Gravitt, D D (2004) The development and validation of a bar code based residential construction quality inspection procedure. PhD thesis, Indiana State University, USA.
Abstract
Advances in technology that can be used to improve commercial and residential construction processes and procedures, including quality, are not always readily adopted by the two industries. The purpose of this study was to develop a bar code based quality inspection process that demonstrated the speed and accuracy with which data can be collected and used by residential construction contractors for analysis of quality improvement trends in the homes produced. The study was conducted in three phases. In the first phase a checklist form was developed for use during post-construction framing inspections of homes and validated by a panel of experts. In phase two Code 39 bar codes were added to the checklist, and a proprietary program was developed to gather inspection data via a bar code scanner. Phase three included the field study where data collection was done using two methods. The first method was using the PSC PT40 scanner and the bar coded checklist. This data was compared to data collected using the manual data collection and keyboard data entry method. A database program was used to generate reports from the inspection data for use in evaluating quality trends and performance. It was concluded that for this study the scanner method was 98. 8% accurate compared to 60% for the manual method. There was a 3. 87% error rate for the keyboard data entry versus a 0. 397% error rate for the scanner, and the scanner method was 65. 2% faster than the manual method in providing the data necessary to produce reports and evaluate possible trends in quality.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Landers, J |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | accuracy; residential; homes; construction contractors; construction contractors |
| Index terms: | construction contractor, validation, program, framing, accuracy, field study, quality inspection, residential construction, inspection, quality improvement, database |
| Subjects: | practitioner, project delivery, conceptual models, professional development, software systems, construction integration, research methods, quality assurance, data management |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Information Management, Digital Applications |
| 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