Inspection and Other Strategies for Assuring Quality in Government Construction (1991)
Chapter: TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION
3
EXTENSIONS AND ALTERNATIVES TO INSPECTION
Quality facilities—buildings and other construction that protect and enhance safety, productivity, and overall quality of life—are achieved through a complex interaction of many participants in the facilities development process. Inspection is one important and effective tool that serves the task of assuring quality, a tool that has evolved and continues to change in parallel with construction practices. Within the context of these practices, there are extensions and alternatives to inspection that federal agencies may use to improve their ability to achieve quality facilities. The committee drew on its assessment of agency and private practices and the knowledge of the committee's members to suggest what these extensions and alternatives are and how they can be used.
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION
While they do not fault specifically the practices and achievements of any of the federal agencies' quality manage-
ment activities, the committee points out that many participants and observers of U. S. construction believe that the industry as a whole has serious problems. As discussed in Chapter 1, both the private and public sectors share these problems, experiencing serious cost growth due to a lack of quality. Industry groups such as the Business Roundtable, the Construction Industry Institute, and the ASCE have documented that the quality of the industry's work has declined in recent years and that the nation's productivity and international competitiveness have suffered. According to the director of the Construction Industry Institute, recent studies have shown that more than one-third of our current projects fail to meet budget objectives, a similar proportion finish behind schedule, and only about 80 percent meet technical objectives (Tucker, 1990). Industries cannot survive on such a low rate of satisfactory product delivery.
The industry has begun to work for change. A theme originated by U. S. consultants and educators W. E. Deming and J. M. Juran and adopted wholeheartedly in Japan—Total Quality Management (TQM)—has been gaining increasing popularity in the U. S. construction industry (The Quality Management Task Force, 1990). TQM is an organization-wide effort to improve performance that involves everyone and permeates every aspect of the organization to make quality a primary strategic objective. TQM is achieved through an integrated effort among personnel at all levels to increase customer satisfaction by continuously improving current performance.25
The quest for continuous improvement, one of Deming's "fourteen points," has in fact become a keystone of Japanese practice.26 Staff at all levels are encouraged to remain vigilant, to bring opportunities for improvement to managers' attention. Improvements occur through a team effort to assess, adapt, and apply all suggestions for enhancement of product, process, or service.
25 | A brief discussion of the principles of TQM are included in Appendix D. |
26 | The Japanese have a word, keizen, for this practice. |
