Dr Lam said they assisted in making decisions on complex business issues and improving products and services.

'We want to promote the use of these analytical tools in organisations to help them improve quality and productivity,' he said.

Dr Lam, a member of the Asia Pacific Quality and Productivity Management Research Team at the university, said the group brought together academics specialising in different analytical concepts.

Three of the relatively new concepts could be used to determine levels and appropriateness of resource allocation in businesses, identify the right markets for products or services, plan marketing strategy and even raise the quality of teaching and education.

Dr Lam said the three concepts were: quality function deployment (QFD), data envelopment analysis (DEA), and conjoint analysis.

'The QFD tool helps to translate what the customers are saying . . . we call it the voice of the customer. . . to the final quality product or service,' he said.

DEA is an analytical technique ideal for large companies.

'This method helps to collect data from an organisation that may consist of many subsidiaries or production units and analyse them in such a way that enables managers to identify strengths and weaknesses of each unit,' he said. 'This is a technique that involves solving a number of linear programming problems. 'Lately, we have been trying to promote a new software that is based on a theoretical background. It is called Expert Choice. The technique that the software implements is called the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). It helps managers to sort out all the factors necessary to make a decision by structuring these factors into different hierarchies.

'Then the software allows the manager to do simple pair-wise comparisons as opposed to trying to make a decision based on 10 different factors simultaneously. It creates a series of matrixes and, by doing some mathematical computations, it tries to identify at each level which factors are more important, then helps the manager make a decision.' Dr Lam said it could be applied to making a decision on a complex issue.

'You can use this tool to decide whether or not to emigrate, a tough decision to make considering the number of factors you have to look into,' he said.

'It can be applied in deciding whether or not to start a business venture, buy a house, or choose the ideal university in which to enrol.' Dr Lam said Conjoint Analysis could help a manufacturer to determine the right product and the appropriate market for it.

'This allows you to identify the relevant service features and feature levels of a product a company might want to market,' he said.

'Say a bank wants to start issuing credit cards in Hong Kong. The competition in this area is fierce so, in order to attract customers, the bank needs to answer questions such as what kind of credit card package to offer, whether to waive fees, introduce flight mileage programmes, or some other some incentives.

'Conjoint Analysis can help gauge the consumer preferences on these programmes before they are marketed.' He said the same technique could be used to identify market segments.

'Another use of Conjoint Analysis is to provide guidelines for service development and to focus management attention on issues which require further development and investigation,' he said.

'Conjoint Analysis increases the role of marketing research in the design of new products and services.' Dr Lam said the university had helped companies to improve quality and productivity by using OR/MS concepts.

The university's knowledge in this field extends across a range of disciplines.

Academics involved in the Asia Pacific Quality and Productivity Management Research Team provide expertise in statistical process control, quality function deployment and reliability studies.

The team is also experienced in teaching risk assessment, design of experiments, operations scheduling and manpower planning. The group has research and case study material to support various facets of management, including simulation modelling and network applications.