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FAQs On ISO 9001 in Construction PDF
FAQs On ISO 9001 in Construction PDF
Frequently Asked
Questions on ISO
9000 in Construction
I. H. Shah
Consulting Engineer
ISO 9000 onsultant
This is specific to construction industry. All the questions asked by construction professionals
on ISO 9000 are answered here. What is ISO 9000 & how it can be applied advantageously
for their construction projects? Numerous examples from construction industry are also
provided to clarify many of the ISO 9000 terminology.
The details include explanation of basic requirements of ISO 9000, What is Quality, What is
the Philosophy of ISO 9000, What is the Process Approach, What is the Structure of Quality
system etc. & also covers how you should prepare for ISO 9000 for your construction projects
including approximate cost of certification agencies and cost of consultants.
FAQs also include partial list of Indian Construction & Real Estate companies who have been
certified for ISO 9000.
• Established in 1946.
• More than 50000 professionals from all over the World contributes to the
development of ISO Standards.
• Gets regular feedback from all over the world & updates Quality Management
Standards from time to time.
The current ISO 9000 family of Standards comprises of the following three
standards:
Ans. ISO 9000 is a documented Quality Management system. It also provides a detailed
system for corrective and preventive actions.
The approach is to make sure that when you follow ISO 9000 procedures, you
produce Quality that confirms with the requirements and specifications.
IS codes provide Quality requirements and specifications. ISO standards provide
Quality system to achieve the specifications and requirements and how to set up the
system to make sure that your product confirms with requirements.
Let us take an e.g. of Concrete Grade M30. IS 10262 – 2007 gives complete details
about designing of mix and the specifications required for cement, aggregates, water,
fly ash, admixture, etc.
The design mix also covers other Codes regarding the grading of aggregates etc.
However, the I.S. Codes do not provide a procedure to consistently achieve the
designed grade of concrete. You may have the best mix design, but if your concreting
process is not carefully designed and monitored from time to time, you will never be
able to guarantee the results. You need a Quality Management System to manage
Concrete Quality.
1. The Top of the triangle is level 1 document showing “quality policy and
company’s quality manual.”
2. The Second level shows the procedure manual giving the details of key
procedures. It also spells out responsibilities of individuals for specific
processes.
3. The Third level gives the details giving “work instructions, processes &
procedures.”
5. The Bottom of the Pyramid gives the key departments of the Construction
Company viz.
Planning & Design
Construction Execution
Project Management
Quality Assurance
Purchase
Training
Customer Service
ISO 9000
STRUCTURE OF Q.M.S. FOR CONSTRUCTION &
REAL ESTATE CO.
I
Quality Manual
Vision
Mission
II
Procedure Manuals
Responsibilities
III
Work Instructions / Processes / Procedures
Method Statements
VI
Records – Forms, Files, Documents, Audit Reports,
Test Reports, Reference Documents
Q.6 Can you give one page explanation of all the Clauses of ISO 9001 - 2000?
Q. 7. Are ISO 9000 Q.M. Standards practical for Indian Construction Companies?
Are they really helpful in improving Quality of Indian Construction Companies?
Ans. Some of the Indian Construction Co. started taking note of ISO 9000 Standards after
1994; although the first ISO 9000 Standards were published in 1987.
Many companies – Management & Senior Engineers believed that with illiterate
workforce & unreliable material quality, maintaining high level of quality is not
possible.
I have been working as ISO 9000 Consultant for Construction & Real Estate
Companies since 1993 & have assisted companies to get themselves ISO 9000 –
certified. I have found that the journey to Quality is definitely slow & painful. But
once the Quality culture sets in, the progress is good.
Safety – Work environment – cleanliness – training – Process Approach – Method
Statements & Internal Audits have become common buzz words now. These words
were never heard before. The Quality improvement process has started. There is now
a distinct awareness & sensitiveness to Quality improvements.
Q. 8. What is meant by Process and procedures? And why they are considered crucial
in Quality improvement System?
Ans. Process and procedures provide “method statements” to carry out any activity. It
clarifies the purpose & scope of activity. It provides answers to various questions :
What shall be done? When? Where? How shall it be done? What materials are
required?
What equipments? What documents shall be used? How shall it be
controlled?
What checks and cross checks are required to make sure that the procedure is
correctly followed? What tests have to be carried out? How shall it be recorded?
Q.21. How much time is generally required for certification, once you make up your
mind about going for ISO 9000?
Ans. This is a combined effort of consultants, Top Management, Quality Team & other key
employees. It also depends on your present Quality level. However, it may take 4-
12 months after you decide seriously about getting ISO 9000 certified.
Q.22. How much will it cost to get ISO 9000 Certification?
Ans. There are various ISO 9000 certifying bodies. The total charges also vary depending
on organisations. Our estimate is that you may have to pay towards fees etc. To
certifying bodies as follows:
1. Application fees - Rs.15,000/-
2. Assessment fees - Rs.25,000/-
3. License fee for 3 years - Rs.50,000/-
Note: The charges will vary depending on the number of employees you have &
Projects you will like to cover. This figure is only indicative.
The charges may also vary with certification bodies.
Your Consultant’s charges would be around Rs.1.0 lacs or upwards.
Q.23. Which are the Indian Construction & Real Estate companies who have obtained
ISO 9000 Certification as on today?
Ans. Some of the Indian Construction & Real Estate companies :
1. Godrej Properties
2. B. G. Shirke - Pune
3. Davy Powergas (I) Ltd.
4. L&T – Projects Division
5. Delhi P.W.D. Design
6. Kajaria Ceramics
7. J.K. White Cements
8. Steel Authority of India
9. Mantri Housing
10. Kanakia Construction
11. Devi Constructions
12. Evershine Building Contractors Pvt. Ltd.
13. Gammon India Limited – Mumbai
14. Rustomjee Group – Keystone
15. Tata Housing Development Company
Q.24. What are the Serious concerns raised by Construction professionals for ISO
9000?
1. 1987 to 2008 – is a long period since ISO 9000 was first released – revised in 1994
and again revised in 2000. There are aspiring companies and companies who got
themselves certified and are struggling to retain the certificates – Why is this
happening?
2. Are our Construction cos. focusing on critical Technical / Managerial Areas of the
projects or are they trying to complete the projects in a hurry, ignoring the
fundamental concerns of customers – society – safety – health – ecology, technology,
people, processes? What type of culture are we promoting?
3. Does ISO 9000 solve all your Quality related problems?
Does it contribute to improvements in your Quality Management System?
4. All these years, we had inspection systems – inherited from British Raj. Does
ISO 9001 – simply replaces “Inspection” with “Auditing”?
5. How effective is ISO Audit? Does it really add value?
6. Does ISO 9000 Guarantee Quality improvements?
7. Is ISO 9000 another fad? Like TQM, Quality circles – Process Re-engineering, Six
Sigma?
8. What is needed for construction industry? Regulatory bodies – licensing system
– training technology – lessons in caring for customers requirements?
9. What contributes to sustained and lasting improvements? Can you expect Quick –
Fix results to last longer?
10. Can ISO 9000 really transform a company? How long can it take to change a
company?
11. Does ISO qualify for such a change? Does ISO 9000 really add value to the
performance?
12. Where is the implementation strategy spelled out by ISO 9001? Does it depend
on the auditors’ competency? Or competency of certification bodies?
13. Is it possible for certification body or any national body to contribute to the
improvement cycle of a company, merely by a few Audit days in a year’s time?
Will it be a tall claim?
14. What are the issues of greatest importance to customers?
15. Certification body Auditors insist on Auditing as per ISO 9000-2000 clause-by-
clause and are not concerned whether processes are critical or not and what is
the impact of a process, on the over all performance.
16. Is it possible to improve the effectiveness of ISO 9000 – QMS – How to do it?
17. ISO 9000 is a Generic Quality Management System and is not Industry specific.
Most of the Indian Construction & Real Estate Companies feel that ISO 9000 –
QMS is mainly developed for manufacturing industries & does not address
Construction Industry concerns effectively.
18. The language of ISO 9000 standards is not user friendly and many a times it would be
better if the Clauses are illustrated with specific Industry examples.
Durability of Concrete.