University of Twente Student Theses

Assessment of the quality improvement in housing construction companies in Santiago, Chile : a time comparison of the impact of quality management systems on the construction process

Tiemessen, P.V. (2008) Assessment of the quality improvement in housing construction companies in Santiago, Chile : a time comparison of the impact of quality management systems on the construction process.

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Abstract:	With the implementation of a ISO 9001:2000 certified Quality Management System (QMS) Chilean housing construction companies are trying to improve the quality of the construction process and as a consequence of that the quality of the end product, the building. Implementing a QMS can have great benefits, but might also not perform in the foreseen way. The Chilean construction industry is booming, but is still very labour intensive and highly fragmented. Ir. Tania Romero measured in 2006 the impact of the implementation QMSs in the construction industry, on the performance of the construction processes and on the quality of the houses. Her research forms the basis of the research that will be presented in this report. The goal of this research is to find out if the performance of the construction processes in ISO 9001:2000 certified construction companies improved during the last 2 years. The performance of the construction processes in ISO 9001:2000 certified construction companies is measured and compared to the situation in 2006 (the results of the research of Romero, 2007). To measure the performance of the construction process, the quality of the construction process was defined. The variables that represent the dimensions of the quality of the construction process where defined as: Productivity, Compliance with the programming, Construction costs, Accidents, Caring for the environment, Efficiency of administrative processes and Efficiency in managing resources. In order to measure the performance a questionnaire is constructed which is applied to 11 practitioners in a personal interview. For every dimension several questions where created that needed to be answered in a 7 point Likert scale. Having the possibility to interview practitioners in Chile, gave a good opportunity to get extra information about the Chilean construction industry at the topics of time performance (delays) and cost of quality (rework costs). The obtained data was analysed using the SPSS software version 15. The main conclusion of the research is that the quality of the construction processes in ISO 9001:2000 certified housing construction companies does not significantly differ from 2 years ago. Since the QMS focuses on continuous improvement, a higher quality could be expected. An other conclusion of the research is that there is no statistical significant difference found between the perceptions of the groups Headquarters and Construction site. In the research of Romero (2007) there was a statistical significant difference. The fact that the interviewed groups in the organisations think the same about the application the QM principles, is a difference compared to 2 years ago. Top management support and having the same organisational goals are important factors for the success of a QMS (Omar and Low, 1997; Romero, 2007). The research indicates that this factor for the success of a QMS is at place in most housing construction companies. Several recommendations follow from this research. These recommendations are divided into two types: Academic recommendations and recommendations for the construction industry.
Item Type:	Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:	ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:	56 civil engineering
Programme:	Civil Engineering BSc (56952)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/69464
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