Emerging trend of customer satisfaction in academic process : An application SPC and Taguchi's robust parameter design

Purpose – The recent expansion in tertiary education in India, an increased student enrollment as well as global competition have created a challenge for the existence of the institutes. It has been realized that a quality of service is associated with customer satisfaction and it is one of the key points for survival for any organization as it minimizes the various risks associated with an organization. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an empirical study conducted to obtain the impact of various academic systems on student's satisfaction across the institution. Second, it focusses on minimizing various risks by providing an optimum combination of parameters of different academic activities. Design/methodology/approach – This empirical research investigates customer satisfaction on support services of academic process and focus on minimizing various risks by finding an optimum combination of parameters of academic activities. Findings – It identifies the levels of sensitivity of the various factors affecting the academic process of technical education that might influence the management to design the technical curricula to increase student's satisfaction. Practical implications – The study demonstrates the impact of statistical process control (SPC) and Taguchi parameter design to monitor the academic process of the institution and finding an optimum condition of the various parameters involved with the process, which would maximize customer satisfaction across the institution. The result suggests that this approach may add more value to both academics and practitioners. Originality/value – It is an original contribution to integrate SPC and Taguchi robust parameter design in assessing customers’ satisfaction in Indian scenario.