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Quality Management
Friday, April 10, 2020
By
Ch.QS Indunil Seneviratne
B.Sc(QS), M.Sc(Cont. Mgmt),F.I.Q.S.SL
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Quality
• Quality does not refer necessarily to prestigious
products.
• It is about the fitness of the product to the
customer’s requirements.
• Quality is essential to obtain value for money.
• To deliver a quality product, there is a need to
consider the quality of the processes producing
that product.
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The Need for Quality Management
• A construction company needs to guarantee its
clients a quality product in order to be able to
compete effectively in the modern construction
market.
• Quality is among the main criteria to consider
when awarding a contract and selecting a
contractor.
Quality Transition
• The modern concept of quality has
evolved through major transition
stages:
1. Quality control and inspection
2. Quality assurance
3. Total Quality Management
4. Quality management systems
Quality Control
• Quality control is the earliest and most basic form of
quality management.
• Quality control is about ensuring that every product or
service meets a minimum set of defined criteria for
acceptance.
• It is primarily concerned with defect detection.
• Quality control introduced inspection to stages in the
development of goods and services to ensure that they
are undertaken to specified requirements.
Quality Control
• The main techniques used in quality control are:
– Inspection
– Statistical quality control techniques (sampling)
• Both techniques aim to ensure that the work
produced and the materials used are within the
tolerance specified.
• Some of the limits may be left to the inspector’s
judgement
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Inspection Quality Control in Construction
• Inspection is the process of checking that what is
produced is what is required. • The two sets of documents which traditionally
• Inspection takes 2 forms: determine the required quality of a construction
1. Objective and quantifiable project are:
– Examples include length of a line, alignment of
brickwork, verticality of walls, levels of floors or roads. – Specifications
– Involves a kind of measurement to verify that quality
standards are met (as in strength tests on materials – Contract drawings
such as concrete or as in pressure tests in pipe-work)
2. Subjective and open to inspector’s interpretation
• Construction quality checks are undertaken as
– Examples include cleanliness, tolerances, visual checks each operation or sub-operation is completed.
– Involves simple observation
– Depends on inspector's experience

Statistical Quality Control Techniques 8 Limitations of Quality Control 11

(Sampling)
• Surrendering the standards of workmanship to
• In many of the processes of manufacture inspectors
and construction, the scale of the
operation is too large to have 100% • Exposing the contractor to expensive re-work if
inspection. the standards of workmanship obtained do not
meet with inspector’s approval
• In such case sampling would be
employed. • Lack of standard methods for implementing
quality control techniques.
• In construction, the quality of material is • It is unlikely that there is a consistency of
normally controlled by statistical methods. quality between companies claiming to use
• Sampling concrete by making cubes is the quality control.
most common and best-known example. • Customers cannot quantify the effectiveness of
quality control in any one company.

Example of an inspection report sheet for

9 Quality Assurance (QA) 12
undertaking construction quality control
• Unlike quality control which focuses on defect detection once the item is
produced, quality assurance focuses on defect prevention.

• Quality assurance has developed to ensure that specifications are consistently

met. Its principles are 'fit for purpose' and 'right first time'

• The ultimate objective of quality assurance is to provide the client with the
quality required without the need for the client to check during the process.

• This objective is achieved by

1. Documenting what processes are performed
2. Documenting how the processes are accomplished
3. Self checking that each process is completed correctly and recording that
fact.

• By doing this, the company provides its customer with assurance that the
company is aiming to achieve an acceptable standard of quality.

• Quality assurance tries to address ‘getting it right from first time’ because this
would enable the contractor to avoid unnecessary costs

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Quality Assurance (QA)
• Construction contracts would normally include a clause
requiring the contractor to remedy any work that is not
meeting the quality requirements of the project.
• This remedial work is undertaken at the contractor’s
expense. This provides an incentive for the contractor
to adopt quality assurance.
• The frame of reference for quality assurance is the
International Quality Standard ISO 9000 family of
standards.
• To be certified as operating to the ISO 9000 standard is
now seen as virtually essential in today's construction
industry.
• Many clients simply will not do business with
companies not certified to ISO 9000.
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Third Party Accreditation
• A company can apply for a third part
accreditation.
• Specialist companies would offer third party
accreditation where they certify that a
company’s quality management system
meets the requirements of BS EN ISO 9000.
• Some large clients of the construction industry
would undertake own accreditation
inspections for the contractors who wish to
work with them.
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Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Total Quality Management (TQM) is based on the
philosophy of continuously improving goods or
services.
• TQM is led by senior management but all employees
need to be involved in the continuous improvement of
the performance of all activities to meet the needs and
satisfaction of the customer (whether internal or
external)
• TQM incorporates QA
• A TQM approach is now seen as essential to long-term
survival in business, including construction.
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TQM: Principles 16
1. Commitment to Quality
– Every level, from top management to
middle management and its
subordinates, needs to be committed
to TQM and continuous improvement.
– In this way TQM will spread effectively
throughout the organisation
TQM: Principles 17
2. Quality Chains
– Each person is responsible to the people this
person deals with
– Every process is formed by logical progression
through a number of operations.
– If any of the operations in the process is faulty,
then the whole process becomes faulty.
– The people involved in operations constituting a
process would form a chain of responsibility.
– Each operative is an internal customer to the
previous operative and a supplier to the next
operative
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Quality Management Systems
• A quality management system “presents a set of
processes that ensure the attainment of defined
quality standards for the provision of services and
products by the project or a construction company”.
• This can be company-or project-specific or one of
several systems that are available on the market.
• The ISO 9000 is the most commonly used international
standard that provides a framework for an effective
quality management system.
• The pursuit of total quality is seen as a never-ending
journey of continuous improvement.
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