The Improvements of Positive Quality Planning and Application upon a Live Construction Project

The main aim is to evaluate the main pitfalls of quality management at site level and how improvements could be made as such to increase the level of quality produced on live projects. The basis of the paper is on evaluating the perceptions given by construction management professionals, actively working within the industry, some of which are based site managers, delivery quality as part of their work. A literature review has been written to acknowledge existing research into quality within the construction sector; this has been broken down into the following subjects: What is quality in construction? What constitutes a Quality Management System (QMS)? Preparation and advancement in planning for quality Applying and controlling quality on a live project. Differences and contradictions of statements by previous writers. Importance of innovative quality practice. From this a critical review was formed, 5 topics were chosen to structure a total of 21 questions, these questions were issued to a total of 50 construction management professionals, out of which there were 26 responses. There were also 4 interviews undertaken to expand on the areas of this research by senior management to form analysis on the topic. The survey indicated that the weak areas of quality management and delivery on site stem from poor technical knowledge on the trades which are being carried out. Interestingly it was also evident that managers responsible for implementation felt short resources were also responsible, as other initiatives were seen to be more important to achieve fulfilment of their roles. Identification was that with advancement in technology, IT resources could be used to boost efficiency when carrying out inspections or implementing quality delivery. This ideal was only supported when management were sufficiently trained to assess quality of the product, i.e. conformance to specification. The requirements for increased technology support is reflective of other authors research, however the call for more basic technical understanding is something key to address before carrying out advancement in IT based quality management style.