Ng, T; Palaneeswaran, E and Kumaraswamy, M (2008) Costs and benefits of ISO 9000-based quality management systems to construction contractors. Construction Economics and Building, 8(2), pp. 23-29. ISSN 2204-9029
Abstract
ISO9000-based Quality Management Systems(QMSs) have been widely applied by manycontractors with a hope to improve the productquality and hence achieve the desiredobjective of client satisfaction. However,setting up and implementing an ISO9000-based QMS is not without cost. Unless thecontractors can benefit from such system, it isunlikely that the senior management ofcontracting firms will commit to implement anISO9000-based QMS. In this paper, the costsof setting up and implementing an ISO9000-based QMS are assessed through aquestionnaire survey. The results arecompared with the benefits attained by thecontractors. It is found that contractors couldbe benefited from the use of ISO9000-basedQMS both tangibly and intangibly. Based on amore conservative estimation of some tangiblebenefits, a basic operational cost-benefit ratioof one to three was derived from the results ofthe survey. Since the latest version ofISO9000 has been fully implemented for anumber of years, the perception of contractorson the benefits gained after theimplementation of ISO9001:2000 is alsoexamined in this paper.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | quality management system; cost; benefit; implementation; contractor |
| Index terms: | client satisfaction, ISO, quality management system, survey, estimation, implementation, construction contractor |
| Subjects: | client relations, data collection methods, practitioner, standards development, financial and cost management, project delivery, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Procurement, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Quality Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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