Productivity and Quality in Smart Manufacturing Systems

Kano Lean Six Sigma (KLSS) for Improving Service Quality at Education Technology (EdTech) Startups

Moses Laksono Singgih, Reza Aulia Akbar, and Okto Abdillah

Extended Abstract

Companies’ rapid development in Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 is a significant challenge company faces in carrying out their business processes. Failure to capture consumers’ factors and technical specifications significantly affects all business processes in a company. Today, consumers are looking for a standard product or service system and a product or service that can satisfy (delighter) them. This study evaluates and improves the service quality at EdTech (Education Technology) Startups using Kano Lean Six Sigma. This research will also review the effectiveness of Kano Lean Six Sigma in improving service quality at the startup company EdTech. This study uses the integration of Kano, Lean, and Six Sigma methods to capture customers’ technical specification requests and improve process performance
related to critical customer needs. The research method was carried out by conducting a literature study on Kano Lean
Six Sigma and collecting data on the Startup EdTech company’s service quality. The service quality parameters assessed are the suitability of the program with customer needs, response time duration, clarity of information, website usability, and mentoring quality. The Integrated Kano Lean Six Sigma method is suitable for planning and improving a product or system service quality to make it more effective and efficient. Thus, EdTech startup company can provide special programs based on customer needs with optimal service quality.

Keywords: Education Technology (EdTech) Startups, Industry 4.0, Kano Lean Six Sigma, Service Quality, Society 5.0

 

1. INTRODUCTION

The rapid development of technology in the Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 era is a big challenge faced by companies in carrying out their business processes (Barbosa and Aroca 2017). The competitive market competition requires companies to have the correct segmentation and target market to satisfy customers. Failure to capture customers’ factors and technical specifications significantly affect all business processes in a company. Today, customers are looking for a standard product or service system and a product or service that can satisfy them. This satisfaction parameter must be the company’s main focus to provide the proper technical specifications and become superior to other companies (Siddiqui 2004). Therefore, the Kano Lean Six Sigma model improves the quality of a product or service system based on customer demand in various manufacturing and service industries. Kano Lean Six Sigma integrates Kano, Lean, and Six Sigma methods to capture technical specification requests from customers and improve process performance related to Critical Customer Requirements (Salah, Rahim, and Carretero 2009). The Kano method’s existence can help capture demand and specification demands from customers, divided into basic specifications, performance, and delighter. This model diagram uses to compare the level of existence or matrix of a specification. If the company can only meet basic specifications, then the products or services provided will not increase customer satisfaction.

2. METHODS

The object of this research is a startup education company with a bootstrap category (develop independently without funding from investors). EdTech is engaged in educational services and research development using a website platform. Since 2018, the startup company has had 25,000 active users with 25 online research-class products. Data in this study collected from website user complaint data from January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021. The complaint data will group into more general parameters or variables. The Kano model is used to classify the complaint variables into 3 (three) specifications: basic, performance, and delighter. Furthermore, top management has a selection and priority determination on the complaint variable, which will be resolved based on the company’s ability. Stages in the process of improving and improving services at EdTech (Education Technology) Startup using the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology. The researcher chooses this methodology because the service system using a website platform already existed, so evaluation is need for continuous improvement. At the improvement stage of service quality, there is a waste analysis using the lean six sigma method so that the website access process by users becomes efficient. These improvements will be validated based on usability aspects using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire (Sauro and Lewis 2011). The website usability test involved 20 randomly selected website users.

3. RESULTS

In improving online class education services through the website platform, it is necessary to know the various customer complaints against using it. In this study, 774 complaints data obtain from users of the EdTech startup website for one year (January 2020 – December 31, 2020). The complaint data is then group into ten variables and four categories (mentoring quality, information clarity, time duration, and website usability) based on an assessment from the company’s top management. Table 1 shows the variable and percentage complaints that can use as indicators of improvement priorities. Complaint variables that have priority are online class learning stages (35.14%), fast response (24.29%), and payment stages (14.21%). So, the Kano method maps customer requirements into three classifications: delighter, performance, and basic. Based on the expert judgment from the company’s top management, they classify two complaints variables as delighters, six complaints variables including performance, and two complaints variables classified as basic. This research will select complaint variables based on the Kano Model classification by considering the priority scale and company capabilities.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The Kano Lean Six Sigma (KLSS) method is proven to improve the service quality of Education Technology (EdTech) startups based on aspects of response time duration, clarity of information, website usability, and mentoring quality. Based on the expert judgment from top management, the improvement process is select for complaint variables classified as performance and basic. Each category has a variable complaint which is a generalization of customer complaints when using the website platform. Using the Kano method, there are two complaints variables classified as delighters, six complaints variables, including performance, and two complaints variables, classified as basic. Complaint variables classified as basic are access to material videos without advertising interference (5.17%) and provision of material module facilities (4.13%). So, the complaint variables classified as performance are setting video resolution (3.88%), fast response (24.29%), payment stages (14.21%), website design interface (5.56%), classroom learning stages online (35.14%), and paper feedback (4.17%). Therefore, total user complaints in Q1 2021 (after repairs) effectively reduced the number of complaints compared to Q1 2020 for all variable complaints. As validation, there is a usability measurement using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. Before, the repair had a score of 68.25 (Grade C – OK), while the website’s usability after the repair had a score of 81.75 (Grade A – Excellent).

 

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