartment project
offers the potentials for designers to give clients better value-for-
money through designs (Yang et al., 2003). In order to assure the
alignment of elements of design with requirements of an
apartment project, real-estate investors need to manage decision
making in a way that ensures the best possible results (Gargione,
1999). Quality Function Deployment (QFD) can be used as a
tool to prioritize important directions offering a potential for
improvement according to what the customers’ desires. Thus
QFD provides the systematic method to support the process of
design decision making (Yang et al., 2003).
The major objective of this paper is to apply QFD to improve
the basic layout and basic specifications of middle-grade apart-

*Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering, HCM City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (E-mail: luutruongvan@yahoo.com;
ltvan@hcmut.edu.vn)
**Member, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 608-739, Korea (Corresponding Author, E-mail: kims@
pknu.ac.kr)
***Project Manager, Saigon Real Estate Corporation Housing Development and Trading Co. Ltd. (HDTC), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (E-mail:
tang_bong@yahoo.com)
****Professor, School of the Built Environment, Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom (E-mail: S.O.Ogunlana@hw.ac.uk)

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 Van Truong Luu, Soo-Yong Kim, Trinh-Quan Truong, and Stephen O. Ogunlana
ment project in Vietnam. To accomplish the objective, two
logical steps are necessary. The first step is to obtain the technical
specifications and features of an apartment toward satisfying the
client’s requirements. The second is to apply the QFD approach
to enable the design team to prioritize and improve the quality of
the layout design of typical apartments.
Korea has emerged as the first largest foreign investor in
Vietnam, pouring over 4.2 billion USD in into 403 projects in
2007 (VNA, 2007). Vietnam and the Korea have enjoyed steady
growth in trade and investment. Therefore, this work has
potential of being useful to practitioners and researchers in
Vietnam as well as Korea.
2. Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
2.1 A Glance at QFD
Yoji Akao has been credited with the initiation of the concept
of QFD in the late 1960s (Chen and Chen, 2002). However, it
was a dormant methodology until Kobe shipyards of Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries applied QFD (Prasad, 1998, cited in Chen and
Chen, 2002) as an integrated decision-making methodology. Japan
is internationally well known as a forerunner of the application
of QFD. In the Japan, QFD reached its peak in the 1970s when
Toyota Auto Body developed a quality table which is widely
known as “the House of Quality (HOQ)” (Chen and Chen,
2002). QFD was not formally introduced to the US and Europe
Fig. 1. The House of Quality (HoQ)
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until 1983 (Chen and Chen, 2002).
QFD is a method to: (1) develop a design quality aimed at
satisfying the customer; and (2) translate the customer’s demand
into design targets and major quality assurance points to be used
throughout the production stage (Akao, 1990, cited in Gargione,
1999). QFD is a methodology to convert the customer’s desires
into quality characteristics and to develop product design by
systematically deploying the relationships of customer desires
and product characteristics (Lee et al., 2000). QFD is a system-
atically way to transmit the customer’s expectation to the level of
the detailed operation (Yang et al., 2003). QFD uses a complex
matrix titled House of Quality (HoQ) to translate customer’s
requirements into the prioritized level of major design solutions
(Fig. 1).
QFD is a powerful development methodology with a wide
range of applications (Gargione, 1999). Many studies have been
undertaken on the application of QFD to improve the quality of
teaching (Lam and Zhao, 1998) and academic program (Pitman
et al., 1996), to facilitate continuous product improvement with
emphasis on the impact of organization learning on innovation
(Govers, 2000, cited in Yang et al., 2003), to improve software
quality (Erickkson and McFadden, 1993), to enhance the design
quality of lithium battery (Halbleib et al., 1993), and to discover
impacts of QFD utilization in the development of a non-destruc-
tive damage detection system for aerospace structures (Stubbs,
1994).
However, there are pros and cons of QFD, viz:
• Pros: (1) generates specific technical requirements; (2) require-
ments are traceable; (3) follows a repeatable, quantitative
process; (4) effectively translates voice of the customer; and (5)
records rationale for each technical requirement.
• Cons: (1) time-consuming process for more than ten require-
ments; (2) very dependent on customer requirement gathering;
and (3) inflexible to changing requirements.
2.2 Applications of QFD in Construction
Gargion (1999) reported that the application of QFD has
focused on different ways, such as a hypothetical renovation of a
personal computer workroom (Mallon and Muligan, 1993), in-
tegrating of the customer’s requirements in an industrialized
housing component (Amarcost et al., 1994), and determining the
design characteristics of the internal layout of a building apart-
ment (Serpell and Wagner, 1997), testing the applicability of
QFD to construction involving companies from different back-
grounds (Huovila et al., 1997). Other studies of the implementa-
tion of QFD in construction have been reported, such as to
examine the awareness and applicability of QFD methodology in
design/build contracts (Low and Yeap, 2001), to improve layout
and features of a middle-class apartment unit (Gargione, 1999),
to incorporate customer demands into the design process (Stehn
and Bergström, 2002), to establish prioritized order of consumer
requirements in low-cost flats (Abdul-Rhman et al., 1999), to
propose a model that can be readily used in the planning and
design process of capital projects (Ahmed et al., 2003).
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering
 Quality Improvement of Apartment Projects Using Fuzzy-QFD Approach: A Case Study in Vietnam
3. Research Method
3.1 Conceptual Research Framework
Since QFD originated from the manufacturing industry, QFD
approach must be fine-tuned in accordance with the requirements
of the construction industry. This study adopted the methodology
presented by Gargione (1999) and Yang et al. (2003) as a
conceptual research framework to develop the implementation
of QFD for improving layout design of a middle-grade apart-
ment (Fig. 2). The research framework, consisting of seven steps,
is introduced in the “case study” section through application to a
real apartment project.
3.2 Applying Fuzzy Numbers in the QFD System
Since customer opinions are the inherently imprecise, the
fuzzy set theory is integrated into HoQ to capture the degree of
importance of each customer requirement to the residential unit.
The computational procedure for fuzzy numbers in the QFD
system is adapted from Yang et al. (2003). According to Yang et
al. (2003), this procedure consists of three steps: (1) assigning
Fig. 2. The Conceptual Research Framework to Improve Layout of a Residential Unit Using QFD Approach
Vol. 13, No. 5 / September 2009
linguistic terms; (2) translating the linguistic terms into triangular
fuzzy numbers (Fig. 3); and (3) computing an average triangular
fuzzy number from the triangular fuzzy numbers. Details of
above steps can be found in Yang et al. (2003). Moreover, a
detailed procedure for using fuzzy numbers and functions is
available in Quan (2006).
4. Case Study
The study used the An Phu project in Ho Chi Minh City to
validate a proposed research framework. This project is a middle-
grade apartment building including two tall buildings (12 floors).
Each building includes 80 apartment units located on the gross
floor area of 100,750 square meters. The basic layout of each
typical unit includes 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 toilet, 1 living
room, kitchen/dinning room and laundry/loggia. The owner is a
state-owned real estate developer.
4.1 Step 1: The Customer’s Requirements
Gathering information on features of the layout of a middle-
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 Van Truong Luu, Soo-Yong Kim, Trinh-Quan Truong, and Stephen O. Ogunlana

Table 1. The Important Degree of Each Customer Requirement after Benchmarking

Customers’ requirements (CR) CR Code Degree of importance (DI)
Space for office works CR1 Medium importance
Living room Enough natural lighting CR2 Important
Sufficient ventilation CR3 Important
Bedroom with built-in wardrobe. CR4 Somewhat important
Bedroom
Sufficient natural lighting and ventilation CR5 Important
Kitchen separate from living room CR6 Somewhat important
Kitchen / dinning Non-stuffy with smoke from cooking CR7 Extremely important
Space for full-size dinning-table CR8 Important
Bathtub CR9 Somewhat important
Moderate space for master bathroom CR10 Medium importance
Bathroom
The toilet accessories CR11 Medium importance
Natural lighting and ventilation CR12 Important
Space for laundry full-size appliances CR13 Somewhat important
Laundry
Space for hanging washings CR14 Somewhat important
Balcony Living room with balcony CR15 Somewhat important
Easy to clean: tiles of bathroom/kitchen CR16 Somewhat important
Floor
Beautiful wood flooring in the living room CR17 Medium importance
Wall Easy to clean: bathroom, toilet, kitchen tiles CR18 Somewhat important
Windows Providing enough natural lighting and ventilation CR19 Extremely important
Doors Wooden doors with no stretch CR20 Important
Power sockets are safe for children. CR21 Somewhat important
Equipment Living room with air-conditioner CR22 Medium importance
TV cable, telephone lines in all rooms CR23 Medium importance
Note: CR1, CR2, and so on are codes of customer’s requirements

grade apartment is a first step. Seven experienced professionals
were interviewed to identify preliminary questions, which will
be submitted to a “focus group”. The 16 participants in the focus
group included two real estate agents, three architects, two civil
engineers, seven potential buyers and two owners. This work
resulted in some favorite features (Table 1):
• The kitchen isolates from the living room
• Space for full size dinning-table
• Sufficient natural lighting and ventilation for main rooms
• Beautiful wooden floor in the living rooms
Based on the favorite features resulting from the “focus group”
discussions, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to
213 residents of two apartment projects. The return rate was
31%. The results of questionnaire analysis will be integrated into
step 2 to evaluate Customer Requirements (CRs) using fuzzy
linguistic importance terms.
4.2 Step 2: Evaluating and Analyzing Customer’s Require-
ments
After identifying favorite features of the layout, the design
team consisting of architects, design engineers, site engineers
was asked to evaluate all aspects of the current design and then
compare it with three other designs competitions that are similar
to the current design in terms of floor area and grade. Sources,
utilized to evaluate and benchmark, came from drawings and
basic information such as specifications, dimensions of compart-
ments, finishing materials, electrical and water features, and so
on. Once the current design was compared with the competition’s
projects, the design team could establish the Degree of Importance
(DI) of customer’s requirements (Table 1). In this step, the study
adopted the computational procedure proposed by (Yang et al.,
2003) for using fuzzy numbers to rate DI of each client require-
ment. Appendix 1 shows a snapshoot of the simple software for
implementing fuzzy-QFD developed by the authors. As per
Table 1, the important criteria in determining the quality of
middle-grade apartment are enough natural lighting, sufficient
ventilation for the main rooms, space for a dinning table, and the
balcony connected to the living room.
4.3 Step 3: The Technical Solutions (HOWs)
The purpose of this step is to develop technical solutions meet-

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 Quality Improvement of Apartment Projects Using Fuzzy-QFD Approach: A Case Study in Vietnam

Fig. 3. The Fuzzy Linguistic Importance Terms

Fig. 4. The Technical Solutions Table (HOWs) and the Roof of HoQ

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 Van Truong Luu, Soo-Yong Kim, Trinh-Quan Truong, and Stephen O. Ogunlana

Fig. 5. The Relationship Matrix between the Customers’ Requirements and the Technical Solutions

ing the customer’s desires and needs. This step resulted in the
engineering characteristic table (HOWs) (Fig. 4). Brainstorming
technique was adopted with the members of the design team to
determine the technical solutions for the layout and to consider
the movement of Target Values for improving the layout design.
4.4 Step 4: The Correlation Matrix (Roof of the HoQ)
After determining the technical solutions of the layout design,
the design team used “the roof of HoQ” (Fig. 4) to examine the
correlation among technical solutions. This “roof” helps to
identify the interactions among the design characteristics and to
provide recognition of positively and negatively correlated
features with technical solutions defined by the design team
(Gargione, 1999). By using the results of determining the
technical solution directions and assigning the relative im-
portance, the design team can determine Target Values of technical
solutions.
The correlations between TSi and TSj are not difficult to
understand under the study context and Vietnamese conditions.
The next sentences will explain the correlation between TS1 and
TS9. The client survey indicated that most Vietnamese clients do
not want to reduce the area of their bedroom, living-room and
kitchen after applying QFD. Therefore, designers tend to cut
down the area of the bathroom in order to balance the total area
of an apartment augmented by an increase in the living room
area. In fact, “To increase the area of the living room for office
works (TS1)” are greatly correlated with “To increase the size of
the master bathroom with bathtub (TS9).” The other correlations
are shown in Appendix 2, which explains the correlations between
TSi and TSj in detail.
4.5 Step 5: The Relationship Matrix (HOWs vs. WHATs)
Once the above steps were done, the design team can deter-
mine the strength of relationship and impact on the desire using

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 Quality Improvement of Apartment Projects Using Fuzzy-QFD Approach: A Case Study in Vietnam

the correlation between the customer’s requirements (a WHATs IW1 = 4*3+6*1+6*2+7*2+5*3+6*3 = 77

table) and the technical solutions (a HOWs table). As shown in IW2 = 7*3+9*3 = 48
Fig. 5, the symbols , , in the relationship matrix indicated
the strength of the correlation between the customer’s require- 4.7 Step 7: Improving the Layout of the Middle-Grade
ments and the technical solutions. They are given 1, 2 and 3 Apartment
points, respectively. In order to draw solutions for improving the layout of the
apartment, the study assumed that the budget is unlimited and the
4.6 Step 6: Importance Weight (IW) and Relative Weight deadline is not strict. By using the results of the IW and the RW
(RW) of Requirements of the technical solutions (Table 2), it is possible for the design
Using the independent scoring method (Akao, 1990), the team to prioritize design solutions for a new layout design, which
degree of importance (DI) of a proposed requirement is convert- meet the customers’ requirements. Table 3 shows the major
ed to Importance Weight (IW) and the Relative Weight (RW) of design solutions that meet the technical characteristics. In a new
the technical solution (Table 2). The design team can determine design of a middle-grade apartment, it was necessary to increase
the level of importance of each technical solution based on the or decrease some areas or shapes of compartments and to
results of the IW and the RW of the technical characteristic. eliminate or add new specific solutions (Gargione, 1999).
The IW is computed as follows: Using the results of the prioritized level of design solutions,
23
designers can improve the performance of a quality apartment in
IWk = ∑ DIi *SRik the design phase so as to meet the customer’s desires. Fig. 6 and
i=1
Fig. 7 show apartment A and B before and after using QFD.
Where:
IWk : the Important Weight of the technical solution k (k = 1³ 4.8 Verification by Real Estate Agents
23). Although it is desirable to verify the apartment layout improv-
DIi : The degree of importance of the customer requirement ed by design solutions with the respondents, the approach could
i (i=1³ 23) not be adopted due to cost and logistic constraints. Consequently,
SRik : The strength of relationship between the technical another method was adopted to verify the proposed design
solution k and the customer requirement i. solution for a middle-grade apartment. The layout plans for
which quality has been enhanced by proposed design solutions
According to Fig. 5, the detail computation of the engineering were presented to 22 real estate sales agents, who participated a
characteristic 1 (TS1) and 2 (TS2) are as follows: seminar in Ho Chi Minh City in May 2007. Fifteen of partici-
Table 2. The Relationship Matrix between the Customer’s Requirements and the Technical Characteristics
Technical solutions (TSk)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
IW 77 48 97 18 48 24 27 61 45 38 26 48 42 118 145 30 21 52 147 26 37 28 27
RW (%) 6 4 8 1 4 2 2 5 4 3 2 4 3 10 12 2 2 4 12 2 3 2 2

Table 3. The Prioritized Level of Major Design Solutions, Which Can be Used to Improve the Quality of the Apartment
Technical characteristics RW (%) Design solutions for improvement
Add one balcony connected to the living room in accordance with the
1 Living room Living room with balcony 12
Law of construction
2 Windows Provide enough natural lighting and ventilation 12 Increase the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation
3 Laundry Space for hanging washings 10 Increase the area of the laundry for hanging washings
Increase the glass area of windows for natural lighting and ventila-
4 Living room Sufficient ventilation 8
tion
5 Living room Space for office works 6 Modify layout of the living room
6 Kitchen/dinning Space for full-size dinning table 5 Modify layout of kitchen/dinning
7 Walls Easy to clean: bathroom, toilet, kitchen tiles 4 Specify walls with ceramic tiles of light color and easy to clean
8 Bathroom Bathtub in the master bathroom 4 Add appropriate bathtubs for master bathroom
9 Bathroom Natural lighting and ventilation 4 Increase the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation
10 Living room Natural lighting 4 Increase the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation
11 Bedroom Natural lighting and ventilation 4 Increase the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation

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 Van Truong Luu, Soo-Yong Kim, Trinh-Quan Truong, and Stephen O. Ogunlana

Fig. 6. Apartment (Type A) before and after Using QFD Fig. 7. Apartment (Type B) before and after Using QFD

pants agree that the customers would be more satisfied with
features of the apartment as adjusted by the design solutions.
Three of them were undecided while four think the proposed
layout plan is appropriate but other solutions were needed to
raise customer satisfaction. The four agents think it was useful to
revise the layout plan. However, it was very difficult to add these
suggestions because any solution should have a scientific basis
rather than solutions expressed by feeling or opinions. Moreover,
in order to consider the market condition, the sales agents were
asked whether the customers could afford the increased price
resulting from suggested solutions. Fourteen of the sales agents
believed that the customers would be willingness to pay for the
improvements.
5. Conclusions
In the real estate market, the customers are becoming increas-
ingly choosy when purchasing apartments. As such, enhancing
the quality of real estate products in the design phase may be an
effective means of achieving competitive advantage. The aim of
this paper is to demonstrate the applicability of QFD approach in
enhancing the quality of a middle-grade apartment at the design
phase. To apply QFD approach, the study adopted the research
process proposed by Gargione (1999) and the computational
procedure for using fuzzy numbers in rating the importance
weightings for each customer requirement proposed by Yang et
al. (2003). In order to prioritize the improvements and design

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 Quality Improvement of Apartment Projects Using Fuzzy-QFD Approach: A Case Study in Vietnam
specifications, QFD approach is an appropriate tool to derive a
prioritized order of design solutions. Based on the prioritized
order, designers can improve the quality of a middle-grade apart-
ment towards meeting customer’s desires. This prioritization can
be used as references to owners and designers in apartment
projects in Vietnam. In addition, the proposed design solutions
for enhancing the quality of the apartment can be used as a guide
to focus on what the customer desires throughout the design
phase. The paper confirmed that QFD is a useful tool for
designers to improve their products. Since the research method is
general, the process of QFD in this paper may be applied to other
apartment projects with minor changes. The results of this paper
demonstrate that QFD can be use to translate the customer’s
desires into design solutions through information managed by
the design team.
The findings indicates that the balcony (or logia) connected to
the living room, the laundry area with enough space for hanging
the washing, and increasing the area of windows for natural
lighting and ventilation are major factors influencing on the
value of a middle-grade apartment in Vietnam.
Since Korea has emerged as the first largest foreign investor in
Vietnam, the customer’s requirements, technical solutions, and
proposed design solutions are valuable lessons for Korean
investors, who would like to invest in real estate projects in
Vietnam. They are useful not only to practitioners, researchers,
and clients in Vietnam but also to those in Korea.
The case study uncovered the following difficulties that will be
valuable lessons for readers. As in other surveys, some people
refused to be interviewed. Competent interviewers are important
to identify customer requirements. Since the company has no
professional department for gathering feedback from customers,
there is no database on the customer’s complaints for quality
improvement. In addition, this is the first reported application of
QFD to apartment projects in Vietnam. The study duration was
extended by two months because of the limited experience of the
QFD team. Moreover, clients sometimes expressed their needs
using ambiguous explanations. However, those explanations are
the sources of inputs for improvements. The QFD team faced
many difficulties in translating the client’s ambiguous expression
into specific requirements.
Although extensive effort has gone into this study, there are
limitations of which the reader should be aware. The work
focused on apartment projects in Ho Chi Minh city, consequently,
other projects located in other regions need to be integrated in
future studies. Additionally, researchers could consider other
kinds of apartments such as high-class apartment or low-cost
flats in any additional work. This research used a case study of a
realistic apartment project to validate its conceptual framework
and to demonstrate its application. As such, generalization to
other projects and to different location is unrealistic. The study
assumed that the budget is unlimited and the deadline is not tight.
Therefore, further studies should consider budget limitations and
deadline as constraints to infer design solutions.
Vol. 13, No. 5 / September 2009
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Appendix 2. Explanation of the Correlations between TSi and TSj in Fig. 4

Type of
TSi TSj Explanation of the correlations between TSi and TSj*
correlation
Based on the client survey, the area of bedrooms and kitchen should not be
reduced considerably in the revised design. Therefore, designers tend to cut down
Increase the area in the Increase the size of the
the area of a bathroom and laundry in order to balance the total area of an apart-
living room for office master bathroom and # ment affected by the increase in the living room area. In fact, “Increase the area in
works (TS1) provide bathtub (TS9)
the living room for office works (TS1)” may have much effect on “Increase the
size of the master bathroom and provide bathtub (TS9).”
Since the area of bedrooms and kitchen should not be reduced considerably in the
Increase the area in the Reduce the area of the
revised design, it is obviously that “Increase the area in the living room for office
living room for office common rest-room | works (TS1)” and “Reduce the area of the common rest-room (TS10)” have posi-
works (TS1) (TS10)
tively correlation.
Re-arrange to have When using QFD, it was found that most Vietnamese clients did not want to
Increase the area in the
enough space for a reduce the area of their bedroom, living-room and kitchen much. As a result, “Re-
living room for office ≠
washing machine arrange to have enough space for a washing machine (TS13)” has somewhat nega-
works (TS1)
(TS13) tive influence on “Increase the area in the living room for office works (TS1).”
When using QFD, it was found that most Vietnamese clients did not want to
Increase the area in the Add the drying area but
reduce the area of their bedroom, living-room and kitchen much. Thus, “Increase
living room for office hidden aesthetically ≠ the area in the living room for office works (TS1)” may cause a little difficulty of
works (TS1) (TS14)
adding drying area (TS14).
According to the project owner, the price of an apartment should not be increased
Increase the area of the Add a balcony con-
more than 10% after applying QFD. Therefore, “Increase the area in the living
living room for office nected to the living # room for office works (TS1),” which may raise apartment price, will negatively
works (TS1) room (TS15)
affect “Add a balcony connected to the living room (TS15).”
Increase the window
Increase the glass area For natural lighting and ventilation, it is obviously that “Increase the glass area of
size of the living room
of the living-room for € the living-room for natural lighting (TS2)” and “Increase the window size of the
for natural lighting and
natural lighting (TS2) living room for natural lighting and ventilation (TS3)” are strong correlation.
ventilation (TS3)
Increase the window
Increase the glass area For natural lighting and ventilation, it is obvious that “Increase the glass area of
area of the bedroom for
of the living-room for € the living-room for natural lighting (TS2)” and “Increase the window area of the
natural lighting and
natural lighting (TS2) bedroom for natural lighting and ventilation (TS5)” are strong correlation.
ventilation (TS5)
Increase the window Increase the window
In order to gain natural lighting and ventilation in the all rooms, designers tend to
size of the living room area of the bathroom for
€ increase the window size of the living room (TS3) and the window area of the
for natural lighting and natural lighting and
bathroom (TS12). Therefore, TS3 and TS12 positively correlated.
ventilation (TS3) ventilation (TS12)

− 314 − KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering

 Quality Improvement of Apartment Projects Using Fuzzy-QFD Approach: A Case Study in Vietnam

Appendix 2. Continued
Type of
TSi TSj Explanation of the correlations between TSi and TSj*
correlation
Increase the window Increase the window
In order to gain natural lighting and ventilation in the all rooms, designers tend to
area of the bedroom for area of the bathroom for
€ increase the window area of the bedroom (TS5) and bathroom (TS12). Therefore,
natural lighting and natural lighting and
TS5 and TS12 positively correlated.
ventilation (TS5) ventilation (TS12)
Increase the window Expand the area of win- In order to gain natural lighting and ventilation in the all rooms, to “Increase the
area of the bedroom for dows for natural light- window area of the bedroom for natural lighting and ventilation (TS5)” and to
natural lighting and ing and ventilation € “Expand the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation (TS19)” can be
ventilation (TS5) (TS19) done simultaneously. Therefore, TS5 and TS19 are strongly positive correlation.
Increase the window Expand the area of win- In order to gain natural lighting and ventilation in the all rooms, to “Increase the
area of the bathroom for dows for natural light- window area of the bathroom for natural lighting and ventilation (TS12)” and to
natural lighting and ing and ventilation € “Expand the area of windows for natural lighting and ventilation (TS19)” can be
ventilation (TS12) (TS19) done simultaneously. Therefore, TS12 and TS19 are strongly positive correlated.
Before using QFD, a washing machine was placed near the restroom or kitchen in
the former design as usual for Vietnamese designs. When using QFD, it was found
Re-arrange to have that most clients did not want to considerably reduce the area of their bedroom,
Increase the size of the
enough space for a living-room and kitchen considerably. As a result, designers may tend to cut down
master bathroom and ≠
washing machine the area of restrooms in order to have enough separate space for a washing
provide bathtub (TS9)
(TS13) machine. Consequently, “Re-arrange to have enough space for a washing machine
(TS13)” has somewhat negative influence on “Increase the size of the master bath-
room and provide bathtub (TS9).”
Before QFD exercise, there was no a drying area in the former design - a mistake
by the designer. Through the QFD exercise, it was found that most clients did not
Increase the size of the Add a drying area but want to reduce the area of their bedroom, living-room and kitchen much. As a
master bathroom and hidden aesthetically ≠ result, designers may tend to cut down the area of restrooms in order to add a dry-
provide bathtub (TS9) (TS14) ing area hidden aesthetically. Consequently, “Add a drying area hidden aestheti-
cally (TS14)” has somewhat negative influence on “Increase the size of the master
bathroom and provide bathtub (TS9).”
Before using QFD, there was no a balcony in the former design. According to the
project owner, the total area of an apartment should not be increased more than
10% after applying QFD. Additionally, the client survey indicated that the area of
Increase the size of the Add a balcony con-
bedrooms, living room and kitchen should not be reduced considerably after QFD.
master bathroom and nected to the living ≠ As a result, the revised design tends to cut down the bathroom area in order to bal-
provide bathtub (TS9) room (TS15)
ance the total area of the apartment increased by adding a balcony. In fact, “Add a
balcony connected to the living room (TS15),” may somewhat negative influence
on “Increase the size of the master bathroom and provide bathtub (TS9).”
Note: ≠: Weak negative correlation; #: Strong negative correlation; €: Weak positive correlation; |: Strong positive correlation.
Note: *: Please refer to Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 in order to thoroughly understand the explanation of correlations between TSi and TSj.

Vol. 13, No. 5 / September 2009 − 315 −