Optimizing Al-Rawdah Visitation Experience: A Systems Engineering Approach Using QFD

KSA 2030 Vision: Prophet Mohammad Mosque

PMM lies in the heart of Medina city, KSA. PMM signifies the Prophet’s migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. In the Prophet’s era, PMM was the first architectural structure built for Muslims to offer prayers. PMM was an open-air structure that served as a community center, spiritual school, and court of law for Muslims. Some key religious events in PMM are as follows^[1]:

• The land was purchased by Abu Ayub al-Ansari from the two orphans, Sahl and Suhayl, to build PMM.
• The Prophet built three columns as the first expansion after the ‘Battle of Khyber in 628 CE.
• The Prophet and the first two Caliphs have resting places, strengthening the Islamic spirituality for the visitors.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) introduced ‘KSA Vision 2030’ or ‘Project 2030’ to achieve cultural, social, and economic objectives using diverse approaches. The Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammad bin Salman, announced Vision 2030 in 2016, engaging the ‘Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA)’ department to deploy mechanisms and control measures for robust progression in the long run. KSA is a religious and cultural-driven country in the Middle East^[2]. The KSA Vision 2030 aims to initiate 40+ rehabilitation sites and offer premium quality services to enrich the Hajj and Umrah experiences for visitors worldwide^[3].

Scholarly research argued various ideologies, intentions, and prospects when discussing Vision 2030 and Prophet Mohammad Mosque (PMM) developments while promoting cultural and religious heritage. PMM is a central attraction for the Saudi tourism sector during the Hajj and Umrah seasons. Thousands worldwide visit the two grand mosques in Makkah and Medinah to fulfill religious duties. The research argued that Vision 2030 would support the KSA government to exceed tourist footfall by 15 million by diversifying servicescape facets in the long run. Vision 2030 would improve the servicescape and increase tourist capacity to improve economic prospects in the long run^[4].

On the contrary, the scholar argued about cultural and environmental sustainability while discussing Vision 2030 significance in developing PMM. The research argued that Hajj and Umrah are the most sacred tourism activity for the Muslim community worldwide. Visiting PMM and Makkah for Hajj and Umrah are inevitable exercises in Islam, ensuring continuous visits in KSA. The KSA government considers financial outcomes as secondary outcomes. Instead, the government launched Vision 2030 to achieve environmental and cultural sustainability by offering competitive servicescape to millions of immigrants through religious tourism. As evidence, the recent infrastructure developments in PMM use wooden windows (Roshan) to control solar radiation penetration in the mosque. The author believed that Roshan represents the project’s initiatives to achieve environmental sustainability in Vision 2030^[5]. Besides, the government offers amenities to encourage visitors to share thoughts on Islamic beliefs to strengthen cultural knowledge in the long run.

Nonetheless, the KSA Vision 2030 is considered a tool for improving political and diplomatic policies between KSA and other Islamic states. PMM developments are the centralized attraction for the KSA government to position policies as harmonious, religious-centric, and mutual exchange with Islamic states worldwide^[6]. Vision 2030 focuses on improving visitors’ experience for pilgrims during the Hajj and Umrah seasons by deploying the PEP. PEP is a centralized structure offering robust servicescape solutions, protection, and facilities to visitors in Mecca and Medina. The PEP program has three fundamental themes to focus on^[7]:

• Development of the two holy mosques and designated places to emphasize focus on spiritual values and Islamic heritage.
• Development of rehabilitation facilities to reinstate the value of historical sites for visitors.
• Develop cultural events to enrich Islamic heritage during the Hajj and Umrah seasons.

KSA 2030 Vision: Al-Rawdah Visitation Experience

Al-Rawdah Al-Sharifa (Al-Rawdah) is the Prophet’s Mosque in the Rawdah area, Medinah city. The mosque has spiritual significance for Muslims residing and visiting Medinah City for leisure or business tourism. Al-Rawdah honors the sacrist and respects the Prophet, indulging visitors through pure devotion. Muslims visit Al-Rawdah to attain spiritual rewards and seek forgiveness. As a result, the mosque accommodates 800 visitors each hour in a 330 square meters area. Besides, the mosque reports 1.4 million visits between the first and fourteenth Dhul-Qada. Visitors experience no gender, age, ethnic, or national disparities, gathering for pure worship and spiritual devotion^[8]. As a result, the Saudi government remains inclusive towards development plans and infrastructure robustness of Al-Rawdah mosque in Medinah.

Research on Al-Rawdah mosque evaluated infrastructure relevance and motivation while evaluating Vision 2030 prospects. The findings suggest that the Saudi government aims to create urban green spaces (UGS) and ecosystem friendliness through sustainable services while entertaining the religious harmony of millions of worshippers in Al-Rawdah. The government announced building parks, gardens, and other amenities near Al-Rawdah mosque to offer robust ecosystem services. Vision 2030 adopted the ‘Social Preference Approach (SPA)’ to organize, prioritize, and propose benefits to visitors within the sustainability benchmarks^[9]. Scholarly findings argue that the Saudi government integrates environmental and religious prospects to synergize economic performance after deploying Vision 2030.

The Saudi government introduced new reforms to improve the visitation experience for religious tourists in Medina city. For instance, the government identified traffic congestion as a significant challenge to the visitation experience in Al-Rawdah during the religious festivities. Religious visitors complained to the government about poor traffic management, exertion, and disconnection from spirituality in the 2022 season. As a result, the Saudi government introduced bypass roads as a capacity planning prospect to divert heavily congested traffic between Medina and Mecca in 2023. The government also used drones to deliver immediate medical attention to visitors regardless of natural traffic congestion. Besides, the Saudi government deployed robust traffic and security management teams to protect visitors from accidents, street crimes, and related journey complexities^[10]. The development empowered visitors to experience high spirituality with maximum safety by eliminating minimal exertion during the religious visits in Al-Rawdah in 2023.

The Systems Engineering implementation in Al-Rawdah improved visitors’ experience in the 2024 Hajj season. The research found that Hajj 2024 had 250,000 vehicles mobilizing simultaneously between Mecca and Medina. However, past infrastructure development, traffic management tools, and technological integration made the Saudi government efficient in overcoming the challenge. The visitors reported a secure and robust travel experience between Mecca and Al-Rawdah. Besides, the Saudi government integrated AI, data analytics, and advanced communication systems to reduce response lead time^[11]. The 2024 travel experience offered calculated prediction, effective risk management, and reduced traffic congestion to improve visitors’ experience in PMM and Al-Rawdah.

Past infrastructure facilities and technological gaps have generated a poor travel experience for visitors to Al-Rawdah. Visitors reported significant lead time in traffic congestion and weakened spirituality due to exertion. The Saudi government aligned Al-Rawdah’s and PMM’s infrastructure development with Vision 2030. The integration allowed the country to improve the tourism industry by offering robust amenities and assisting visitors in fulfilling religious obligations. Besides, the integration allowed the Saudi government to improve socioeconomic and economic participation factors in Medina and Mecca while strengthening industrial infrastructure through Systems Engineering practices^[12]. Hence, the exercise improved the Saudi economy and positioned Vision 2030 as a meaningful proposition in the Arab region.

Crowd Management in General

Crowd management (CM) is a significant concept in Systems Engineering. Countries relying on tourism through religious, sports, or leisure events must integrate the CM concept while using techniques, technologies, and strategies. By definition, CM is a structural framework to improve public safety and increase space utilization efficacies. CM techniques are deployed in areas with high pedestrian traffic to manage the vicinity actions and reduce accidents. CM is an independent focus for the Project Managers (PM) while defining project scopes. Most projects utilize mass space and inject high pedestrian volume. PM requires a CM strategy, tool, and technique to manage the pedestrian injection and mitigate uncertainties in the long run. CM concept reflects zero influence by religious, emotional, or communal factors. Instead, pedestrian injection and space area available influence CM robustness for an organization.

Traditionally, PMs and business management representatives managed the CM process manually. Traditional techniques involve manual surveillance of infrastructure followed by the public gathered for an event. Manual surveillance requires more labor intervention and delays the processes. Events using traditional CM techniques exhibit a high probability of conflicts, accidents, and related uncertainties. Besides, conventional or manual CM increases decision-making lead time to control crises. Traditional CM techniques are less accurate in speculating risks and deploying interventions for event continuity. As a result, businesses promote technological integrations in CM strategies to ensure quality management^[13]. Today, CM moved to machine learning (ML) and related advancements in Systems Engineering to achieve robustness in Project Management functions.

Nonetheless, ML integration in CM functions unlocked new opportunities for businesses, legislations, and project representatives in the long run. The research observed that ML improved risk management through decision-making automation. For instance, PM and management representatives could receive automated estimations of crowd density, facility feasibility, and behavioral responses from pedestrians during peak hours. The analytics information assists decision-makers in evaluating risks, reorganizing resources, and avoiding crises through a rational engineering function. ML and related technological integration made CM effective, accurate, and aware for stakeholders^[14]. Businesses and PMs could pursue continuous improvement while preventing crowd conflicts during event hosting or execution.

Modern CM techniques, tools, and strategies are inevitable for countries to manage tourism activities. Tourism remains a fundamental source for countries to boost GDP and mitigate socioeconomic barriers. However, mismanaged CM functions unlock cross-border risks for countries in the long run. As a result, governments should invest in technological infrastructure and talent pool to achieve CM efficacy regardless of event scope or challenge diversity. As evidence, CM tactics used by the Saudi government during the Hajj and Umrah seasons are benchmarks for countries hosting international events^[15]. KSA achieves CM efficacy, reduces waste management, and reports economic surplus from global audiences visiting for sacred worship events.

Nonetheless, CM efficacy exemplified by KSA during the Hajj and Umrah seasons does not certify risk elimination. Instead, the Saudi government experiences different socioeconomic and cross-border constraints during the religious season while managing global audiences. As evidence, fatal stampedes during Hajj remain a CM constraint for the Saudi government. A mass population gathered in a single location leads to stampedes and deaths of hundreds of visitors during Hajj season. However, the government remains efficient in supplying food, shelter, transportation, and security to diverse audiences with minimal disruptions and conflicts^[16]. Hence, countries should adopt effective CM practices from the KSA government to improve techniques, tools, and management strategies during global events.

Crowd Management in Religious Events

Religious events require a smart CM framework (SCMF) to mitigate accidents and optimize security measures in the long run. The research argued that government and legislative bodies should deploy strict actions to control accidents and CM mismanagement. The study compared the disciplinary strictness in Hajj gatherings to test SCMF’s relevance in managing religious events. The findings suggest that the Hajj event practices SCMF effectively by optimizing communication exchanges and integrating technology solutions to avoid decision-making conflicts. Saudi legislation deploys an independent CM team to ensure compliance, discourage status preference, and improve visitors’ experience throughout religious activity^[17]. The research argued that religious events require a robust CM approach and zero tolerance towards non-compliance to prevent a crisis.

Additionally, scholars have argued that CM during religious events like Hajj and Umrah requires management to deploy metrics to perform cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The research identified object-level and pixel-level analysis, line counting, crowd motion, and density mapping as necessary metrics to evaluate accidental probability during Hajj and Umrah. The results denote that the CM teams in PMM and Al-Rawdah could reduce the accidental probability by pre-evaluating the outcomes through specified metrics and increasing visitors’ experiential value in the long run^[18].

Nonetheless, CM practices are distinct for organizations, governments, and security regulators when managing spiritually motivated crowds during sacred events. Countries like KSA host various religious events, gathering devotees from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic classes. As a result, the crowd risk index (CRI) remains high for security bodies during religious events, highlighting significant gaps within the process controls. However, the scholarly findings complement the zero-tolerance policy and strict compliance measures taken by the Saudi government to protect visitors during religious events. The Saudi government ensures visitors are treated equally with legislation, rules, and restrictions during Hajj performance. The security representatives do not practice exceptions in CM prospects, resulting in minimal crisis. However, large-scale events in other countries and religions report high CRI and frequent accidents due to exceptions^[19]. The power distance and socioeconomic influence on security representatives remain a fundamental gap for countries and religions to prevent hazards in the long run.

Crowd Management in the Prophet Muhammad Mosque and Al-Rawdah

PMM is the second largest religious destination for Muslims worldwide. PMM records significant footfall from global communities during the Hajj and Umrah seasons. The government uses various measures to optimize the CM process and mitigate hazards. For instance, PMM has 60 corridors, 38 allotted as main entrances, and eight emergency exits. The corridors incorporate 7.8 million worshippers during the Hajj and Umrah seasons, featuring age and gender diversities^[20]. Infrastructure excellence is a primary support for the Saudi government and regulatory bodies to deliver robust CM functions.

Furthermore, Muslims visit PMM during Holy Ramadan to perform Ziara. Insights suggest that more than 2 million Muslims visit PMM for Ziara, creating a per-Hajj bottleneck inside the vicinity. The management ensures that each visitor follows a queue and maintains rational speed during mobilization^[21]. Visitors are prevented from jumping queues or surpassing disciplinary measures regardless of urgencies. The zero-tolerance consideration strengthens the CM function in PMM during Hajj, Umrah, and Ziara^[22]. The management controls accidents through infrastructure and process efficacies.

Nonetheless, the CM process in Al-Rawdah Mosque is organized to provide service efficacy to religious visitors. The research denotes that the Saudi government delegates the CM function to the ‘General Authority of the Affairs of the Prophet’s Mosque.’ The authorized body pre-defines the capacity and communicates with the Internal Ministry to manage visa issuance and travel confirmations. The Internal Ministry assigns quotas to each country based on the Muslim majority and issues travel visas accordingly^[23]. The communication exchanges between the general authority and the Internal Ministry are necessary CM functions to define CRI for the season.

Furthermore, the authorized body defines evacuation plans and emergency roadmaps to manage the robust crowd visiting the holy destination for religious deliverables. Generally, the authority offers 38 main passages, 14 secondary passages, and eight emergency passages to manage evacuation at Al-Rawdah Mosque with minimal chaos. The authority ensures communication and information exchange between the Internal Ministry and visitors regarding the contingency measures to mitigate the hazards. The process empowers the Saudi government to offer robust experiences to religious tourists and strengthen the domestic tourism industry for future events^[24]. The organized and pre-defined metrics allow crowds to experience mobility and friendliness while performing religious duties.

CM frameworks in both mosques aim for safety, security, and hazard minimization for visitors during religious seasons. The Saudi government delegates tasks to responsible authorities and maintains communication excellence to avoid conflicts in the long run^[25]. As a result, KSA Vision 2030 centralizes religious events to combat socioeconomic and environmental challenges through effective CM function.

Optimizing Crowd Management Systems and User Experience

CM systems are necessary tools to enhance user experience during mass tourism. CM systems are inevitable to manage religious events and reduce hazards in holy destinations. Primarily, CM systems offer data-driven decisions (D3). D3 navigates decisions through CBA^[26]. Authorities could use various metrics to speculate crowd behaviors, identify potential risks, and deploy solutions to reduce chaos during event management. The D3 process allows authorities to gather information, track trends, and improve management expertise through predictive modeling^[27]. Hence, CM systems influence user experience by strengthening response measures and reducing event conflicts.

Furthermore, predictive modeling in CM systems empowers authorities to increase safety enhancements in the long run. Safety enhancements rely on past hazards, errors, and mismanagement episodes incurred in managing the diverse crowd. Most CM systems use safety enhancements in religious events to identify process gaps while allocating resources^[28]. Authorities could track errors and diversify strategic focus to optimize CM activities while improving user experience. CM systems ensure safety by adjusting protocols and improving task delegations to create synergized servicescapes in the long run^[29]. Hence, CM systems are the central framework for authorities to understand historical disparities while improving future measures through resource allocation.

Similarly, risk assessment and diversification are subsequent aspects of CM systems, assisting authorities to reduce hazards and improve user experience during an event. The CBA outcomes and predictive modeling allow authorities to pre-evaluate the emerging risks for an event. Authorities evaluate behaviors, sentiments, and crowd devotion to arrange resources for effective risk management^[30]. As a result, CM systems prevent events from unwanted disasters and improve user experience. Technological integration allows authorities to speculate behavioral and cognitive transitions in crowds, inevitably optimizing control metrics for safety measures^[31]. Hence, CM systems automate the decision-making and resource allocation functions to manage events with massive footfalls.

Lastly, CM systems educate authorities about deploying temporary closures while managing event risks. The COVID-19 outbreak is fundamental evidence for audiences to understand the role of CM systems in controlling hazards and improving user experiences. The Saudi government reduced crowd inflow during the Hajj and Umrah seasons to prevent virus contamination led by the pandemic. The government halted flights and denied visa requests, particularly for countries with high COVID-19 cases. CM systems automated the risk evaluation through rational metrics, reducing decision-making lead time and controlling errors for the Internal Ministry while processing visa requests during the Hajj and Umrah seasons^[32]. The evidence suggests that CM systems influence user experience by mitigating risks and optimizing servicescape deployment during events.

Systems Engineering Approach: QFD Methodology

‘Quality Function Deployment (QFD)’ is a significant method in the Systems Engineering approach, converting qualitative insights into quantitative parameters. Global religious events attract numerous qualitative parameters like behaviors, emotions, cognition, and environmental responses. Countries like KSA require a systematic framework to mitigate risks and improve user experience for tourists by deploying safer servicescape. Hence, QFD allows authorities to quantify the qualitative risks, allocate resources, and deploy strategic actions to fulfill objectives. Companies use QFD through a Systems Engineering approach to balance the solution after evaluating stakeholder expectations and historical errors in the process controls^[33]. QFD prevents companies from repeating errors while diverting focus on risk-driven functions for robust outcomes.

QFD strengthens companies’ event management and production functions while managing events or processes. QFD integration allows organizations to increase customer satisfaction by offering need-based products or services. QFD controls waste, allowing organizations to offer competitive pricing for products and services. Besides, the reduced lead time in the process cycle increases engineering efficiency and resource efficacy for organizations to combat competition^[34]. QFD is a robust process for companies to prevent overlapping or unnecessary stages in product or service deployment, allowing customers to optimize user experience in the long run.

Companies must recognize some constraints when using QFD methodology in the System Engineering approach. First, QFD is a complex matrix structure that creates conflicts among team members. Team members have distinct opinions, strategies, and tactics to mitigate process risks. However, the matrix structure prevents team members from determining a universal approach to attain mutual objectives. Besides, QFD is a labor-intensive approach for companies while managing events. Companies could reduce production costs by controlling cycles or decision-making lead time. However, the quantitative conversion requires high involvement from a diverse labor pool, leading to cost mismanagement^[35]. Hence, companies, governments, and authorities should consider the delays in results while using the QFD approach.

QFD is a robust approach to convert qualitative insights into quantitative metrics for integrating CBA-driven decisions. Religious events like Hajj, Umrah, and Ziara could utilize the QFD framework to predict behaviors, evaluate risks, and deploy strategic measures for controlling hazards. The religious events are inevitable for countries to delay or adjust with constraints, allowing QFD to strategize processes. However, the government could encounter conflicts of interest and increased decision-making lead time due to distinct opinions while allocating resources. The Saudi government must conduct a CBA process before integrating QFD methodology in event System Engineering to reduce accidents, uncertainties, and hazards.

QFD Applications in Service Design: Impacts on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Visitor Experience

QFD framework is considered by manufacturing companies to develop products and meet key performance indicators (KPIs). However, technological advancements like the digital revolution strengthened CM function by quantifying KPI results and mitigating emerging risks during Hajj and Umrah^[36]. QFD application requires four systematic phases, allowing organizations to achieve servicescape robustness, KPI enhancements, and optimization of visitor experience^[37]. QFD applicability in Hajj and Umrah tourism service design is as follows:

• Service Planning: QFD ensures customer-centrism in the service planning function, allowing authorities to define event parameters^[38]. Hence, the Saudi government would initiate the QFD model to develop a service plan for the Hajj and Umrah seasons. The government would identify the season’s scope, crowd capacity, infrastructure planning, and resource availability to organize the servicescape.
• Servicescape Development: The customer-centric service design allows authorities to deploy resources and initiate the QFD framework in servicescape development^[39]. As evidence, the Saudi government defines seasonal planning and delegates tasks to the General Authority. The general authority communicates with the Internal Ministry to distribute permissions and quotas to Muslims nationwide for processing Hajj arrangements. Besides, local law enforcement organizes domestic security measures to protect tourists visiting KSA with religious sentiments.
• Process Planning: QFD ensures each activity has a segregated process to increase user experience towards the servicescape^[40]. For instance, the Saudi government ensures that each visitor receives a pre-defined period to stay, fulfill religious obligations during the Hajj and Umrah seasons, and depart to their home country before visa expiration. The visitors receive communication regarding immigration, pilgrimage, and accommodation processes to complete the servicescape journey without violating the security protocols.
• CM Planning: This process is inevitable for authorities during the QFD application in service design. CM planning is injected, focused, and strategized at each QFD phase to measure KPI compliance of the service design^[41]. As evidence, the local authorities would practice vigilance and compliance for effective CM during service planning, development, and process integration. CM function would measure the KPIs of security representatives, Internal Ministry, and General Authority to communicate, deploy, and manage the crowd inflow during the Hajj and Umrah seasons. Each responsible participant would follow process benchmarks to achieve a high KPI score and prevent event hazards in the servicescape deployment.

The QFD process indicates that countries planning religious events can integrate the framework in service design to deliver robust servicescape experiences to visitors during religious seasons.