Reliability assurance programs and an application of failure mode and effects analysis in service organizations

As service concept is showing up in our daily life, it composes the focal point of the social life. However, the intangibility feature of service concept makes difficulties in perceiving and measuring features of service. Standardizing of services that have different features is considerably hard. The servqual instrument that combines to form five service quality dimensions including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy achieves measurement of service quality. Reliability can be considered for mechanical systems whose performances could be measured in quantity, as well as service companies whose performances are measured in efficiency criteria. All performance criteria must be determined for a service process to be able to determine its reliability. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is used in determining the performance criteria and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is used in preventing potential failures of the process. In routine service processes where service is equally given to customers such as schools or banks, use of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is applicable. In this thesis, researches and statistical analyses for service quality analysis on students residing in Buca Female Student Hostel associated to Dokuz Eylül University Service Department of Culture, Health and Sports with the use of Servqual technique and a FMEA application in the officer on duty service process is discussed. Keywords: FMEA, Service Quality, Servqual, Reliability, Hostel?s Service.