Quality and safety management in construction, Quality Assurance in construction

1. Unit-3 CE547
Zishan Raza Khan
Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Integral University, Lucknow
INDIA

2. Introduction
Unless a construction company can guarantee its
clients a quality product, it can now no longer
compete effectively in the modern construction
market. Crucial to the delivery of such quality
products is the quality of processes that produce
the product. ‘Quality’ now stands alongside ‘price’
as a major factor of differentiation in contractor
selection by the client as well as determining the
efficiency of processes that the contractor adopts
for site operations. To be competitive and to
sustain good business prospects, construction
companies need a more strategic orientation for
the quality systems they deploy.

3. Notions of Quality
Following figure shows various concepts that are considered to
have an influence on the quality of the product and which
have come to be associated with quality in construction.
Aspects of construction Quality

4. Quality Assurance
Quality assurance (QA) emphasises defect prevention, unlike quality
control that focuses on defect detection once the item is produced
or constructed. Quality assurance concentrates on the production
or construction-management methods and procedural approaches
to ensure that quality is built into the production system. Quality
assurance involves planned and systematic actions necessary to
provide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy
given requirements or standard, and to be able to demonstrate any
such compliance to that quality standard.
 Quality assurance is described under the following headings:
• Evolution of quality assurance from quality control;
• Definition of quality terms;
• Quality assurance standards;
• Developing and implementing a QA system;
• Quality assurance in construction.

5. Developing and Implementing Quality Systems
The following four stages are common to the
development and implementation of any quality
assurance system:
• Establish awareness;
• Develop quality manuals;
• Introduce the system;
• System evaluation.

6. • Establish Awareness
• To introduce a QA system it is necessary to have the
understanding and commitment of top management. Often
QA is initiated by top management as they realise that it is
necessary for the organisation to remain competitive. The
majority of managers are aware of QA and may have
prejudices for or against its implementation; it is therefore
necessary to gain widespread support for QA by explaining
the potential benefits. As it is necessary to obtain the
support and understanding of top management, it is also
necessary for senior and middle management to support
and understand the QA approach. This is best achieved by
means of a short QA training course.

7. • Develop Quality Manuals
• The quality manual is the basis of any QA system.
A quality manual usually contains the following:
(1) Company profile
The company profile should contain information
about the company including the following:
• Date of establishment;
• Nature of business;
• Annual turnover;
• Scope of trade.

8. • (2) Amendments’ record
• The amendments’ record lists any modifications to the quality
manual so that persons reading the manual can determine the
current status of the documents contained within it.
• (3) Policy statement
• The policy statement states that it is the policy of the company to
undertake its business activities in accordance with a QA standard.
• (4) Quality standards
• This provides a description of how the criteria set out in the quality
standards are addressed by the company’s quality system. This
section describes how the company’s quality system equates to the
parts of the quality standard with which it is intended to comply.

9. • (5) Structure of the organisation
• This section should consist of the structure of the functions within
the company, the responsibility of each function and the people
who undertake each function. This is necessary to allow the
identification of the individuals or groups responsible for carrying
out specific tasks.
• (6) Procedures
• ISO 9000-1 requires that all quality procedures should be
documented for the company’s critical functions.
• (7) Work instructions
• The procedures in the above section are concise; it is therefore
necessary to support these with work instructions. Work
instructions refer to individual tasks and define how each should be
completed.

10. • Introducing the QA System
• Once the draft quality system has been developed, it should be
introduced progressively during a trial period, which should last
between three to six months. The trial period is used to generate
understanding and acceptance of QA within the company as well as
providing the opportunity to debug the draft quality-system
information. Problems with the quality system are inevitable but
the majority will be identified by employees during the trial period.
The substantial problems will need to be addressed and corrected
immediately, while others can be noted and corrected at the end of
the trial period. After the trial period the system can then be
introduced formally, by distributing the quality manual to the
managers of each section of the company. The section managers
then implement the quality procedures within their own
department or group.

11. QA System Evaluation
The two methods of evaluating a quality system are management review and
auditing.
(1) Management review
• Management review requires managers to periodically review the quality
system in their area of responsibility to ensure that it is still satisfactory.
(2) Internal audits
• ISO 9001 requires that a planned sequence of internal audits must be
defined to ensure the effectiveness of the quality system. Auditing is a
formal procedure undertaken by a trained individual independent of the
organisation that reports directly to senior management. The results of
audit should be documented and the records should detail inadequacies,
by issuing nonconformance notices, and suitable corrective action. The
person responsible for the corrective action and its timing should also be
incorporated in the audit records.

12. • Third-Party Accreditation
• Once the quality management system is implemented and
operational and internal auditing has helped to refine it, the
companies can, if they wish, apply for third-party accreditation.
Specialist companies such as Lloyd’s Register and BSI and others
offer a third-party accreditation where they will certify that a
company’s quality management system meets the requirements of
BS EN ISO 9001. To gain third-party accreditation the company
submits its quality management system and documentation for
scrutiny and allows external audits to be conducted. Some large
clients of the construction industry undertake their own
accreditation inspections of the contractors who wish to work with
them. In general, third-party accreditation is administered by the
United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), whose members are
internationally recognised evaluators that provide such a service.

13. A Systems Approach to Managing
Quality
There is recognition that quality in construction involves more
than simply focusing on the product. Such recognition
provides a strong argument for companies to pay attention
to both the internal and external factors and processes
within their business environment. Traditionally, the
internal factors and processes are addressed by QA and
TQM. The external factors, however, hardly receive the
same degree of attention in managing for quality. To ensure
a more effective management for quality, construction
companies need to tackle quality through a systems
methodology. This would allow them to address the quality
of the product or service at the more strategic organisation
dimension.

14. Systems Quality Management
A systems approach is an interdisciplinary method for the realisation of
successful organisational and project systems
• Definition of a System: A system is a collection of different
elements that can be put together to generate outputs that are not
obtainable by the elements alone.
• The elements can include people, technological hardware,
software, facilities, policies, and documents; that is, all things
required to produce systems-level results. A construction project
presents a typical example of a system. Viewed from a quality
perspective, the output for such a system would be the quality
performance of the project. The value added by the system as a
whole is usually beyond the simple sum of the contribution by the
independent elements because of the synergy that arises from
managing the interfaces between the individual elements.

15. Systems Approach
• The systems approach integrates all the disciplines and
speciality groups into a team effort, forming a structured
development process that proceeds from concept through
design to construction.
• every construction project is made up of a series of internal
suppliers and customers that create a supply chain and a
demand chain respectively. Similarly, each construction
company’s operations involve a series of such demand and
supply chains or quality chains.
• Eventually, quality of the project would be determined by the
quality performance of the weakest link in the chain

16. Systems Approach
Quality influence and contribution in construction projects

17. Quality Schemes
• European Foundation for Quality
Management (EFQM) Excellence Model
Framework for EFQM Excellence Model

18. Malcolm Baldrige Quality Performance
(1) The leadership criterion involves how senior executives guide the company and
how the company addresses its responsibilities to the public and corporate social
responsibility.
(2) The strategic planning criterion focuses on how the company sets strategic
directions and how it determines key action plans.
(3) The customer and market focus explores how the company determines
requirements and expectations of customers and markets.
(4) Information and analysis delve into the management, effective use, and analysis of
data and information to support key company processes and the company’s
performance-management system.
(5) Human-resource focus deals with how the company enables its workforce to
develop their full potential and how the workforce is aligned with the company’s
objectives.
(6) Process management addresses aspects of how key production, delivery and
support processes are designed, managed, and improved.
(7) Business results look at the company’s performance and improvement in its key
business areas: customer satisfaction, financial and market-place performance,
human resources, supplier and partner performance, and operational
performance. This category also examines how the company performs relative to
competitors.
The seven categories of performance reflected by the Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award (MBNQA) can be employed as the basis for self-assessment and
training, as well as being a tool to develop continuous improvement in quality
performance and business processes by construction companies.

19. • Six Sigma
• Six Sigma is a data-driven and systematic
methodology for eliminating defects in any
process from site operations to information-
transactional activities such as design, and from
construction of the physical product to
supporting services in a project. The underlying
principle of Six Sigma is to drive the performance
of the company towards six standard deviations
between the mean and the nearest specification
limit to improve the quality and reliability of
products.
• To achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce
more than 3.4 defects per million instances for its
outputs.

20. Quality Standards
• The recognised quality standards are the ISO
9000 family of standards, the international
standard for quality management and quality
assurance
• Generally referred to as ISO 9000

21. ISO 9000 – Part 1 Selection and Use
• This standard essentially provides the
guidelines for the selection and use of the
various standards that make up the ISO 9000
family of standards and clarifies the main
quality concepts. ISO 9000- 1 should be the
first reference for any organisation
contemplating the development and
implementation of a quality system.

22. ISO 9000 – Part 2 Application
Guidelines
• This part provides guidance on the
implementation and application of the quality
assurance standards and is applicable to the
processes involved at the project and
organisation level within the construction
industry. ISO 9000- 2 is particularly useful at the
onset of implementation for any quality system.
For example, its specification would apply to
design consultants, architects and design-and
build companies.

23. ISO 9000 – Part 3 Software
• This part of ISO 9000 deals exclusively with
computer software. The standard recognises that
the process of development, supply and
maintenance of software is different from that of
industrial products and construction facilities.
The increasing use of IT options for information
management and processing during both the
design and construction stages makes ISO 9000- 3
relevant to the overall quality systems adopted by
both contractors and consultants.

24. ISO 9000 – Part 4 Dependability
• This deals with the reliability, maintainability
and availability of input resources for the
processes involved in any production or
service delivery. It covers the essential
features of a comprehensive reliability
programme for the planning, organisation,
direction and control of resources to produce
products that will have to meet the
requirements of maintaining consistent and
uniform quality.

25. ISO 9001
• This standard provides a framework for quality assurance in design,
development, installation and servicing. ISO 9001: 2008 is used
when there is a need to demonstrate capability of controlling the
processes for design as well as production of a conforming product.
The requirements of this standard primarily aim at achieving
customer satisfaction by preventing non-conformity at all stages
from design through to servicing. A construction company will make
use of ISO 9001 if its operations cover all the stages from design to
servicing. For example, a design–build–operate contractor will need
to utilise this standard to develop their quality system. The ISO
9001: 2008 is widely adopted by many project-oriented
organisations to ensure that they deliver to the quality
requirements of the project client. Its use within construction has
grown due to the increasing demand for establishing quality
assurance in the delivery of mega and complex projects such as the
Heathrow Terminal 5 and Chep Lap Kok Airport projects.

26. ISO 9002
• This standard is applicable to manufacturing
or installation companies that do not
undertake design activities. ISO 9002 requires
process control and therefore necessitates
inspection during a process. This standard
would apply to many construction contractors
where evidence of inspections and tests,
during a process, has to be given to the client.

27. ISO 9003
• This standard relies on a quality management
system that is based on final inspection and
testing. The ISO 9003 standard could be
applied to any simple building process
including the building of a nonload-bearing
brick wall or the laying of roof tiles.

28. ISO 9004
• ISO 9004 provides explanatory clauses to help
with the interpretation and clarification of
quality system elements, including the three
main standards