Cremation is an ancient ritualistic procedure that nowadays has displayed as an option with increasing demand. It started being performed in São Paulo, Brazil in the 1970s and only became more popular in the late 1990s, expanding thereafter throughout Brazil. Although, there are still some difficulties in performing this service, as this takes place especially in rural Brazilian cities.

Currently, cremation is gaining more market space, due to the lack of space in Brazilian cemeteries, especially in public cemeteries and this is an alternative mechanism for reducing contamination of the environment. Therefore, the possibility arises for creating and expanding a mobile cremation service provided to a specific investor public. This occurs by considering the related technical complexity and the possibility of providing support to future business initiatives specifically geared to cremation service activities.

Due to this, we have sought to further understand issues related to cemeteries and crematories in various media, such as: reports, articles (journals and conferences), treatises, dissertations, theses, and unstructured interviews with entrepreneurs in the sector. Only information geared to traditional cremation services was identified (performed at the company facilities), and public and private cemeteries are currently the locations most commonly used by Brazilians.

Thereby, the development project was confirmed, as being something totally new regarding human cremation and providing this service, as somewhat similar service was detected, however, that was focused on pet (animal) cremation on the European scenario. Through these interviews with entrepreneurs in the states of Santa Catarina, Alagoas, Sergipe and São Paulo, important information was shared on laws, maintenance expenses, analysis of future scenarios for growth of both services, prices for contracting services, among other information were obtained and used for making progress on this project.

An exploratory study using a semi-structured questionnaire was also applied, yielding a total of 230 responses, mostly from the states of Santa Catarina, Sergipe and Alagoas. It revealed that 63% of respondents are interested in the cremation process, expressing the main reasons as: this process causes a reduced environmental impact (26.3%), provides the possibility of placing remains where one wishes (18.7%) and avoiding any maintenance expenses (4.5%).

A variation of price ranges have been noted as 19.7% of the sample is willing to pay USD 212.00 for the service, 15.6% USD 213.00 to USD 425.00 and 12.3% USD 1,064.00 to USD 1,276.00. Regarding the location for cremation, 39.4% of respondents have opted for the crematorium premises itself and 21.7% other specific locations.

Finally, regarding the possibility of contracting the service, one of the issues displayed an average of 3.01 and a standard deviation of 1.45. Thus, there is no real positive or negative positioning for contracting the service, considering that the data points to a zone of balanced information, showing a great deal of variation thereof.

Campos et al. [25] highlight how important it is to know the way to exactly define the real customers’ needs, and for this activity and a number of different approaches that can be used. Thus, by applying the selected methods and the above information, a total of 21 customer needs was met, as stated on Table 1.

In order to analyse and assign prices to meet customer needs, as well as contributing to the generation of service requirements, the Mudge Diagram was utilized. It displays the needs of customers allocated in rows and columns and then it compares item by item. Thus, one can identify the percentage to show which needs are most important for the generation of service requirements [24].

Provide a list of needs and their prices, based on the Mudge Diagram, the service requirements were generated based on Table 2. These, in turn, can be understood as amenable technical features to measurement or not, considering the fact that the project is dealing with the intangible part of the service, so its performance and perception as viewed by customers [24].

The most significant customer needs and requirements were considered up to then, as having direct relationship to customer satisfaction. According to the Mudge Diagram, the most important needs were related to the presence of a qualified staff, cremation process safety and compliance with laws. The next step focuses on surveying the service specifications, which is a delicate activity and not very easy to structure, as obtaining this information is crucial to the development process. They are a crucial part of the service, as they determine how the service will be created and how this will meet the customers’ needs [30].

As a first QFD step to obtain specifications, the first “Quality house” was structured. One can see the relationship between the generated needs and requirements from this.

The needs are not equally important, and the authors used a scale from 1 to 5 for evaluated these needs, whereas 1 is “bad” and 5 is “excellent”. Stressing the same method was employed in this research work and the results are displayed in Figure 2 [31].

Figure 2.

Relationship matrix

After that, benchmarking was performed, through an analysis on the service being development based on its direct or indirect potential competitors, also expressing the planned quality and customers’ perception based on the service. Competitors, cemeteries burial services and traditional cremation processes were used for this purpose. In Figure 2, one can see the relationship of needs linked to requirements, rated according to their importance to customers, making it possible to see what the main factors are, i.e., the most representative. Thus, one can perceive that the three most important requirements are also related to customer satisfaction and converging with what has been discussed on the importance of the needs as analysed in the Mudge Diagram.

In other words, requirements related to customer satisfaction and cremation service performance, complaints, employee training and safety, these are remarkable features for developing these factors.

The justification for the fact that these requirements and needs are the most important points, within the service providing project, resides in the fact at the moment when they are performed: at death. This issue has been discussed a great deal by the religious society, as it always seeks to comfort the family [32]. Therefore, it is a moment of extreme family fragility, where small details or even minor errors can generate greater suffering for them. Thereby emphasizing and furthermore, seeking constant and faithful commitment to provide complete customer satisfaction. Now, regarding the objective of this aspect of this research work, the environment and reduction of contamination, emerged soon after. When requirements focused on process safety and compliance with all environmental regulations also showed a higher degree of importance in the QFD. And in Brazil, very little has been done regarding these initiatives on reducing the environmental impacts caused by cemeteries, mainly municipal ones [33].

Some Brazilian cities have noted a slight increase in crematorium deployment. However, even in the private sector, businessmen are ready to implement crematories, but the Brazilian government continues to hinder this in its legislations. Implicating the blocking these processes and converging on the fact cremation is still something very innovative in Brazil, compared to the European scenario [33]. Despite the implementation of crematories in some states in the country has been contested, crematory impacts are still minimal, due to the lack of infrastructures in cities. This fact supports and encourages the development, even the initial form as a mobile cremation service. As this could ameliorate the expressed problems in serving the local population, or even provide services to government agencies. Especially regarding the number of deaths of indigent people, who are believed to be a major occupational quantitative in municipal cemeteries.

Then the roof of “the quality house” was structured, where these quality characteristics are compared in pairs, and through this action, one can identify that they have a supportive or conflictive relationship [18]. For this analysis, the same symbols and values were employed as displayed by Camgoz–Akdag et al. [34] and the results are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

The “Quality house” roof

Based on these results, the service specifications were created to make it possible to control and constantly monitor the service in order to evaluate its compliance with the customer needs, even after being launched [30]. This segment has always noticeably tried to pay maximum attention to the voice of its customers so that the specifications accurately reflect their wishes and may portray future parameters that always assist in studying and detecting improvements [35].

Table 3 lists the obtained specifications, their units, targets and some observations. Some specifications have no units because some of these are qualitative characteristics, such as the specifications “being ethical” and “meeting environmental legislation”. However, they should not be disregarded from the project, considering they were generated based on customer needs and they can contribute to generating the service concept.

Functional process mapping has been applied to the service aiming at minimizing its complexity and to express the inherent functions in the process. Figure 4 shows the six major functions, as well as their relevant activity on each one. This facilitated the step for generating possible alternatives for each activity based on the morphological method, whereas alternative solution were generated for each of the functions presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Functional service process mapping

Thus, a simulation and organization of these principles was performed, using the most diverse ways possible, aiming at generating a total of seven alternative solutions.

Alternative solutions:

• The service will be performed by a receptionist, working 24 hour shifts and the main customer questions can be answered by phone, as well as closing contracts and service scheduling, as well as making credit card payments. Cremations will be performed by trained personnel, divided into work schedules, transporting the body to the truck by a cart and ashes will be delivered in an urn. The crematorium is transported by truck and optimally routed and mapped by GPS. The maintenance of equipment and truck will adhere closely to their user manuals. Inspections, courses, surveys and improvement implementations are done by company teams. Finally, the service will be published by printed communication publications (newspapers, brochures and magazines);

• The service will be performed by vendors, working on a shift basis, answering questions by online chats, closing contracts and/or scheduling cremation by phone. The payment will be made through payment booklets. Trained staff will trace the arrival route of the equipment to the customer, using maps. They will carry the coffin to the machine and manually perform the cremation, and place the ashes in an urn. After concluded, the equipment will be sanitized and the truck will go to the next destination. 10 days after the procedure, satisfaction questionnaires will be conducted with the clients served, so service improvements can be implemented. Finally, the service will be publicized on television media;

• The service is provided by one of our partners, together with an attendant on 24 hour shifts and doubts can be resolved on the website and email. The seller may also personally provide, contract and schedule the service with customers, and check payments are accepted. Crematorium will be accompanied by a truck with

• employees, planning the route through maps. The coffin will be manually transported from the site to the crematorium and the ashes will be delivered in a sealed urn. The maintenance of equipment and truck will adhere closely to their user manuals and inspections will be performed. Training for safe operation and improvements will be performed by external consultants. Finally, the service will be published on advertiser websites, emails and company homepages;

• The initial service will be conducted electronically, then a 24 hour on-call salesperson will be available to answer questions, close contracts and/or schedule services in person, and check payments are accepted. The scheduled staff plan the arrival route by GPS, after that they meet the family and carry the crematorium coffin on a cart. After cremation, the ashes will be delivered in a sealed urn. The maintenance of equipment and truck will adhere closely to their user manuals, and training and inspections will be conducted by external consultants. The identified improvements will be implemented by company employees. Finally, the service will be published on the company homepage and television media;

• The service is conducted 24 hours and initially on the internet. Then, a scheduled seller will answer questions by phone or via email. Contracting, scheduling and payments may be made by credit card on the phone. The truck and crematorium will be operated and conducted by trained and scheduled staff, and they use maps to trace the arrival route. After meeting the family, they carry the coffin on a cart to the crematorium and deliver the ashes in a sealed urn. The truck and equipment maintenance will be performed as stated in their user manuals for safety purposes. Internal surveys and training will be carried out by external consultants, as improvements will be implemented by the company team. Finally, the publication of services will take place on the homepage and printed publications;

• The service is available 24 hour work shifts by vendors, providing, scheduling and contracting services on-site or by online chat and payment by credit card. The scheduled team will operate the service, plan the route, use GPS equipment and fill out checklists on spreadsheets. At the specified location, they will carry the coffin by cart and then deliver the ashes in a sealed urn to the family. 10 days after the cremation, questionnaires will be filled out by the family by telephone and analysed by an internal company team. However, training and courses will be performed by external consultants. Finally, the services will be published on the company webpage and email (to the email database);

• The service will be available 24 hours and a scheduled seller will be available for questions, close contracts and/or schedule services by phone, payments are accepted by credit card. Trained and scheduled employees will plan the route by GPS and carry the equipment in a truck. When they arrive, they will meet the family and carry the coffin to the crematorium using a cart, place the ashes in an urn and at the end of the process sanitize the equipment. Maintenance will be performed in strict adherence to user manuals for safety purposes and inspections will be performed by external consultants. 10 days after performing the service, a satisfaction questionnaire will be conducted with the family by phone that will help to diagnose and improve process implementation. The employees are constantly trained for increased qualifications by holding internal training courses and finally the service is published on television media.

Only one of these alternatives was selected as a guide in developing the concept. Therefore, they were analysed by Pugh Matrix, whereas one alternative is chosen as the reference standard and then all are compared to each other, so the best one is selected. These results are shown in Table 4.

Thus, alternative 7 was chosen as a reference standard, and it also displayed the best results. However, in searching for improved results, “Providing 24 hour services” and “Providing qualified employees” criteria were noted as showing lower results. Soon, these factors were retested compared to others in order to generate an appropriate concept.

Developing the service concept is a key point to generating strategic advantage in developing services. From that, one can identify the value being delivered to the customer. However, the same, in essence, is currently based on the customer experience, making it increasingly intangible and continually increasing the difficulty in generating its concept, it is extremely necessary for the process [36]. Thus employing the use of these elements should be included in the concept, as explained in Johnston and Clark [25], who developed and called it “Mobile Crematorium” as shown below:

• The 24-hour service will be available through vendors working on shifts, for asking questions, closing contracts and/or schedule services by phone and getting credit card payments. The staff members perform cremation, working on shifts and transporting the equipment in a truck to a location specified by the customer, from the GPS mapped route. At the site, they will perform the service for family and carry the casket to the crematorium in a cart, handling the process conclusion and the ashes of the body in a sealed urn. They will perform the cleaning of all equipment and plan the route to the next destination. Aiming to maintain the safety of the entire process, maintenance of the truck and cremation equipment will be conducted strictly based on their technical user manuals. Internal inspections are performed by external consultants in order to assure quality of processes. 10 days after performing the cremation, a telephone satisfaction questionnaire will be answered by the customer regarding the subjects identified as failures or suggestions for improvements. This information will be reviewed by the company to perform diagnostics and make improvements that will be implemented throughout the internal service staff. Focused on quality, all staff members will undergo qualification training and recycling conducted through lectures and courses taught by external consultants. Finally, regarding promoting services, this will be done by television and internet media (homepages and emails).

Based on this concept, we have sought to incorporate all elements, activities and processes necessary for effective operation of the services, ranging from activities of complete contact with the customer to internal processes that must be run and controlled. This will ensure quality and good service operations, as well as introducing an innovative concept to the academic scenario in this business sector and a way to combat contamination and pollution of the environment.

Innovation introduces something new to any activity. That means introducing something new or substantially modifying something ongoing [37]. Therefore, the purpose of this service is more related to the aspect of innovative services. This seeks to present an innovative concept and some novelty to the academic scenario.

Another innovative point in this project lies in its concern for the environment. The majority of academic research involving the funeral industry has analysed the situation and there have been few alternatives to solve or minimize environmental pollution [38]. This subject has become more prominent to the people in general, who have become more concerned about these environmental aspects, as noted in the results from questionnaires.