The development and evaluation of best practices for the client's representative

Current literature and recent research findings have indicated that traditional management systems practised in the construction industry have encouraged poor communications, poor design, lack of buildability, and increased conflicts and disputes between participants. The results of these problems have manifested themselves in cost overruns, projects being not completed on schedule, and poor quality. The reasons for the frequent occurrence of these problems may well be lack of teamwork, poor co-ordination, and poor communications between participants. There has recently been widespread recognition in the construction industry that TQM would help to solve some of these problems. [Continues.

Formulation of best practices for owner's representatives

Quality and productivity in construction could be achievable if the parties involved in the process identify and apply the relevant best practices to their business processes. This seeks the owner's/client's involvement in and commitment to adopting the industry's best practices into the business/project. To provide the owner/owner's representative with appropriate tasks and directions for improving quality and productivity in construction projects, research by Jawaharnesan and Price identified twelve important tasks to be performed by the owner's representative. The tasks were: preparing and organizing; developing project definition; procurement; organizing a joint management team; design management; safety management; measuring and reviewing performance; communications; motivation; coordination; documentation; and project postmortem. A survey of 38 of the major U.K. construction (owner) organizations coupled with interviews and literature review have evolved best practices to effectively perform each of the preceding tasks to achieve quality in construction. This paper evaluates these practices for their importance in improving the performance of the owner's representativ

Radical process improvement through Total Quality Management

Radical process improvement through Total Quality Managemen

Assessment of the role of the client's representative for quality improvement

Several international studies have perceived the UK construction industry as less productive than those of the other progressive nations. Moreover, many UK construction clients have expressed dissatisfaction regarding the delivery of the completed projects, the quality of service and the predictability of cost. In order to address these problems, client-led innovation in construction projects has been emphasized by Sir Michael Latham's report Constructing the Team . The quality of the service that the client receives depends partly on the client's own involvement in the project. This will require the client to take a positive approach to promoting continuous improvement to all work situations. The traditional role of the client's representative varies from one of simply designing to the full monitoring of the project. It may also include project management activities such as planning, scheduling, coordinating and motivating. In total quality management (TQM) the administrative tasks of the client's representative include many aspects already addressed under traditional arrangements. However, current literature suggests that confusion exists over the involvement and participation of the client's representative when TQM is adopted in construction projects. To address this problem, research was conducted to identify the critical tasks for the client's representative to achieve total quality in construction. The findings also developed relevant best practices to be performed by the client's representative. This paper concentrates on the tasks of the client's representative, and assesses their importance in terms of improving quality in construction

Total Quality Management in construction projects: a conceptual model of teamwork for achieving jobsite quality

Total Quaiity Management (TQM) is a never-ending improvement process aimed at customer satisfaction. It has been successfully applied in the manufacturing industry through a teamwork approach. The manufacturing process is repetitious, the workforce constant, and the environment is such that all parties involved in a process can work together towards a common objective. However, the construction industry is characterised by its one-off nature, where the workforce and processes often vary from project to project. The state of legal independence between participants and their traditional methods of working together are often an obstacle to adopting a team environment. However, these obstacles can be overcome when the partnering concept is introduced in the relationship between various participants. Partnering arrangements can greatly improve the interface between participants, and enable them to establish a Joint Management Team (JMT) that involves all participants in the process. This JMT focuses on operational goals, and co-ordinates all participants to provide support for the various processes. In order to achieve continuous improvement at the construction jobsite, the joint management team focuses on co-ordination and improvement activities, which include: encouragement; training; quality teams; and measuring and reviewing performance. When people and other resources involved in a project are properly managed through the joint management team, total project success becomes possible. This paper discusses the teamwork functions of the JMT for achieving quality at construction jobsite

Towards total quality project delivery: synthesis of the conceptual phase

The notion that the conceptual phase is the prime period in which major decisions are made and influences the success of downstream activities of engineering, construction, handover and maintenance is an established fact. The decision on quality issues should also be perpetuated in the conceptual phase if the final product were to embody one. Furthermore, decision in this phase incur the least cost: a windfall yet to be harnessed. The first important step toward realising this fact is establishing and benchmarking the tasks content of the conceptual phase. The objectives of the paper are to expound the methodology adopted, results and discussions on the establishing and benchmarking of the conceptual phase tasks involving sixty companies throughout Europe. These companies are clients, consultant and contractors covering the whole range in construction industry: building construction, civil engineering and engineering construction

Tasks and processes of the conceptual phase for construction projects

The genesis of understanding the productivity behaviour of the construction process is underpinned by analysis and synthesis of tasks and processes within each of the main construction phases: conceptual; detailed engineering; and construction. Analysing and synthesizing tasks in any process is an accepted notion since the days of the Greeks and the Romans. It is also a common feature of many modern productivity studies, Total Quality Management, and Benchmarking. It is generally accepted throughout the construction industry that the conceptual phase has the greatest influence on most construction projects, and yet time spent during this period arriving at the correct decisions incur the least expense. Though the potential is great in terms of productivity improvements, the conceptual phase for construction projects has to date been somewhat overlooked. This paper presents a pilot study aimed at analysing the tasks and processes associated with the conceptual phase of construction projects. The projects included civil engineering, building construction, process engineering and power supply. Each of the analysed projects has a minimum value of £50 million. Exposition of the results and analyses are also given. The implications of the conceptual phase tasks are deliberated upon, in terms of productivity of site resources, time, plant, finance and labour

Total Quality Management: in search of best practices for the client's representatives

In conventional management systems, the active role of the Client's Representative as regards quality is limited to simply ensuring that the product or service is according to predetermined standards. There was little thought given to the close working of the Client and/or Client's Representative with other participants in establishing common objective, sharing ideas and plans for performance improvement. and arriving at an action plan for achieving common goals. One such strategy, that provides an environment to achieve this approach, is Total Quality Management (TQM). This strategy requires all participants to commit themselves to the establishment of a new management culture towards excellence. This requires the Client's management to take the initiative to promote the continuous improvement approach to work situations. The traditional role of the Client's Representative in construction projects can vary from simply designing to the full monitoring of the project. In order to achieve total quality, the responsibilities of the Client's Representative include many of the same tasks performed under a traditional arrangement of a project. The way, however, they perform their tasks should deviate from the traditional approach and incorporate the TQM concept. In order to address this problem a research was conducted at the Loughborough University of Technology, UK. The findings include the important tasks of the Oient's Representative when TQM is adopted in construction projects. The results of the empirical investigation of the tasks indicated that they could be adopted by the Client's Representative for efficient utilisation of people, material, and other resources for achieving Total Quality in construction