McCabe, S; Crook, D; Rooke, J and Seymour, D (1997) Construction's experiences of attempting to become world class: The role of academics in assisting practitioners. In: Stephenson, P (ed.) Proceedings of 13th Annual ARCOM Conference, 15-17 September 1997, Cambridge, UK.
Abstract
The use of quality management in construction is well established. The introduction of initiatives such as Quality Assurance (QA) using ISO 9000 (formerly BS 5750) was for some organisations a requirement imposed by customers. Many organisations have used the formalisation of documents and procedures necessary for third party accreditation (the crux of QA) as a foundation for pursuing 'lean production' initiatives such as TQM, BPR and benchmarking. The paper explores the issues that construction contractors must confront in their efforts to start and then to sustain what are undoubtedly radical programmes of change. In particular, we compare their experiences of implementing quality management to research carried out by Dale & Lascelles (1993) which indicates that there are six levels of TQM adoption. Specifically, we will describe our involvement with a group of quality managers from large contractors in the West Midlands. As a result of the more demanding requirements of clients in the wake of Latham, the group is now increasingly attempting to learn and apply lessons for improvement derived from other industries, particularly manufacturing. As part of the change process, we, as academics, are increasingly being looked to for advice on how to transfer the lessons and knowledge from the other industries.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | quality management; construction; TQM; change |
| Index terms: | benchmarking, quality assurance, lean production, documents, construction contractor, quality management, programme, practitioner, Latham, manager, ISO |
| Subjects: | quality assurance, standards development, performance measurement, project controls, manufacturing engineering, professional development, practitioner, industry policy reports |
| Topics: | Information Management, Engineering Principles, Governance, Roles and Professions, Time Control, Quality Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here