CME 710: Homework 1

Syed Owais Ahmed

QUALITY MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS AND TECHNIQUES (Summary) Great concerns have been expressed by increasing numbers of professionals, researchers and organizations associated with U.S. Construction industry over the problems being faced by the industry. Calls for reforms have been made but the industry has been reluctant in undergoing a change. The same phenomenon has occurred on other places in the world like in Japan and U.S. construction is not the first industry to confront the problem however unlike U.S. construction, Japan transformed its manufacturing as well as construction industry in response to such dilemma by improving the way of management towards achieving total quality management. The paper presents the basic principles and essential elements of total quality management (TQM) in construction terms, identifies its elements, describes its applicability and points out the steps that could be followed to implement TQM in the U.S. construction industry. The goals of total quality management are customer satisfaction and continuous improvement which can be achieved through an integrated effort among personnel at all levels throughout the organization to increase customer satisfaction by continuously improving performance. The focus is on process improvement, customer and supplier involvement, team work, and training and education in an effort to achieve customer satisfaction, cost effectiveness, and defect-free work. This rather, is an effective, comprehensive management technique that has proven successful both overseas and in the United States, in manufacturing and service. Construction industry has to provide customers with facilities that meet their needs at a competitive cost to remain in business. Minimizing costly rework by ensuring quality at each stage in the construction process, the quality of the final product should satisfy the final customer. Market-in concept which recognizes that a process consists of stages, and there is a product, market, and customer for each stage, makes a strong customer orientation possible. The customers may be either internal (with in the organization) or external (other stake holders or the owner) and satisfaction of all customers is important to attain total quality. TQM makes it possible by: (1) maintaining and improving existing methods and procedures; and (2) directing efforts to achieve major technological advances in construction processes. TQM is not another management tool and therefore cannot be replaced after the invention of a better tool in future. It is a management practice which consists of fundamental elements which are: (a) management commitment and leadership; (b) training; (c) teamwork; (d) statistical methods; (d) cost of quality; (e) supplier involvement; and (f) customer service. With leadership and top management being involved equally in training and working as a team, utilizing statistical methods to improve quality with in competitive cost, keeping all the stakeholders involved for providing best possible customer service, TQM can result in innovation, rather than maintenance and improvement, and returning-happy costumers.

CME 710: Homework 1

Syed Owais Ahmed

Implementation of TQM is a cyclic process and involves: (a) preparation and planning starting from the top management; (b) implementing TQM plan preferably through pilot projects with control points; (c) measuring and verifying the implementation through the control points of the pilot projects; (d) reflecting the learning to the next preparation and planning stage. It is unrealistic to believe that TQM will not work in the U.S. with its success in the manufacturing industry. Infact many owners and contractors in the industrial construction area are in the process of implementing TQM according to CII research and the federal government is also interested in the implementation of TQM. Although there still are many questions about the implementation of TQM in construction industry however, this should not discourage efforts to adopt TQM. In conclusion, to achieve the goals of customer satisfaction and continuous improvement, TQM is an effective, comprehensive management process which can be used. More research is nevertheless required to solve issues as of transient work force before TQM reach to its fullest potential. CII quality management task force concluded their research stating that: "Companies must institute total quality management (TQM) or become noncompetitive in the national and international construction and engineering markets within the next five to ten years and the author of this paper agrees with their statement.