Quality Management System at Construction Project: A Questionnaire Survey

Transcription

1 ISSN : , Vol., Issue 3, ( Part -3) March 21, pp RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS Qualty Management System at Constructon Project: A Questonnare Surey P.P.Mane*, J.R.Patl* *(Department of Cl Engneerng, RMD Snhgad SOE, Satrba Phule Pune Unersty, Pune- 8 (Inda) ) *(Department of Cl Engneerng, RMD Snhgad SOE, Satrba Phule Pune Unersty, Pune- 8 (Inda) ABSTRACT The best qualty, tme and cost are the mportant aspects of successful constructon project whch fulflls the man goal of constructon ndustry. The qualty management has to prode the enronment wthn whch related tools, technques and procedures can be deployed effectely leadng to operatonal success for a constructon project. The role of qualty management for a constructon company s not an solated actty, but ntertwned wth all the operatonal and manageral processes of the constructon project. The qualty management system (QMS) n constructon ndustry refers to qualty plannng, qualty assurance and qualty control. The paper ncludes the outcome of the research methodology decded by authors based on nterew of project partcpants and analyss of scrutnzed nterew data. Keywords constructon project, qualty management system. I. INTRODUCTION Qualty s one of the man factors n the success of constructon projects. Qualty of constructon projects, as well as project success, can be regarded as the fulfllment of expectatons (.e. the satsfacton) of the project partcpants. Qualty, cost and tme hae been recognzed as the man factors concernng the clent. Howeer, for the majorty of projects, the cost and tme parameters are the man pre occupyng factors for constructon project. The authors emphasze more attenton towards qualty. The qualty n the constructon ndustry s lnked wth clent s satsfacton and the mplementaton of a qualty management system s a key tool n consstently and relably managng the goal of clent satsfacton. Qualty management system (QMS) could be mplemented ether at the organzaton leel or at the project leel tself. For the mplementaton of qualty management n constructon projects, the concepts of qualty plannng (dentfcaton of qualty standards), qualty assurance (ealuaton of oerall project performance) and qualty control (montorng of specfc project results) n the qualty management processes were defned by Project Management Insttute (2). Seeral tools and technques were dentfed as part of the mplementaton process, lke beneft-cost analyss, benchmarkng, flow-chartng, desgn of experments, cost of qualty, qualty audts, nspecton, control charts, pareto dagrams, statstcal samplng, flow-chartng and trend analyss. Taylor et al. (23) concluded that senor manager s nolement, understandng and customer focus are essental antecedents of constructon project success. Samson et al. (1999) descrbed that leadershp and human resources management are among strong predctors of performance qualty management (QM) practces. On constructon related research, Low et al. (24) commented that top management commtment s one of the elements that would reflect QM performance measures n constructon frms. Chn et al. (23) found that top management commtment s the most crtcal factor for the successful mplementaton of ISO 9. Hakm et al. (26) Qualty management system (QMS) s defned as all acttes of the oerall management functon that determne the qualty polcy, objectes and responsbltes, and mplement them by means such as qualty plannng, qualty control, qualty assurance and qualty mproement wthn the qualty system. To ensure the contnually mproement of Qualty Management System, t s essental that the top management to ge ther full support and commtment especally to the deelopment and mplementaton of constructon project/s. The paper ncludes fe-pont scale based questonnare surey for study of QMS at constructon projects. It ncludes questons based on qualty control tools and qualty measures used on constructon stes. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Accordng to AbdulAzz et al. (1999), qualty systems nole nternal and external aspects. An nternal qualty system coers acttes amed at prodng confdence to the management of an organzaton that the ntended qualty s beng acheed. Ths s called a qualty management system. Successful mplementaton of qualty 126 P a g e

2 ISSN : , Vol., Issue 3, ( Part -3) March 21, pp management system can contrbute to an ncrease n product qualty, mproement n workmanshp and effcency, a decrease n wastage, and ncrease proft. Meanwhle, an external qualty system coers acttes amed at nsprng confdence n the clent that the suppler s qualty system wll prode a product or serce that wll satsfy the clent s qualty requrements. Ths s called a qualty assurance system. An effecte plannng requres the organzaton to plan for the resources and the constructon work by prodng the work programme, cost programme, project qualty plan, labour, materal and plant schedule, constructon method statement and nspecton and test plan. Consequently, t wll become as the core reference for the constructon process control and conformance and performance measurement processes. Accordng to Lyda (21), the gudelnes to ensure the qualty n plannng are: () Ensure that all releant partes noled ncludng consultants, subcontractors and supplers are ncluded n the task of qualty plannng for the project; () Establsh and defne the purpose of the qualty system; () In the plan, mnmze the effort requred to amend copes of documents; () Set up a qualty system deelopment team so that the team can produce an effecte plan; () Ensure that throughout the qualty plannng task constantly focused on the customer requrements. Constructon s a multfarous process nolng many organzatons on a sngle project; howeer, the contractor's, consultant s and clent s roles are potal for the success of any project. Contractors work as the nterface between the publc and the ndustry and they demonstrate the real performance of the ndustry. They are the publc face of the constructon ndustry. Ther performance, focuses, polces, processes and methods hae a drect mpact on all stakeholders n the ndustry. The Egan Report (1998) also focuses on contractors. Any process that makes the performance of the contractors effcent and effecte wll hae a poste mpact on the whole ndustry. Qualty control s ery potal n acheng acceptable performance on constructon stes. The sgnfcance of ths research les n the possblty of addng to the wealth of nformaton on qualty control plans and practces by contractors. An ealuaton of the contractor s qualty control practce wll help contractors deelop strateges to mproe constructon qualty; t wll ad consultants and clents n pre-contract ealuaton of contractors and wll help the general publc n measurng the success or otherwse of a project s-à-s the contractor. Yasams et al. (22) refers to the defnton of qualty of performance as encompassng the relablty of the orgnal product and/or serce as well as the competence, ntegrty and promptness of staff and support serces. For owners to recee more alue for ther nestment defntons of qualty n constructon need to be expanded to nclude the performance of the company as a whole and the clent satsfacton dered from that performance. There s a shft n busness thnkng from complance mode to performance mode. Whle contractors are strng to mproe ther oerall performance, the control and montorng mechansms that clents practce on contractors and ther work should also be reengneered (Wlson and Pearson, 199). Qualty Management System (QMS) hae many applcatons n the constructon ndustry. QMS could be mplemented ether at the company leel or at the project leel. From the perspecte of a constructon company, qualty management n constructon projects should mean mantanng the qualty of constructon works at the requred standard so as to obtan customer s satsfacton that would brng long term competteness and busness sural for the companes. III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The methodology for the work conssts of three step model. The frst step s qualty plannng, second step s qualty control and thrd step s qualty assurance. In the frst step the questonnares hae been prepared by authors consderng qualty aspects of constructon project. Three types of questonnares hae been prepared by author for work. Ths paper descrbes the ratng aspects based on mportance on fe-pont scale. In second step the nterews of partcpants of constructon project hae been conducted by the author. The bref detals of respondents and ther experence are shown n Table 1. The thrd step ncludes analyss based on ews of respondents. Table 1 Respondents and ther experences Sr. No. Respondents Experence n years 1 Project Manager 1 (Owner) 2 Project Manager 2 (Contractor) 3 Project Manager (PMC) 1 4 Project Engneer 1 (Owner) Project Engneer 12 (Contractor) 6 Project Engneer (PMC) 1 7 Archtect 1 8 Desgner 1 9 Qualty Manager 11 1 Project Manager P a g e

3 ISSN : , Vol., Issue 3, ( Part -3) March 21, pp The Table 1 shows the nformaton about the respondents from arous partcpants of the constructon projects such as owner, contractor, project management consultancy (PMC) and arous consultants of the constructon project and ther experences. The nterews hae been taken wth concerned partcpants of project (owner, PMC execute, contractors, arous consultants and supplers) wth respect to ratng type questonnare surey. The arous optonal ponts for each questons are proded. The respondents has to rate these ponts on fe-pont ratng scale. The scale descrpton s as = Very Strong, 4= Strong, 3= Moderate, 2= Less, 1= Very less. The number of questons wll be asked to them and only three mportant questons hae been selected for ths paper work. The followng questons hae been selected for the work: Research queston A: Whch Qualty tool used at constructon projects? Research queston B: Whch Qualty control measures used on ste? Research queston C: Whch aspect s most mportant for mantanng qualty management System at constructon projects? In the analyss of data all the optons of questons hae been studed and the fndngs hae mentoned n the subsequent secton of paper. IV. DATA COLLECTION &ANALYSIS The number of persons nterewed s 1. The optons of all questons and ts percentage ratng are shown n Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4 respectely. Sr. No. Table 2 Research queston A Ratng Whch Qualty tool used at constructon projects? Pareto analyss Fsh bone dagram 6 4 Check lsts 8 2 Flow chart Scatter dagram Control x Charts Hstogram Statstcal analyss Check sheets Table 3 Research queston B Sr. Whch No Qualty. control measures used on ste? x x Study dutes and responsblt es Coordnato n wth the project purchase department Do proper samplng and testng Set procedures to control qualty Follow the prescrbed curng and deshutterng schedules Qualty of workmansh p n all constructon acttes Qualty Control laboratory at ste Mantan sequence of constructon Ste reew meetngs wth staff Obsere regular schedule Ratng P a g e 1 1 The analyss ncludes calculaton of percentagewse watage of the aspects of constructon project gen n questons by the

4 ISSN : , Vol., Issue 3, ( Part -3) March 21, pp respondents. There are seeral methods for analyss of data but for ths work authors used smple logcal method. The method comprses of frst see more percentage n ery strong ratng column for any opton. If the percentage of ery strong column s equal for two or more optons then the strong ratng columns are compared. Based on the aboe method the fndngs of study are mentoned n the dscusson secton. Table 4 Research queston C Sr. Whch No aspect s. most mportant for mantanng qualty managemen t System at constructo n projects? Compett e markets Customer satsfacton Clent satsfacton Stakeholder s satsfacton Manageme nt commtmen t Ratng V. DISCUSSIONS As stated n research methodology the author dstrbuted 1 set of questonnares among the partcpants of constructon project confgurng experences and postons mentoned n Table 1. After scrutnzng the data of responses of respondents the followng fndngs hae been mentoned n detal. As per the responses of respondents the most mportant qualty tool used at constructon ste s check lsts followed by fsh bone dagram, flow chart, pareto analyss, hstogram, check sheets, control charts, scatter dagram and statstcal analyss. The qualty control measure used on constructon ste s the qualty of workmanshp n all constructon acttes followed by ste reew meetngs wth staff, set procedures to control qualty, do proper samplng and testng, obsere regular schedule, follow the prescrbed curng and deshutterng schedule, study dutes and responsbltes, qualty control laboratory at ste, mantan sequence of constructon, coordnaton wth the project purchase department. The analyss of thrd and most mportant queston for surey ndcates that customer satsfacton s ery mportant followed by clent satsfacton, stakeholders satsfacton, management commtment and compette markets. The research also ndcates that qualty plannng, qualty control and qualty assurance are the man elements of QMS and for success of constructon project t s necessary to ge attenton towards all these elements. VI. CONCLUSIONS Based on the study reported n paper the followng are the conclusons: The 8 respondents ery strongly belee check lsts and 6 preference to fsh bone dagram are qualty control tools used at constructon projects. The 9 respondents ery strongly belee that qualty of workmanshp n all constructon acttes and 8 to ste reew meetngs wth staff are man qualty control measures used on ste. The 9 respondents ery strongly prefer customer satsfacton and 8 clent satsfacton are the most mportant aspect for mantanng QMS at constructon projects. REFERENCE [1.] Taylor, W. A., & Wrght, G. H. (23). The mpact of senor managers commtment on the success of TQM programmes An emprcal study. Internatonal Journal of Manpower, 24(), 3-. [2.] Abdul Rahm, A.H et al. (24). Integraton of Safety, Health, Enronment and Qualty (SHEQ) Management System n Constructon: A Reew. Jurnal Kejuruteraan Awam, Vol. 16(1): 24-37, pp. 14. [3.] Low, S. P., & Teo, J. A. (24, January). Implementng total qualty management n constructon frms. Journal of Management n Engneerng, 8-1. [4.] Samson, D., & Terzosk, M. (1999). The relatonshp between total qualty management practces and operatonal performance. Journal of Operatonal Management, 17, [.] Abdul Hakm and Mat Nam (26). Qualty Management System n Constructon. Unpublshed Conference Paper n ICCI P a g e

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