Importance of TQM Techniques in Construction Industries

Importance of TQM Techniques in Construction Industries

Because of the rapid expansion of technological development, mass production expanded, and the number of companies on the market increased. Increasing the number of alternatives on the market enables customers to compare products according to their quality along with the price. In order to survive in this competitive environment, companies must achieve customer satisfaction by ensuring optimum time, price and scope of work while maintaining quality.

Previously, quality was seen as “the quality of the final product” but in reality, it brings many benefits to companies, such as reducing waste, saving time, increasing profit and reducing occupational health and safety problems. Today, successful companies include quality at every level of their production from manufacturing to sales even in after sales technical support and adopting it as a management philosophy. This quality-based philosophy is known as Total Quality Management (TQM).

Total quality management was first adopted in the manufacturing industry, and by that time, it was adopted in other industries. In the construction industry, each project is unique, differences in the workforce, many stakeholders, and the influence of different parameters such as climatic conditions and formal regulations on projects make the implementation of TQM very difficult.

Definition of quality

‘Quality’ has been driven from the Latin word ‘quails’ that means ‘of what kind? It is used to describe goods or service specifications in any sector. The concept of quality means different things to different people. It differs from one country to another and is influenced by the standard of living, tradition, social structure, and education. Many researchers have tried to define quality in different ways:

•         ‘Fitness for purpose or use’ - Juran,
•         ‘Quality is meeting customer’s requirements’ – Oakland
•         ‘Conformance to requirements’ – Crosby,
•         ‘Quality should be aimed at the needs of the consumer, present and future’ – Deming.

In the construction industry, quality can be defined as "meeting the requirements of the owner, designer, and regulatory agencies."

The specific factors of construction industry

While the development of quality control in the construction industry is parallel to that of the manufacturing industry, many different characteristics identify the two industries. The following differences, some of them considerable, must be considered when applying a quality program to construction.

•         Almost all construction projects are unique. They are single-order, single-production products.
•                 Unlike other industries, which usually have a fixed site with similar production conditions, each construction production site always offers different conditions.
•         The life cycle of a construction project is much longer than that of most manufactured products.
•              There is no clear and uniform standard in assessing overall construction quality as is the case with manufactured materials and materials; therefore, construction projects are usually evaluated personally.
•          Since construction projects are a unilateral design project, the owner usually directly affects production.
•         Construction project participants - owner, designer, general contractor, sub-contractor, material supplier, etc. - differ for each project.

Because of these distinctive characteristics, the construction industry in general is completely different from manufacturing. This is the reason that quality control procedures that work effectively in the mass production industry have not been considered suitable for the construction industry. Thus, quality control throughout the construction industry has not evolved to the level it has reached in manufacturing.

Quality of standards

According to the ASCE manual, the primary purpose of standards is to protect the health and safety of the public. Compliance with standards should be an issue addressed early in the design phase. Without early identification of appropriate standards, rework plans and specifications can result in significant cost and delay.

Quality of drawings and specifications

Drawings and specifications are two sets of documents given to the constructor that provide technical information about the materials, the performance of the construction facility and the quality requirements. There are often discrepancies between drawings and specifications. Therefore it is important that the drawings are clear, concise and uniform. The quality of the drawings and specifications received from the designer affect the quality in the design and construction stages, and hence the quality of the construction facility.

Constructability of design

 Constructability is one of the main factors affecting design quality. According to the ASCE manual, the design specialist must consider the requirements of the constructor. The project must be constructible by those retained to build the project. Like cods, constructability and construction techniques differ in different geographical regions. In addition to the general reviews of constructability, designs should also be reviewed for efficacy and compliance with local requirements, including preliminary and post-construction operations. Preliminary design constructability and completed operational design should be reviewed in the high-quality construction programs developed by design team members. In addition, design professionals must communicate clearly and adequately with the design intention of the constructor. This is initially done with contract documents, plans and specifications. Quality design extends throughout the construction phase of the project.

ISO standards

 The ISO 9000 series includes two basic types of standards: those that address quality assurance and those that deal with quality management. Quality assurance standards are designed for contractual and evaluation purposes which are ISO 9001, ISO 9002 and ISO 9003. The Quality Management Standard is ISO 9004 and is designed to provide guidance to companies that develop and implement quality systems.

ISO standards are geared towards improving the company's production processes. A TQM system is the big picture and it means customer satisfaction and all the activities carried out by the company. A good way of viewing ISO is that the emphasis in the ISO registration is on the management of process quality. This is not intended to reduce the role of ISO in the TQM system. ISO standards provide an excellent starting point for a company that begins a TQM program.

Application of tqm in the construction industry

Achieving acceptable levels of quality has always been a real problem in the construction industry. There are significant expenses of time, money and resources each year, due to ineffective or non-existent quality management procedures. Recently, construction companies began adopting TQM as an initiative to solve quality problems. The construction industry lagged behind other industries in adopting TQM. The reason for this delay was the perception that TQM belongs only to the manufacturing industry, difficulties in measuring (what must be measured and how to measure it) the results of the continuous improvement process and the perception that implementing TQM was costly and required a long period of time.

Seven basic steps can be implemented to implement TQM in construction projects:

•         Obtaining the commitment of the owner to quality.
•         Generating awareness, educating and changing workforce attitudes.
•         Developing a process approach to total quality management.
•         Preparing project quality plans for all levels of work.
•         Establish continuous improvement.
•        Promote workforce involvement and contribution using quality control circles and motivation programs.
•         Reviewing quality plans and measuring performance.