Development of an empirically based model for the effective and efficient analysis, processing and use of customer complaint information

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Robert Heinrich Schmitt
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: from 2010 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 182065375

Complaint information is often used only for the disposal of current errors and rarely for the improvement of product quality of current and subsequent products generations, although customer complaints involve a high potential for these purposes. With the aim to provide a basis for the scientific study of this phenomenon, a design model for the technical complaint management was developed in the first application period of the research project. Content of this design model are instructions and structuring aids for the implementation and organization of a quality-oriented technical complaint management in companies. In order to assess the relevance of the described design model for the technical complaint management, it has been evaluated in an empirical study. Aside from the measurement of the relevance of the proposed model, the general effect of complaint management activities for the construct "quality" was examined.The results of the study confirm the design of the model and point out the positive effect of complaint management to the corporate quality. However, it also demonstrates the low long-term effect of the significant activities of technical complaints management (data organization, failure identification, failure correction). The need for a process module for a long-term knowledge transfer, with the purpose of increasing the sustainability, is reflected in its significant effect on failure recurrence of the companies surveyed. For this reason, an extension of the technical complaint management activities by a knowledge management approach seems sensible.The aim of the second research period is to develop a decision model for the use and transfer of information, that arises during the processing of complaints (complaint information) with the aim of sustainable complaint management. For this purpose, the procedure builds on the already developed design model. In particular, the phase of the knowledge transfer is considered in more detail. Explicitly it will be examined how the long-term effect of complaint handling can be improved through the use of knowledge-based methods. The long-term effect is described by the construct of "corporate quality", which has been used in the first project period. But this time, it only relates to the following product generations. Therefor the main focus lies on the interface of complaint management and for product and process development. The developed model allows a decision of on scenarios for the use of knowledge-based methods in technical complaint management based on essential organizational descriptors.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants