7 Success Mantras for Quality Management

It’s true that Quality comes at a cost. However, even though purchasing quality materials comes at an additional and often hefty cost, implementing quality management practices need not. Just as we prioritize the quality of the final product we need to prioritize the creating and implementing of processes that can ensure quality through all the stages of delivering that final product ie a completed project. And since rework and return trips cost time and money and a job isn’t deemed ‘done’ until it reaches 100% quality, how about going the extra mile to ensure that everything gets done 100% right the first time? Here are my thoughts on how that can be achieved.

1. Project Specification Understanding

Most contractors begin projects by laying down the project plan. It is very important for the contractor to fully understand the standards and specifications set by the client before laying down this project plan, studying the specifications and breakthrough with stakeholders to understand fully how each standard and specification can be met and how they impact the end results of the project plan.

Standards and specifications are well defined in the contract, which conforms to the Building codes. These are carefully planned by architects and engineers, thus, while making the plan it is necessary to work closely with architects and engineers so that any doubt in the drawings or samples can be resolved during the initial stages. Getting queries clarified upfront (by asking the right questions to the right people) will ensure that the contractor does not end up having to do repairs after completing the project.

2. Establishing Standards

Every project is unique and the demands of quality standards are based on the type of construction and the contractual terms. It is essential to set standards that are easy to understand and feasible to achieve, as they enable access to and measurement of the real quality of work done.

Quality standards normally include a combination of information from sources like:

• Local, National, International building codes
• Testing Standards and Third-party Audits
• The latest lawsuits related to the quality of various building materials
• Recommendations and requirements from the manufacturers of the products and equipment used in a project.

Setting standards high from the beginning and encouraging each member to take pride in their role and work for quality delivery

3. Communication with Stakeholders

Once set, the quality standards and requirements of the project must be communicated to the project team and all stakeholders. Carrying out this activity is important as it gives everybody a clear idea of the tasks, how they’re scheduled, and what is expected so that each person understands the scheduling and designing tasks laid out in the plan. This can be conveyed during a project kick-off meeting (which can also be a podium to make it clear to all that poor quality will not be accepted).

4. Training your Team or Onboarding the Right People

While kickstarting a project, ensure you have the right people on board. Assign the right tasks to the right people and make sure the team is crystal clear about your expectations on construction quality. Provide training to the team on the quality standards to be followed.

Training is critical to efficiency, especially for supervisors who need sound management principles and techniques to keep projects running smoothly. An increase in team productivity will be just one of the many immediate benefits you see when you help them master critical skills. With the construction industry experiencing a labor shortage, training the team for effective utilization of labor is important in implementing quality management.

5. Using The Right Materials

After onboarding the Contractor and making sure he understands the clients’ expectations, make sure there is no compromise on materials. You need to check and re-check that all materials incorporated into the structures and buildings meet the quality requirements and project specifications and that the supplier partners of the contractors are reliable and have good credibility in the marketplace.

Take steps to make sure that the materials delivered to your site are of the right specifications and do not hesitate to reject damaged materials, replacing any damaged material if required. This can be done by conducting Material Inspections at the time of material delivery to the site. Any damages should be reported immediately to the contractor to avoid conflicts at later stages. In short, overall construction quality is directly dependent on the material that you use so no matter how well you plan and how skillful your team is, if the construction materials are of low quality the end result will be poor.

6. Inspections and Audits

For carrying out inspections, designate the right people to the right quality control; this ensures that you won’t end up with a confusing workflow that has the wrong people auditing the wrong things or with too many people doing the same thing at the wrong times. With testing and auditing, be sure you have a concrete policy in place to address deficiencies - in the level of craftsmanship or in the materials themselves.

Include third-party audits in the quality management plan and make sure it happens as per the schedule and from time to time. Checking and Re-checking help the team ensure that elements of the structure are all constructed in the right manner. If discrepancies are found, not only must you correct them immediately, you must take steps to ensure that such discrepancies are not repeated in the future.

Issues should be brought forward in weekly meetings and communicated to all team members. Consistent inspection of the works in progress helps to highlight the issues early on and enable early correction whereas if inspections are not consistent and/or done only at the end of work you may find discrepancies that are impossible to rectify. So it is important to carry out inspections consistently and regularly. If any of these checks are ignored the work will stay substandard. Hence, it is necessary to be very cautious about quality checks.

7. Going Digital - Investing in Technology

Investing in technology can seem intimidating or even impossible, possibly because of the difficulty of convincing the workforce to adapt to the changes involved. However, the use of technology need not be a complete renovation of your work processes; you could start with simple solutions that ease site inspections, observations, and NCRs and then expand the scope of the digitisation slowly. Start small, but do start, because investing in the right set of technologies can help you set yourself apart from your competitors. According to a Global Construction Survey conducted by KPMG, in the future technology will be the key to success for the construction industry.

Conclusion

Delivering good quality requires skilled workers, committed management, reliable suppliers, and good subcontractors. In the construction industry especially, quality is crucial and the result of a great team effort, where project stakeholders should be proud of their work and appreciate the work done by others on the project. So consider the above a roadmap to achieving quality and a proven way to provide consistent, high-construction quality and be proud of your creations. And don’t forget - going digital can make everything easier!