IJIE 2003

Quality and Safety

Management Systems in
Construction: Some Insight
from Contractors
Todd W. Loushine, M.S., P.E.
Peter Hoonakker, Ph.D.
Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Funding provided by CPWR (no. 1020-48)

Overview
Safety statistics for construction indicate high
fatality and injury rates
Quality research indicates inefficiencies and
mismanagement are wasting billions of dollars
The nature of construction requires the work
processes to deal with uncertainties,
continuous changes, and risk
We are investigating a new type of
management system, to deal with the
dynamic and uncertain nature of construction
work

Cost of Quality in Construction

From a quality/productivity standpoint, labor

typically accounts for 30% of project costs
(Picard, 2000)
Manpower mismanagement and construction
delays were found to contribute to 40-60% nonproductive time for onsite work (Jereas et al.,
2000)
Rework costs up to 12% of total project costs and
up to 11% of total project work hours (Love et al.,
1999)
Dun & Bradstreet data indicate that construction
business fail at a higher rate than all other
businesses (Construction Chart Book, 2002)

The Nature of Construction

Three primary participants (Carty, 1995):
Owner: wants something built
Designer: develops a plan
Contractor: converts a plan into a product
Construction is very complex and nonstandardized (Rowlinson & Walker, 1995)
Exposure to weather, dynamic site conditions,
coordination of multiple parties, etc.
81% of U.S. contractors have less than 9
employees (Construction Chart book, 2002)

Our Concept: Integrate Quality

& Safety Management

Apply traditional safety management (OSHA,

1989)

Management commitment
Employee involvement
Hazard identification and control
Training and education
Accident investigation
Program documentation and Review

To Quality Management principles (Dean &

Bowen, 1994)

Customer-focus
Team work
Continuous Improvement

Literature Review
Conducted Fall 2001, updated Fall 2003
Key search engines: ABI inform, WebSPIRS,
ProQuest, PsychINFO, and Web of Knowledge
Key words: quality, TQM, quality management,
safety, safety management, occupational
safety, construction, and construction industry
18 construction safety articles
26 construction quality articles
2 empirical and 3 theoretical articles on safety
and quality management

Quality Management Articles

Positive effect on quality performance indicators:

TQM, in general (7)

Employee empowerment (4)
Partnering with subs and suppliers (4)
Customer focus (3)
Team work (3)
Management commitment (3)
Communication (2)
Continuous improvement (2)

Quality performance indicated by cost (budget) and

time (schedule) growth, number of defects/errors,
survey response, audit/observations, and customer
satisfaction rating

Quality Management Articles

Barriers
nature

to successful implementation

of construction
poor understanding of customer
expectations
lack of management
commitment/leadership
lack of worker empowerment
Self-assessment tools, such as ISO 9000,
MBNQA, and BS 5750 were helpful
Also found to improve safety performance in a
two studies

Results - Quality

Cited measures for quality: how it looks, work

hours to complete, productivity or efficiency
rating, meeting schedule deadlines, visual
inspections, number of building defects, repeat
business, customer satisfaction rating, and
cleanliness of jobsite
Quality improvement methods reported:
education/training(4), teamwork(2),
accountability(2), audits(2), and use of prequalification(1) data for hiring subs
Reported barriers to quality improvement
included: worker attitude(4), lack of
awareness(3), product/supply problems(2), and
the nature of the construction process(2)
Boy, I dont know how you would collect data on
the quality performance.

Discussion
Safety response were similar to the literature
Use of EMR & IR for safety performance
Traditional safety characteristics
However, focus on worker
Quality responses were not similar to the
literature
Varying definition of quality, and metrics
Limited acknowledgement of a formal system
Similar to safety, focus on worker
Integration of quality and safety not well
understood, limited application

Summary
Construction is a complex process, involving
multiple parties (with individual interests) to
transform a mental concept into a physical
structure.
The non-standard or unpredictable nature of
construction increases the variability within
the process
An integrated safety and quality management
system could help reduce some variability in
the construction process, however it is not
very well understood at this time

Acknowledgements
Professors P. Carayon, M.J. Smith, UWMadison
Professor E.A. Kapp, UW-Whitewater
WI ABC Safety Director Don Moen
CPWR for support

Thanks for Listening!

For more information or copies of reports,
contact Todd W. Loushine at
twloushine@wisc.edu