269
Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.
Volume-5, Issue-2, April-2015
International Journal of Engineering and Management Research
Page Number: 269-273
Quality Assurance in Building Construction: A Questionnaire Survey of
Occupants
Pravin P. Mane1, Jalindar R. Patil2 1,2
Department of Civil Engineering, RMDSSOE, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, INDIA
ABSTRACT
Quality assurance is one of the aspects of quality management system (QMS). The Quality Management System in construction industry refers to quality planning, quality assurance, quality control. QMS have many applications in the construction industry and could be implemented either at the company level or at the project level. The questionnaire survey has been carried out by authors with occupants of residential building/flat. The aim of survey is to find barriers in implementing QMS at construction projects. The quality management in construction projects means maintaining the quality of construction works at the required standard so as to obtain customer’s satisfaction that would bring long term competitiveness and business survival for the companies (Tan & Abdul-Rahman, 2005). The importance of the interviews will help to justify the potential of integrating within the context of construction management.
Keywords— assurance, management, occupants, quality.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Quality assurance starts with the fulfilling needs of customers. Quality control starts with identifying customer needs and ends only when customer is fully satisfied. In the present study customer considered is the occupants of building/flat after possession. It is necessary to fulfill their requirement in the construction of building/flat. As per principle of ISO 9001 customer satisfaction is important. The present study has been carried out with the view of customer satisfaction in construction industry by conducting questionnaires in the pimpri region of Maharashtra state, India.
ISO 8402, the vocabulary of quality defined quality management as “all activities of the overall management function that determine the quality policy, objectives and responsibilities, and implement them by
means such as quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement, within the quality system”. Meanwhile, the definition of quality system according to ISO 8402 is “the organizational structure, responsibilities, procedures and resources needed to implement quality management”.
Combining the definitions of ‘quality system’ and ‘quality management’ thus concludes that QMS is the interaction of people, processes and documentation to meet both customer’s stated and implied needs. The result would be a reduction in inefficiencies and waste, improved work practices, increased morale and the opportunity for a greater market share. All these benefits are achieved through the implementation of QMS which ones should perceive it as a wide-scale failure prevention programme that will lead to costs savings. Most organizations today view quality more as a process rather than a product. To be more specific, it is a continuously improving process where lessons learned are used to enhance future products and services in order to retain existing customers; win back lost customers and welcome new customers. Therefore, companies today are developing and integrating quality improvement processes in the companies management system. The construction industry is being viewed with poor quality and compared to other sectors like the manufacturing and service sectors (Wan Yusoff, et al., 2006; Kubal, 1994; Kanji and Wong, 1998; Wong and Fung, 1999). Because of the poor workmanship of the end product, a lot of criticisms have been directed to construction industry. Furthermore, the processes, people, materials are also under pressure for better quality in construction.
270
Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.
II.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Customer satisfaction is considered to affect customer retention and, therefore, profitability and competitiveness (Anderson and Sullivan 1993). According to Jones and Sasser (1995), complete customer satisfaction is the key to securing customer loyalty and generating superior long-term financial performance. It is also apparent that high customer satisfaction leads to the strengthening of the relationship between a customer and a company, and this deep sense of collaboration has been found to be profitable (e.g. Storbacka et al. 1994).
In order to measure customer satisfaction in construction, the main subjects must be identified. A customer may be defined as the owner of the project and the one that needs the constructed facility. In simple terms, the customer is the buyer of the product or service. Kamara (2000) describes the ‘customer’ as a body that incorporates the interests of the buyer of construction services, prospective users and other interest groups.
Customer satisfaction can be used for evaluation of quality and ultimately for assessment of the success of a company’s quality improvement programme. According to Torbica and Stroh (2001), a quality improvement effort will lead to a higher product and service quality.
Perceived quality precedes satisfaction, which is closely related to the customer’s behavioral responses (Bitner et al, 1990; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Ojasalo (1999) associates service quality with the words “evaluation” and “opinion”, and satisfaction with the word “feeling”.
There has been a quite obvious increase in the emphasis on a firm’s ability to produce high-quality products and/or provide high-quality services. Identification of high-quality products or services can be achieved by measuring customer satisfaction with these products or services. The concept of customer satisfaction transforms all industries from production centralized to customer based.
A company must periodically measure customer satisfaction in order to learn how satisfied its customers are. Torbica and Stroh (2001) argue that, in construction, the extent of customer satisfaction is only known late in the project when most of the customer’s money has already been spent. When companies know which attributes of a service or product affect customer satisfaction, their challenge is to modify their current offering in a way that would lead to maximum customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction is one of the key elements in total quality management (TQM), an approach that emphasizes overall satisfaction through the continuous improvement of products. Construction companies are adopting TQM to improve their performance. However,
construction has lagged behind other industries in implementing total quality management because of its inability to accurately determine customer requirements and successfully transform these requirements into the completed facility (Ahmed and Kangari 1995).
III.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology for the work consists of three step model. The first step is quality planning, second step is quality control and third step is quality assurance. In the first step the questionnaires have been prepared by authors considering quality aspects of construction project. The yes/no type questionnaire have been prepared by authors. The study describes the views of occupants of building and / or flat. In second step the interviews of occupants of building have been conducted by the author. For the work occupants selection criterion is that “at the time of interview the period after possession should not exceed two years”.
The interviews have been conducted based on above questionnaire with the occupants of building and / or flat. Here the respondents have to mark their response in terms of yes or no.
In the analysis of data responses of all the questions have been studied and the findings have mentioned in the subsequently continued.
IV.
DATA COLLECTION AND
ANALYSIS
The number of persons interviewed is 60. From 60 occupants only 45 occupants responded for the interview. The persons interviewed categorically belong to the middle income group.
The table 1 shows the details of questions asked to respondents and percentagewise analysis of data collected during the interviews with occupants of building and / or flat. The views of authors have been described in discussion section of paper.
TABLE 1: PERCETAGEWISE ANALYSIS OF DATA
Sr.No. Description of
questions % of
"Yes"
% of "No"
1
Have you seen all the drawings and specifications before construction?
57.5% 42.5%
2
Have you checked quality of materials during construction?
52.5% 47.5%
3
Is quality of material used during
construction is as per
271
Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.
specification?
4
Have you checked quality of materials used during possession?
52.5% 47.5%
5
Have you got possession in time as given by builder?
52.5% 47.5%
6 Is the openings of your
flat is as per drawings? 47.5% 52.5%
7 Are the room sizes as
per drawing? 47.0% 53.0%
8
Are there any additional changes requested by you for your flat?
60.0% 40.0%
9
Is your construction is as per drawing and specification as shown to you?
57.5% 42.5%
10
Is builder allowing such type of changes after your request?
49.0% 51.0%
11
After your request for changes, is builder done it as per quality
standards?
52.5% 47.5%
12
Is there any rework needed after possession within 6 month?
47.0% 53.0%
13
Have you seen quality control documents for materials used for construction?
52.5% 47.5%
14
Have you visited site of construction at regular interval?
52.5% 47.5%
15
Is there any change in your flat construction done by builder without drawings and
specifications?
45.0% 55.0%
16
Have you found any defect in your flat regarding quality of construction of any system?
55.0% 45.0%
17 Have you faced any
maintenance problem? 47.0% 53.0%
18 Have you faced any
structural problem? 47.5% 52.5%
19
Have you faced any plumbing defect in your structure?
57.5% 42.5%
20 Is there need of doing
any renovation work? 52.5% 47.5%
21 Are there any leakages 52.5% 47.5%
in the flat / building?
22
Are you facing water logging problem in flat / building?
47.5% 52.5%
23 Is electrification is as
per drawing? 46.5% 53.5%
24 Are you facing echoes
in your flat / building? 52.5% 47.5%
25
Any other point you want to share regards with quality of
construction of your flat after possession.
0.0% 100.0%
V.
DISCUSSIONS
The table 2 shows the views of authors based on the analysis of data. It also shows the barriers in implementing QMS in construction site. As per responses given by respondents, the measure data considered for the work is “the questions whose percentage of no response is more than 51%”. Customer satisfaction is important (Mane P. P. & Patil J.R., 2015).
The questions for which the percentage of no response is more than 51% as per views of respondents shows that the following are the factors required to give more attention for fulfillment of QMS in construction site.
• Use of quality materials in construction should be
as per specification.
• Openings of flat/buildings should be as per
drawings.
• Room sizes as per drawings.
• The changes in the flat and / or building should be as per request from customer.
• The changes in the building and / or flat should be strictly after preparation of drawings and specifications.
• Avoid any rework in the structure.
• There should be proper maintenance system.
• Follow structural drawings strictly and carefully.
• Do not change electrification of flat/building.
• Provide proper inside drainage of flat/building.
272
Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.
TABLE 2: COMMENTS OF AUTHORSSr. No .
Description of questions % of "No
"
1 Is quality of material used during
construction is as per specification? 52
2 Is the openings of your flat is as per
drawings? 52.5
3 Are the room sizes as per drawing? 53
4 Is builder allowing such type of changes after
your request? 51
5 Is there any rework needed after possession
within 6 month? 53
6
Is there any change in your flat construction done by builder without drawings and specifications?
55
7 Have you faced any maintenance problem? 53
8 Have you faced any structural problem? 52.5
9 Are you facing water logging problem in flat
/ building? 52.5
10 Is electrification is as per drawing? 53.5
Figure 1: Factors Influencing QMS as per Authors Analysis
The figure 1 indicates that factors influencing the QMS. These factors are found out based on analysis of data collected through interviews of the occupants of building.
VI.
CONCLUSION
For successful implementation of QMS in building construction customer satisfaction is important. The needs of customers have shows that they are giving
importance to quality in construction. The study also proves that customer focus and involvement of people are important aspects in the successful construction project. Survey also suggests the factors influencing QMS and initiates in finding barriers in implementing QMS at construction projects.
For future study following points may be considered
• The same survey may be carried out for more
273
Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.
• The questionnaires may be collected from lower
and higher income group.
• The questionnaires may be collected from
customers with civil engineering background.
REFERENCES
[1] Ahmed, S.M. and Kangari, R. (1995). Analysis of Client-Satisfaction Factors in Construction Industry. Journal of Management in Engineering. Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 36-42.
[2] Anderson, E.W., Sullivan, M.W. (1993). The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms. Marketing Science. Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 125-143.
[3] Bitner, J.B., Booms B.H., and Tetreault M.S. (1990). “The Service Encounter: diagnosing favourable and unfavourable incidents”. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 54 No.1, pp. 71-84.
[4] Cronin, J.J and Taylor S.A. (1992). “Measuring Service Quality: a re-examination and extension.” Journal of Marketing. Vol. 56, pp. 55-68.
[5] Hellard RB. Total quality in construction projects: achieving profitability with customer satisfaction. London: Thomas Telford; 1993.
[6] ISO. (2000). ISO 9001—quality management systems—requirements. International Standard Organization, Geneva.
[7] ISO (2004) International Organization for
Standardization. http://www.iso.org, accessed Feb 2004. [8] Jones T.O. and W.E. Sasser (1995). Why Satisfied Customers Defect. Harvard Business Review. Nov-Dec, pp. 88-99.
[9] Kamara, J.M., Anumba, C.J. (2000). Establishing and processing client requirements-a key aspect of concurrent engineering in construction. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management. Vol.7 No.1, pp.15-28.
[10] P.P.Mane, J.R.Patil, "Quality Management System at Construction Project: A Questionnaire Survey"Vol. 5 - Issue 3 (March - 2015), International Journal of
Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA), ISSN: 2248-9622, www.ijera.com
[11] Ojasalo, J. (1999). “Quality dynamics in professional services.” Publications of the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Nr 76. Helsinki. [12] Quality Standard, What is ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 (2008). Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.dennemeyer.com/content/en/qualitystandard.ht ml
[13] Storbacka, K., Strandvik, T. and Grönroos, C. (1994). Managing Customer Relationship for Profit: The Dynamics of Relationship Quality. International Journal of Service Industry Management. Vol. 5, No. 5, pp.21-38.
