BEST PRACTICE FOR QUALITY AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

BEST PRACTICE FOR QUALITY MANAGEMENT

ISO 9001 Quality Management System is one of the ISO 9000 set of standards that provides a series of guidelines on how to establish a quality system to manage the processes that affect its product or services. It was first  developed in  1987 which aimed  at promoting the quality  of services  and goods provided by  different sectors  of the industry  (Chin et  al., 2003). Since the establishment of ISO 9000 quality system by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), it has been gradually adopted by all industries worldwide. It can be said that ISO 9000 is the most successful standard in ISO history because there is over 500000 registrations with  registrants in over 100 countries  from all continents, including USA, UK, European countries, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia (Lee, 2006). several reasons for ISO 9001 to become a valuable accreditation for companies in the sector are: 

• Standardize services and product quality: Application of the standard could ensure that build quality, methodology, and adherence to legislation are consistent, therefore ensuring consistent quality of product.
• Reduce costs for the builder: Improvement of supply chain management and purchasing processes through ISO 9001-approved methods can reduce costs and increase profit margins.
• Ensure continual improvement: Application of the standard should ensure that your business and associated processes improve year after year, increasing profits and growing the business accordingly.

ISO 9001 elements: How can the standard help?

Obviously, a company in the construction sector – the same as in any other sector – will have to satisfy all clauses of the ISO 9001 standard to become accredited, but are there any particular parts of the standard that would specifically help the performance of a construction sector company? Let’s examine this:

Planning: The planning element of ISO 9001 would encourage more specific strategic planning on complex building projects. An enhanced focus on how risks and opportunities can be addressed to help meet stated objectives can bring great efficiencies to many construction projects – given the costs of contractors, equipment, and material – the financial benefits of finishing a 12-week project in 11 are massive when multiplied out over the course of a trading year.

Supply chain management: “Control of external services” is mentioned in the 9001 standard, and this critical element can be used to performance manage contractors and also ensure that your supply chain meets your price requirements and quality objectives simultaneously. Concentrating on this aspect, developing processes and criteria to both select and manage your supply chain can provide massive financial, quality, and time benefits to your construction company.

Performance evaluation: This clause allows a construction company to analyze its performance with a view to allowing it to achieve continual improvement by improved planning and subsequent improved processes and performance. 

The process approach: The ability to pull all factors of a complicated construction project together would be extremely valuable in this sector, in terms of managing aggressive timelines and financial budgets. Many public construction projects run over budget and time targets, and this vital element of the ISO 9001 standard can help prevent this. 

Leadership: One of the key changes in the 2015 version of the standard is leadership. Enhanced leadership providing clear guidance on objectives and shared goals allied to excellent communication channels can help build a “get it right first time” culture within a construction project, ensuring both financial and time targets are met. 

Win new customers: Use ISO 9001 as a selling point. If not everyone in the construction sector has yet adopted ISO 9001 principles, use this as one of your unique selling points with a full explanation of its benefits.

ISO 9001: Becoming industry standard?

The explanation above illustrates how ISO 9001-compliant processes can be used to improve performance, both internal and external, in your Quality Management System to realize both financial and quality performance benefits. Whether ISO 9001 becomes “industry standard” in the construction sector remains to be seen, but companies in this sector who do choose to implement will surely have an advantage. Using ISO 9001 principles to improve performance and quality and reduce cost is a possibility for every company in this sector, and selling the organization as an accredited organization is surely of great potential benefit in the eyes of a client.

BEST PRACTICE FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT

Lean construction is the continuous process of eliminating waste, meeting or exceeding all customer requirements,  focusing  on the  entire  value stream  and  pursuing perfection  in  the execution  of construction project. This definition includes many fundamental aspects of a lean philosophy. It is a philosophy that requires a continuous improvement effort that is focused on a value stream in terms of the needs of the customer and improvement through eliminating waste in the process . Towards creating lean workplace, a set of lean principles and best practices could be applied in construction including  customer  focus,  culture/people,  workplace  standardization,  waste  elimination  and continuous  improvement  / built-in-quality. Although the  lean concepts  have been brought to the construction industry in a number of countries including, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Peru, UK, USA and Venezuela, surveys in the UK carried out by Common et al.  concluded that the construction industry in general has been slow in taking lean concepts. Becoming lean involves the entire company, and it doesn't happen overnight. Lean cannot be reduced to a set of rules or tools. It must be approached as a system of thinking and behavior that is shared throughout the value stream. It needs a comprehensive commitment to long term improvements. It amounts to a cultural change for the company. Due its nature, construction is not a simple deterministic system. Lean  principles  must  be  understood  and  applied  in  a  context  and  require  a  comprehensive understanding of a complex, interacting and uncertain construction system. Although lean production paradigm has much to offer, the success of its implementation depends upon the organizational environment and culture within which is developed. Lean thinking recognizes that people are a key factor for improving processes and the way they view their work is important. Successful development of lean construction  requires strategies and methodologies based upon social constructivism.

Lean Tools to Prevent Waste  

1. Process Analysis  

The procedure of process analysis is a known tool for reducing wastes in construction projects where each organization has its own qualifications and standards which will then develop a unique type of process and analysis for their projects. This tool is useful in defining a certain analysis for their process in order to properly define their goal and decrease wastes in projects. 

2. Pull Technique 

Pull technique is a very effective procedure that will help providing the construction project with the only required materials based on the project need and schedule. If this technique is properly taken into account will prevent any wastes and ensure the proper planning for all activities of the project.   

3. Mistake Proofing  

Mistake  proofing  technique  can  enhance  the  performance  of  the  project  and  improve  the accomplished quality by decreasing the time of each task and save time for more critical activities or situations. It can also reduce the effects that may occur in any product or process which will eventually decrease the overall wastes in projects.

Lean Tools for reducing waste  

The principles of lean thinking can be summarized into ten points: 

1. decreasing the shares of non-adding value activities, 

2. increasing the value of output by providing systematic configurations related to the need of costumer, 

3. decreasing the variability that may occur in the process, 

4. simplifying the different number of steps and parts, 

5. increasing the flexibility of output, 

6. increasing the transparency of the process, 

7. concentrating on the completion of the process, 

8. providing continuous improvements in the process, 

9. providing a balance between flow and conversion improvement, 

10. establishing a bench mark.