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Study of Quality Management System in Construction Industry of Pakistan

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ICCSS-14
http://www.iccss.vfast.org@ 2014
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Turkey pp. 00–-00

STUDY OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN

CONSTRCUTION INDUSTRY OF PAKISTAN

ATTAULLAH SHAH1, ASAD ALI2, ASAD MEHMOOD3, MOHSIN IQBAL4

1
Department of Civil Engineering City University of Science and Inforamtion Technolgy Pehawar Pakistan
vc@cusit.edu.pk
1-4
Department of Civil Engineering, Swedish College of Engineering and Techonology Wah Pakistan
asadmalik1208@yahoo.com

Received June 2013

ABSTRACT. Two things are of great importance to check the level of quality
management implementation in the building projects of Pakistan. a. Technical
system of quality management b) Managerial system of quality management. The
technical system includes the tools and techniques whereas management system
includes critical factors of quality management. The construction industry of
Pakistan has been endeavoring for quality since long time. The absence of quality
regulatory body and the non-availability of local quality standards could not give a
clear direction to local construction materials industry

An exploratory approach was adopted by studying the available literature to create

a quality management framework for building projects and based on these a
questionnaire was prepared, which was administered to project engineers,
managers, supervising consultants and contractors. The important quality factor for
the construction inputs and processes were included in the survey, which was also
supported with the interviews of the selected major stakeholders. Quality check lists
were developed in consultation with the field staff and actual projects were analyzed.
The results showed that there an increasing awareness among the major
stakeholders but the tools and techniques used for quality control are are not
reliable and consistent. There is a need to further standardize the procedures and
processes as well the inputs for the construction industry of Pakistan t adopt the
Total Quality Management in true spirits
Keywords: quality management, technical, systems, Pakistan, construction
industry,material,stakeholder

1. Introduction

Quality, in general, can be defined as meeting or exceeding the requirements whether, legal, aesthetic and
functional of a project, product or service. In construction industry, the definition of quality can be bit
difficulty but it can be defined as meeting the requirements of the designer, constructor and regulatory
agencies as well as the owner. For public sector construction projects, the expectations of the community and
end users have prime importance.

The quality management started from very marginal function of quality inspection to quality assurance and
quality control, thereby making the quality of products and services b more important in the last many
decades. However the Total Quality Management emerged as new and integrated philosophy in Japan
manufacturing industry in early 50’s. TQM is based on the principles of Continuous Quality Improvement
(CQI), importance of the customer satisfaction, preventive measures rather than rejection and Employee
Involvement in all the process [1].

The implementation of TQM principles, require broad based changes in the cultures, processes, procedures,
strategic priorities and plans as well as organizational operations [2]. This is often a big challenge for all the
stakeholders and require a detailed strategy for “ Change Management . This becomes even more challenging
in the construction industry, where the traditional labor and construction techniques are more dominant.
Sommerville & Robertson {2000} identified some of the elements impeding implementation of TQM in to
construction industry , which include the following:

i. Construction inputs are diversified in nature and the customized solution of construction has to
come from material and processes having different specification and standards. Hence the
satisfaction of end user is relatively difficult.
ii. The dedication to TQM processes and philosophy, would require some minimum time to get the
benefits and returns as these are not possible in short term. In present recession in the
construction market, no one will be ready to experiment, the TQM.

2. Total Quality Management and Constrcution Industry:

The basic philosophy of TQM evolved from manufacturing industry and its application to construction
industry. Various studies have revealed that application of TQM procedures to small sized construction
projects is relatively difficul [3] and [4]. The implementation of various TQM tools such as project
management, partnership, Quality Assurance Plan (QAP), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Jobsite
Quality Planning (JQP) to construction industry demonstrated mixed results [5]. Hoonakker faced the same
situations during study of construction industry in Netherlands regarding implementation of theTQM
principles to construction projects. Most of the construction firms adopt only those innovative solutions and
techniques, which have proved successful in other projects [6].

The TQM has been adopted by various major construction companies in the world as per their requirements
and priorities for cost reduction, improved productivity and better health & safety environment for
construction projects. Kuprenas & Kenney [7] and Kuprenas, Soriano, & Ramhorst, [8] observed, on the
basis of their two studies on TQM, that the overall motivation for implementing TQM remained essentially
the same over a period of three years. The methods and effectiveness of implementing TQM, however, did
vary substantially between companies over the three years. Some firms completely abandoned their TQM
implementations while others achieved award-winning results. Most of the construction companies focus on
cost reduction rather than quality control and improvement.

The implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) which is defined as “a set of concepts which can be
extended to the whole organization, which permits producing products and/or services which satisfy customer
demands at the lowest cost possible, and trying to make all the staff within the company feel satisfied with
their work” has been employed by many construction organizations as an initiative to solve their quality
problems [9]. TQM philosophy throughout all projects can help an organization to improve its productivity,
performance, and both customer and employee satisfactions by eliminating and/or reducing poor quality. In
order to achieve this goal, it is essential to diminish costs related to not doing things correctly the first time.
And this is only possible if these costs are identified and evaluated or put in other words, if quality costs are
measured and analyzed [10]. Construction firms, therefore, need to understand the TQM Critical Success
Factors (CSFs) for the successful implementation of TQM.

Implementation of TQM can bring a lot of improvements in the construction industry. Though the number of
studies supporting this argument is limited yet the benefits can be in the form of economic returns, fast and
speedy project completion, higher profitability, enhanced customer satisfaction, better quality of end products
etc [11].
The following facts must be considered before applying any quality improvement program to construction
industry.
i. Almost all construction projects are single. They are single-order, single-manufacture
products.
ii. Unlike other industries, which typically have a fixed site through similar conditions for
production, each construction production site constantly shows different circumstances.
iii. The life-cycle of a construction project is much longer than the life-cycle of most
manufactured products.
iv. There is no vibrant and proactive appraisal system to measure construction excellence thus,
construction projects quality is usually evaluated subjectively.
v. Construction projects are a single order design project, the owner usually have direct impact
the production.
vi. The participants in the construction project owner, designer, general contractor,
subcontractor, material provider, etc. Differ for each project in terms of their knowledge,
skills and attitudes.

Several models have been presented for cost of quality. However, the most significant models can be
classified into the following groups [12].

i. Opportunity or intangible cost models

ii. Process cost models:
iii. ABC models: Value added + non-value added
iv. Crosby’s model
v. P-A-F models:
Further details about the models can be obtained from above reference.

3. Construction industry of Pakistan and Total Quality Management:

The construction industry of Pakistan is characterized by low productivity as its contribution to the GDP is
merely 4%, whereas it employs more than 7% labor force. The cost overrun, poor quality and time delays
are the three major challenges faced by the construction industry, which often leads to litigations and conflicts
at the projects. The construction industry in Pakistan requires, a cultural and behavioral shift in the mind-set
of all participants including top and senior level management and project staff. The basic philosophy of the
TQM focus on the involvement of all major stakeholders in the quality control and quality assurance process.
Unfortunatley, the construction industry of Pakistan has not adopted the TQM philosophy into their routine
operations.The high boom of construction industry in the early twenty first century, led to shortage of skilled
man power at one hand and competing for resources on the other hand. This required to apply the TQM in
major projects, mainly to save the resources and costs. Hence Continuous Quality Improvement ( CQI)
became an important consideration in major projects in Pakistan. However in general for medium and small
projects, the application of TQM remained a remote possibility.

The quality management in construction projects in Paksitan is not given prime importance. In most of the
construction projects, there are no dedicated staff for quality assurance and quality control, which renders the
quality as the most neglected prirority in the construction industry. The typical conntractors at construction
projetcs are more foucused over cost saving but they are least aware of the cost of poor quality, they have to
pay at construction sites, in case of imperfect and substandard works. Through awareness about TQM among
the contractors, we can make them realize the benefits of quality management and TQM. In this work,
research was undertaken to assess the existing tools and techniques adopted by the construction industry in
Pakistan for the quality management.

4. Research objectives and research methodology: The main aim of the research was to assess the
present tools and techniques employed by the construction industry of Pakistan for the quality
management and recommend further improvement for the same.
To assess the critical factors for the quality management in constrcutin industry and its implementation at
construction projects, the following three tools were used for data collection:
i. Questionnaire Survey: The questionnaire was divided into two parts, Parts-A gives the information of
respondents and his familiarity with construction projects, role and responsibilities and experience
etc. The part-B of the questionnaire comprises 130 factors for quality assurance and quality control
in projects under some major heads of input factors, internal environment and external environment.
For contractors and project executing firms, the list of contractors who executed projects of various
magnitude in Pakistan at different places was used and 20 contractors were randomly selected from
the list of these contractors. Similarly 10 consultants were randomly selected from the list of
Architectural Planning and Engineering design consultants. Out of total 50 questionnaires sent to
the various stakeholders in the study , 30 responses were received back.

ii. Interview: The questionnaire survey was followed by interviews with the project staff and
represnttaives of the consultants.

iii. Case Study: To check the implementation of various quality assurance and quality control tools, a
real site was visited at Islamabad Pakistan.

5. Observations:

5.1 Results of questionaire survey:

i. Based on the results of questionaire survey, almost 60% of the respondents think that
customer satisfaction is regarded as the basic perception for quality.
ii. The firms mostly follow the Pakistan Engineering Council Code of ethics.
iii. The order of priority for various important factors in planning is cost, quality, time, scope
and safety. Hence quality is the next most important factor after cost in planning in
construction projects.
iv. Most of the firms believe that project quality plan is as important quality control input,
followed by checklists, quality metrics, organizational assets.
v. The firms mostly think that implementation of TQM will mainly improve the project
design and cost estimation.

5.1 Interview with construction supervision staff and contractors:

1. During interaction with construction supervisory staff and contractors regarding quality, it
has been observed that contractors give only average importance to important issues
related to TQM such as quality in the organization, employee training and organizational
culture. The general trend of the contractors is to associate quality with cost and they argue
that better quality would mean more investment in the project. They are least awared of the
cost of non conformance and non quality.

2. The organizational existing practices for quality control are given more importance and the
TQM is exercised to the extent of cost estimation and warrnety claims etc. In addition the
interviews conducted with higher officials and project staff believe that quality has prime
importance but they rarely practice, TQM practices as they believe that additional cost of
the quality is not given in the approved cost of project.

3. The quality control and quality assurance tools adopted at construction sites are mostly
arbitrary. Formal QC/QA tools are rarely employed. The contract of the construction
projects in public sector seldom have focus on the implementation on TQM and the
specification followed are mostly redundant and outdated in most cases.
4. Lack of awareness has been observed as the major impediment to the quality in the
construction industry. The level of information available with the contractors and project staff
5.2 Case study of construction projetcs at Allama Iqbal Open University:
During visits to the projetcs of Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad Pakistan, the following observations
have been made:

i. There is general awareness and sensitivity amongst the project staff and contractors regarading
importance of the quality in the projects and the culture developed at project sites is quality
focused. But in most of the cases the knowledge of the supervisory staff about QC/QA is
based on traditional practice.
ii. The knowledge of the staff about TQM was found insufficient. The application of modern quality
control tools and techniques is rare at the construction projects.
iii. The organization has established a metrial testing lab, however its use in the projetcs is not up to
the mark. The Project Directorate has started testing of input like cement, aggregates, bricks
etc at the lab, but the support from the site staff in this context is not sufficient. The dedicated
staff for the laboratory is also not sufficient to undertake the task of material testing.
iv. Overall, commitment of the staff to the quality in construction project at AIOU, has been
observed, but there is a need to implement the modern TQM tools andtechniques. To this end,
training of the staff is required at all levels.

6. Cnclusions

i. The knowledge and awareness of the major stakeholders of construction industry related to TQM
was found insufficient. They most of the times follow the traditional quality control techniques.
ii. The adherence to quality in contruction projects by the contractors is limited to the contractual
obligations and unfortunately, most of the projects’ contracts don’t oblige the contractor to
follow the TQM tools and techniques.
iii. The contractors are least awared about the cost of poor quality and hence they are most of the time
relate quality to additional cost. Hence quality is exercised to the extent of cost estimation and
warranties etc.
iv. There is no organized system employed by the project staff for deployment of TQM tools and
techniques in medium and small projects.
v. The quality control is mostly based on inspection of the work completed by the supervisory staff,
which often lead to rejection of imperfect works. The basic philosophy of the TQM i.e.
“ rejections” is not followed in true spirit. This leads to wastage of time and resources.
vi. There is no mandatory provision in the construction contracts for strict compliance to the TQM
standards, tools and techniques.

7. Recommendations

i. The construction project contracts needs to be revisited. The specification part of the contracts and
special conditions regarding quality control needs to be reviewed and modern TQM tools and
techniques may be incorporated in such docuemnts.
ii. The Paksiatn Engineering Council (PEC), being the major organization to develop the bidding
documents for the projects in Pakitan need to revise the specification of civil work items for
construction project. The Pakistan Institute of Contract and Cost (PICC) which is defuct now,
may be revitalized under senior and experienced people.
iii. Awareness and capacity building workshops on TQM for construction projetcs may be held under
the Continuous Professinal Development ( CPD) prgramm of PEC. The renewal and
upgradation of the contractors may also be linked with the participation of the core Engineering
staff of the contractors in such workshops and seminars.
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