Continuous Improvement Approach to Increase Customer Satisfaction for Laboratories : Case study / By Tarek Hilmy Abbas; Under the Supervision of Prof. Dr. Hegazy Zaher.

Thesis (Ph.D)-Cairo University, 2023.

Bibliography: pages 112-120.

The Research problem was that the director of the XYZ laboratory found that the rate of entry of devices into the laboratory for calibration (workload) for the past three months was lower than the monthly average with an unacceptable deviation, and the reasons for this could have serious consequences rising from customer dissatisfaction. The researcher determines the study calculated sample size as (86) participant.
The researcher designed a 5 Likert Scale questionnaire to obtain feedback from the customers of the Lab, a set of 5 dimensions was selected to determine customer satisfaction based on a list of 19 questions developed, the researcher tested the Variability of the questionnaire by presented them to a group of (5) arbitrators, specialized in The field of study to express their opinions on the items of the survey form and evaluate it, thus the questionnaire came out in its final form. Then, the researcher conducted a pilot study that aims to test the Reliability of the questionnaire by distributed (35) forms for the proposed survey, then the researcher analyzed the collected respondents by calculated the reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) it was found that, the questions values between (0.862, 0.874), which is higher than the accepted value (0.60).
The entire questionnaire was made available online in a Google Forms-created digital format. This technique allows participants to complete their replies quickly and easily. The request to fill in the survey was sent per email for 90 customers more than the target (86 as Calculated in sample) via the Quality manager of the laboratory who is in contact with all the respective customers. Two extra e-mails were sent later as a reminder to customers who had not opened the invitation e-mail yet or had not (fully) completed the survey. After a period of one month the link was removed from the internet. 90 customers received an e-mail with the invitation to participate, not all participants, but the majority (77 Participant) filled in the answer of questioner. So, respondents represent 90% of the targeted sample of customers.

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The researcher started to conduct a statistical analysis for the collected results each dimension's estimated Cronbach's Alpha looks to be trustworthy because its values are higher than (0.7). So, the result for all dimensions indicates an accepted degree of reliability in the customers' answers for these dimensions.
The central tendency for the collected data were calculated as the Mean and Standard deviation values which tell us that the higher the mean the stronger the agreement for this dimension and vice versa the lower the mean represent the lower the agreement for the dimension, the turnaround time dimension with a mean value of (1.71) among the rest of the mean values which is higher than (3.1) and a very narrow standard deviation (0.77) telling us how close the opinions about this dimension are. The Pareto chart for the strongly disagree rating indicated that Turnaround Time represent 75.2% of the reasons of customer disagreement, and One-Sample T Plot of mean told us that the mean of the Turnaround Time (1.71) is the lowest value and out of range for the rest of the dimensions.
The Research using a swim-lane flowchart to provides information about the owner of the activity (the process owner), describe the activity, and identify whether the work is technical or administrative, and how to evaluate this type of process performance. This will help the researcher in locating the appropriate tool to address each issue in accordance with its nature and owner. This have done with the highest workload device for a one year of workload data which is the Handheld Multimeter with 15.4% of workload, for the in-process data collection a new standardized method created by the researcher, to be used to collect 30 records with the type of Handheld Multimeter.
The researcher performed the data analysis for the collected records and found out the following characteristics:
• The collected data was normally distributed according to normality Test with the P-Value = 0.533 greater than 0.05
• According to the Run Chart, the p-value for mixtures is less than 0.05, that is mean the process has mixtures trend in data, it`s often indicate combined data from two populations, or two processes operating at different levels.
• According to control of the individual data the process is controlled and stable but, all of points outside the limited lines and the process target (14h).
• According to process capability, the process is not capable (Cpk < 1) to give the output of what it is designed for.
After collected and analyzing the in-process data the researcher used the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) which is a basic method in lean manufacturing systems to identify and eliminate waste in processes, According to VSM current state Graph, the percentage of value-added time is (49%) while the non-value-added time percentage is (51%.) So, the process contains a lot of wastes and needs improvement. The process Lead time is 1040 (17 hours) which is greater than the process target (14h).
The researcher applied brainstorming with the laboratory team to discover a way to reduce wasted time in the process, the lab team decided to use:-
1- software package including a barcode system to reduce the problems of wasting time and document shortening within the laboratory and,
2- Applying the 5S tools to improve calibration wait times inside the laboratory schedule area.
The researcher recollected 30 in-process data again to draw the value stream map after improvement, the researcher used the value stream map Should be Activity List to redraw the should be chart, and the results of the improvement become as following.
The Lead time decreased from (1040) to (331) minutes (5.5 hours) achieve the laboratory target by having the turnaround time less than 14 hours for a device, and value added decreased to (185) instead of (510), non-value added become (146) instead of (530) minutes, and the process improved by 70% .
The researcher Re-distributed 90 forms to Re-measured customer satisfaction using the same questionnaire and received 86 respondents, By analyzing the collected data for the second time, The mean values of the turnaround Time has improved to be (3.76) as it was (1.71) before, and Pareto chart for the Strongly Disagree for all dimensions after improvement shows that the turnaround time has improved to be 8.8% of the effective value of the dimension as it was 75.6% before.
From the previous results of the research, We can conclude that there is a great interest in satisfying laboratory customers before and after applying continuous improvement tools, so the researcher rejected the Null H₀ hypothesis and accepted the alternative hypothesis H₁.

- هدفت الدراسة إلى: تحديد أسباب عدم رضا العملاء وتحسينها بإستخدام ادوات التحسين المستمر
- واستخدم الادوات المنهج الوصفي والتحليلي ، وبرنامج التحليل الإحصائي لتحليل البيانات
- اعتمدت الدراسة على الاستبيان كأداة رئيسية في جمع البيانات الأولية.
- خلصت نتائج البحث الى زيادة رضا العملاء من خلال تطبيق منهجية التحسين المستمرفى المعامل
1.يعتمد النجاح المستدام طويل الأمد في كسب رضا العملاء على بناء ثقافة التحسين المستمر داخل المختبر. تقترح الدراسة عدة توصيات على النحو التالي:
2.تقوم إدارة المختبر بإنشاء عملية لاعتماد أدوات التحسين المستمر كجزء من الحياة الطبيعية لزيادة رضا العملاء.
3.يحتاج تنفيذ معيار ISO في المختبرات إلى طريقة مفصلة لتحقيق متطلبات الجودة باستخدام نهج التحسين المستمر ، وقياس وتحسين رضا العملاء.
4.على المختبرات استخدام حزمة برامج ذات نظام الباركود لتقليل الوقت الضائع في الاعمال الادارية داخل المحتبر.

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Text in English and abstract in Arabic & English.