Quality is defined as 'fitness to purpose',
i.e. providing a product (a building) which provides an appropriate quality
for the purpose for which it is intended. The price to be paid for a
building is a reflection of the expectations of quality - A cheaper building
probably uses inferior materials and is likely to be less attractive and
less durable. The quality is also related to the timing of when it is
delivered.
Quality control in the construction
industry can be looked at as having three elements:
- To produce a building which satisfies the client
- To produce a building where quality is related to the price.
- To produce a building in which sufficient time is allowed to obtain the desired quality.
Like most other aspects of construction
management quality control has to be planned. Planning seeks 'order' and a
quality control system for a construction project reflects this sense of
order. It may be seen to be in five basic stages:
- Setting the quality standard or quality
of design required by client.
- Planning how to achieve the required quality, construction methods, equipments, materials and personnel to be employed.
- Construct the building right first time.
- Correct any quality deficiencies.
- Provide for long term quality control through establishing systems and developing a quality culture.
It is obvious that quality is proportional
to costs associated with the construction process. Costs associated with
quality need to be identified for management decisions. The costs of quality
can be broken down as follows:
- Failure costs: The costs of demolishing
and rebuilding, the cost of production time, delays to other gangs
- Appraisal costs: The cost of inspection
and testing.
- Prevention costs: The costs of providing
better designs, more training to reduce failure costs, more maintenance.
Quality assurance is a mechanism for
ensuring that the construction process takes place within the framework of a
quality management system. This suggests that quality assurance defines the
organization structure, tasks and duties for implementing quality
management.
In 1987, the Building research
establishment surveyed the quality problems on Britain's construction sites.
They found that half of the faults were design related, and 40% of the
problems arose from faulty construction. 10% were product failing.
- misunderstanding the client's brief to
develop the design
- using information which is incorrect or
out of date
- misunderstanding of the client's
expectations of quality standards
- lack of co-ordination between the
designers.
- Loose or inappropriate specifications
- Not building to drawings or
specifications
- poor supervision leading to bad
workmanship
- insufficient management of the quality
of construction.
- In order to eliminate those potential
problems many clients have looked to quality assurance to reassure them
that they will get the right building without undue quality problems.
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