Quality Management Systems for Design Firm

Innovation Design Company (IDC) was founded in 2009. The main field of IDC is consultancy in architecture and construction design especially in small and medium project such as luxury low-rise building and villas. Customers that IDC have been focused are high-income customers and foreign. IDC's initial goal is providing high quality products with competitive prices compared to other consulting firms in the country as well as foreign companies in Vietnam.

However, after more than two years, IDC does not achieve the goals. In IDC, the design process is mainly based on the experience of principal engineers and architects, and almost has had no specific design process that is applied to the entire system. In fact, there are many projects that spent cost, time and manpower to redesign which affected IDC’s irrevocable capital and credibility with clients.

Facing the requirements to meet their own quality policy as well as pressure from domestic competitors and foreign, IDC found that the establishment of a quality management system process design is not lack. These projects have to propose quality management system in design for IDC.

Mr. Dinh Trung Thanh made a case study aimed to: (i) Design QMS for design firm; (ii) Establish the design procedure and quality management system that meet the quality policy of IDC and the standards of Vietnam as well as international; and (iii) Evaluate the quality management system after applied in IDC.

Conclusion

The proposed QMS basically meets the requirements to control the quality of design in IDC. The QMS clearly identify the responsibilities of all members of the system as well as individual responsibility in each period of design in ensuring that the design meets the requirements of the customer and the current standards of Vietnam.

Besides, the proposed QMS also ensure that the information in the system is communicated clearly and unalterable through input design system, manage and storage documents, and document control. In Design Company, the communication is consistent and clearly is a very important factor to ensure the correct design with the requirements of the clients as well as the construction standards.

With proposed QMS, the most important factors to ensure the success of the system include:

1. Accurate evaluation of customer requirements

2. Input data application to project (specification)

3. Internal audit.

4. The process of check and review of the principal architects and engineers.

5. Connectivity of the members and awareness of quality in design.

The QMS system proposed is consistent with the scale and the current goals of the IDC. With the successful application of QMS in the future, IDC may require the organization to evaluate and receive ISO certification. With ISO certification achieved, the quality of the design of the IDC is as good as international quality; on the other hand the reputation in the market is better as well as the credibility with customers.

Limitations of the proposed QMS are not creating more value for consulting services as well as product design. However, with current and potential target of the IDC, the application of TQM is beyond. IDC can improve and develop on the basis elements of ISO then apply the elements of TQM to develop the new stage.

His thesis abstract is copied and pasted below.

Abstract

In construction industry, a project is known to be successful when it meets three fundamental criteria such as finishing on time within the budget, the prescribed quality requirements such as satisfying customer’s demand and adapt safety in operation stage. However, most of construction project in Vietnam have had problems with the quality therefore, the time is often delay and the cost is out of control. So, solving these problems has become more and more important in project management in Vietnam.

In fact, there are many reasons cause the quality problems in construction project. Follow the informal investigations, there are:

- Goal and vision of investor.

- Quality of consultant and design.

- Check and review design.

- Quality control in Tender activity

- Quality control in Construction phase.

- Quality of human resource.

- Quality in consultant and design is very important in a project from start to the end.

However in Vietnam, there are a lot of consultant and design firm have no Quality management system (QMS), or QMS is not effective, especially the medium and small firms.

This report will assess and analyze quality factor in Consultant and design, and propose a quality management system for medium and small architecture firm.

Interface Management for Conflicts Avoidance between Owner, Employer’s Representative, and Contractors in High-Rise Building Projects

Generally, construction’s conflicts arise from a problem that has not been resolved by daily management and the parties. Traditionally, even in current contractual provisions too, owner or consultant continually transferring the risks to the contractors, which have been resulted high contingencies to their bids to cover the costs of risk (Acharya et al., 2006). However, problems can be originated from various sources, for example, nature of a project, contract system, outside forces, etc, that can lead to conflicts. The nature of a project can produce problems as it is complex, uncertain, dynamic environment, and the most fragmented industry.

Uncertainty in the project can lead to conflicts as every detail of a project cannot be planned before work begins. When uncertainty is high, initial drawings and specifications will be likely to change, and the project members will have to resolve problems during the construction. Moreover, according to Barrie and Pualsan (1992), the construction industry is a paradox in many ways. Each of its elements, designers, contractors, regulators, consumers, suppliers, and crafts, can be highly skilled in its own area, yet there is a little general perspective on how all the pieces fit together.

Furthermore, the construction contract itself may be the source of problems that lead to disputes and conflicts. As for construction projects, it is very difficult to state expectations and requirements with precision in any written agreement. Potential problem areas include ambiguities, omissions, conflicts, adjustment clauses, multiple prime contracts, fast-track construction, and unrealistic performance time.

A building or civil engineering project can commonly span 5, 10 or more years from the initial concept until settlement of the final account and/ or resolution of all claims. This considerable time span has four significant phases: (1) pre-tender; (2) contract formulation; (3) construction; and (4) post-completion, relative to the life cycle of claims which might arise on the project (Hughes et al., 1992). In addition, according to Adnan Enshassi et al. (2008), construction disputes and conflicts can occur in both publicly and privately funded projects, and in projects with small, as well as large funding. Also, conflicts can occur between the owner (and owner’s representative) and a contractor and between a contractor and a subcontractor. Therefore, all participants on the project should fully understand the claim process.

As there are many causes that can lead to conflict in the construction, for example, change or variation orders, delay caused by owner, oral change orders by owner, and etc, analyzing the various types and causes of conflicts is an important task to resolving these conflicts (Ren et al.,2003). Since project participants are becoming more aware of the high costs and risks associated with conflicts and their litigation. As the costs of dealing with them often is greater than the cost of dealing with the problems when they first arise. Therefore, it is important for all participants in the project to be committed to solving problems as they crop up. The figure below shows the “Escalating Nature of Problems”

Mr. Porntanat Kongsrisawat made a case study to emphasize potential problems which are engendered from the construction contract and claim identification process. Problem areas in the construction contract are multiple prime contracts.

Multiple Prime Contracts

Generally, multiple prime contracts, the owner contracts directly with the several major specialized trades’ contractors. Typically, multiple prime contracts consist of general construction, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning), plumbing, electrical, site work, and any special construction as shown figure below. 

Bramble et al. (1990) states that many industry commentators have bemoaned the problems of multiple prime contracts. Problems may arise from multiple prime contracts as the responsibility for coordinating among them usually falls upon the owner. As a result, the separate prime contractors have to coordinate among themselves that no one contractor has contractual authority or economic power to necessitate the other contractors to carry out in a certain manner. Another problem is the lines of responsibilities and accountability under multiple contracts is less clear than a single contract system. So, one party may exceed the bounds of its responsibilities and infringe upon the other’s responsibilities. On the other hand, some tasks may not be carried out by any party as a failure to fulfill the contractual responsibilities. Such a problem can be led to an interference claim.

The problem as “Difficulties in detecting any problems during the work due to high workload” is very interesting as any problems are seedbed that can lead to claim. If we can identify the problems then the next process of claim management can be performed with the right manner. In addition, it is very important for detecting problems as we can provide in all fairness to the party who suffered from such problems.

In order to clearly identify the scope of work and responsibilities of many contractors in relation to each other, the objectives of Mr. Kongsrisawat’s research were to: (i) explore and investigate interface problems that lead to conflict issues during construction phase among multiple prime contractors; (ii) investigate the existing practices according to the interface management that lead to conflicts among multiple prime contractors in accordance with the first objective; and (iii) propose recommended practices of proper coordination to prevent problems among multiple prime contractors.

Conclusion

Coordination in construction phase which leads to make efficient flow of working among multiple prime contractors is the main aim of this research. To achieve this aim, this research was conducted to achieve these three main objectives: (1) To explore and investigate interface problems that lead to conflict issues among multiple prime contractors involved in high-rise building construction; (2) To investigate the existing practices according to the interface management that lead to conflicts among multiple prime contractors on the construction site; and (3) To propose recommended practices of proper coordination to prevent problems among multiple prime contractors in construction project.

The research began by literature review to investigate the interface description and coordination task. The problems among multiple prime contractors in construction phase were verified by gathering data from the construction site in Thailand construction to fulfill the first objective. Continuing, the researcher investigate the existing process of management related with 4 main category of work; planning/ scheduling, coordination, controlling, and procurement that lead to problems.

Research Findings

1.  Key Personnel Job Responsibility in Construction Phase in High-Rise Building

Project

The first objective of this research found the key functional responsibility of the owner, construction manager, project manager, project engineer, and senior site engineer. It would be useful for them to avoid overlapping of responsibility during construction phase as there are a lot of activities for performing. The personnel responsibility has been arranged into the 5 main category of work which including planning/ scheduling, controlling, procurement, coordination, and law. Besides, this study is also concentrate on problems that arise during construction phase which has impact on time, cost, and quality of the project. After getting all activities in each category of work as in the first part, the table of personnel responsibility by interview is fulfilled all activities and who to responsible for them.

2. Recommendations for Proper Coordination to Prevent Problems among Multiple Prime Contractors

Coordination of drawings and specifications are considered as the most priority during management in construction enterprise as it provides the smooth in process of working among multiple prime contractors. In order to accomplish the project on-time within budget, all obstructs need to be eliminated, reduced, or controlled. Recommendations for making effective and proper coordinate are the last part of thesis findings, and they were summarized in table below.

3.  Summary of Recommendations for making proper coordination among multiple prime contractors is tabled below.

  

His thesis abstract is copied and pasted below.

Abstract

The characteristics of construction projects are always multidisciplinary, large, and required many different parties to participate during execution period. During certain stages, some phases may very often be undertaken simultaneously, requiring major efforts in terms of the coordination and communication between the participants. However, the principal person charged with coordination in construction projects delivered through construction management is the construction manager (CM).

However, some of the disruptions that might be occurred during execution stage, especially conflicts among the participants are originated from the contractual arrangement. The type of contract that generates problems and lead to conflicts is multiple prime contracts which highly been applied by the employer nowadays as it provides lower cost to the employer when compare with another type of contract, single contract. The multiple prime contracts, the owner will contract directly to prime contractor, including General Contractors (structural and architectural works), M/E Contractor (sanitary system, electrical system, air-conditioning system works), Finishing Contractor, Aluminum Contractor, and Interior Contractor. According to the schedule of the project, some works they have to perform work together at the same time which work of one prime contractor can affect to another prime contractor. As a result, those problems will effect to the project in term of time, cost, and quality. To prevent or reduce problems among multiple prime contractors, the employer and employer’s representative must play a significant role in managing them.

From the research, to avoid problems that can lead to conflicts in the construction project among the participants, especially the employer, employer’s representative, and prime contractors, they have to concern the source problems areas. The origin of problems that they have to concern is drawings and specifications, coordination with related parties, and material and equipment.

Defect Cost Reduction in High-Rise Building Projects in Bangkok by Using Value Engineering Concept

Normally, owners of high-rise building projects in Thailand desire to see their projects finish as fast as possible, within the budget, and achieve the expected quality. The project must be completed on time and meet the owners’ satisfaction, to avoid problems that stipulated in the contract signed by the owners to lenders and customers. From this condition, contractors need to compete with other companies as there are many contractors to choose from by the owners.

Therefore, contractors have to concern in reduction of project cost to gain more competitive advantage than other contractors. According to Jongcharoensub (2007), cost overrun is coming from quantity. On-site management cannot save cost or minimize cost overruns at the given progress. Thus, contractors need to emphasize on construction cost management. In addition, there are many techniques for managing the construction cost such as cost control system, value chain, value engineering, etc. There are contractors which loss their profit, or they cannot maintain their profit. Thus, it is quite difficult for them to improve their competitiveness.

Mw. Wattanachai Tanjedreu made a case study aimed to investigate the advantages of each construction method and techniques which are utilized in high-rise building projects. Furthermore, different method means different input of resources that affect to direct and indirect of the project costs and then affect to the construction firms. The purposes of his research were as follows:

1. To identify how value engineering could be applied in defect cost reduction

2. To investigate the procedure of value engineering applying in high-rise building project.

3. To propose recommendation of value engineering applying in defect cost reduction

Conclusion

Generally, the general contractor is having high or low profit from the performance of the construction cost control. However, the contractor faces difficulties to control the operation cost due to many factors affecting the performance of the work such as labor skill and inappropriate method of statement and lack of experience of engineers. These are the causes of work defection in high rise building construction project which is the main causes to create additional operation cost from reworks.

From the conclusion of each case, the researcher found that some factors in the same phase are influencing in different way to the operation of that activity. Table below illustrates the influencing factors of each phases of value engineering on site operation.

Conclusion of study

 In the selection phase, observation is mostly used for observing the quality of work because the quality is the main issue creating defections of work which must be rework. After observation, record is necessary in order to know exactly about the detail of work. The Engineer has to record about the defect recognition to further clearly identify the defect on work. Finally, a good judgment must be used in order to predict the possibility if that activity will create further problem or will have poor value again.

In investigation phase, observation is used for monitoring working procedure or method of statement. After that, it is use for measuring the construction cost (labor and materials cost) and quality of work in order to know the performance of the work. Finally, record is used for recording the information of work in terms of time spent, labor usage, materials usage, and quality level from work. In addition, productivity and defects should be also recorded. 

In speculation phase, brainstorming is the core. The main objective of this is finding the alternatives. Thus, this phase needs all engineers in team to think of new idea for solving that problem of the project. The key person in brainstorming is project manager or project engineer because they have high work experience. They may see some solution before, or they may apply some method that appropriate to solve the problem. 

In evaluation phase, communication and discussion are using to point out the possible advantages and disadvantages of alternative from speculation phase for preparing information to make decision which method should be used. 

In development phase, discussion is used to make decision about the finding of advantages and disadvantages of alternative to correctly do the experiment from evaluation phase. After that, this information will be used for making decision to present the best alternative to project manager or site manager in order to make the last decision to choose the alternative to implement.

In presentation phase, the study team communicates to project manager or site manager about the advantages and disadvantages in all aspect that they studied. After that, project manager or site manager make decision to choose the best alternative for implementation. In addition, project manager or site manager should have a good judgment in order to select the best alternative not like alternative. 

In implementation phase, the responsible engineer needs to observe the way workers working to know that workers do follow the method that study team is using in development phase. Moreover, engineer has to observe quality of work reaching to satisfy level or still have defect. Then, engineer has to record the method of statement by writing, taking picture, or taking video to keep it as project database of which may be used in the future. Moreover, engineer has to record the productivity and cost information also in order to know the performance of work. And, the last one is record the defect of work to make sure that this method can reduce or remove the defect that they might face before in order to get more confidence about the alternative method to solve the problem. 

Recommendation for implementation 

The project team members should develop manual for studying onsite value engineering in order to give a direction when they found the problem giving poor value activity. They can use that manual as a guideline for solving the problem which may take less time than to study again from the beginning. Moreover, the studied team should teach knowledge that they have learned to other member in their company in order to reduce the operation cost of the company which will give more profit. To motivate engineer, the company should give recognition by promoting the engineer to higher position, or giving awards to engineer who develop value engineer onsite. 

His thesis abstract is copied and posted below. 

Abstract

 In order to reduce the operating cost, defect is the significant issue because it can cost more and more to project due to many influencing factors such as skill of worker. However, controlling of work defect is not too difficult, but it is not easy, also. To control the work defect efficiently, engineers should conduct tools for controlling and monitoring work method. This study was concerning in value engineering concept adapting to solve the defect in execution stage. This study was conducted to: 1) identify how value engineering could be applied in defect cost reduction, 2) investigate the procedure of value engineering applying in high-rise building project, and 3) propose recommendation of value engineering applying in defect cost reduction. The data was collected from high-rise building project at execution stage. Target of research is senior site engineers and site engineers. The findings were discussed, and the recommendations for improving construction method were propose in this study.

German education minister quits over PhD plagiarism

Germany's education minister has resigned after being stripped of her doctorate because of plagiarism, in the second such case to hit Angela Merkel's government in two years.

for complete news, please visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/09/german-education-minister-quits-phd-plagiarism

Project Schedule and Quality Planning and Control in Construction Management: A Case Study of the New Facility Development at Saigon High-tech Park – Jabil Vietnam

Vietnam is in the process of development to become an industrialized country. Development of large-scale industrial zones, infrastructure system, plants, ports, express highway system, elevated roads, and the like have contributed to the change of national economic face. Thus, organizing and managing construction works in projects increasingly become critical demand for recent years. Until now, satisfying criteria in project management in accordance with the requirements on management of human resources, cost, schedule, quality and scope of the project has large influence on the success of enterprise.

Many planning models to control the project have been applied to projects in the domain of construction in Vietnam and nations in the world. Setting project management plans based on general process started with analyzing task lists and integration process shall result in emulation on total period, resource and related costs required for project implementation and those shall support project managers and construction engineers to have a general and detailed view on work items. From that, further breakdown of work items per month, week, and day shall be established.

Implementing processes and methods to manage the project mean that we must have preventive plans against project problems. Preventing problems shall reduce the cost and is the optimal plan for a successful project executing process.           Mr. Pham Van Long made a case study which objectives were to: (i) study project planning for construction project schedule and quality; (ii) study project controlling strategy during the execution phases; (iii) identify lessons learn in project planning and control strategy; and (iv) develop a framework for project planning and control.

Conclusion:

Generally, this report gives a general vision on approaching, researching and exploring sequence steps in establishing planning of construction schedule, quality and human’s resources and resources of project before execution. These are four main factors which not only affect directly to all projects cost but also deciding project success.

Besides, this report also specifically presents controlling procedure that was done such as procedure of quality controlling, procedure of schedule controlling and procedures of checking, reporting project manpower and resources data.

Based on practical application in this case study, compared with theory research and from lesson, book as well as practical experience in execution, the author analyzed the strength and weakness during the course of process, scope of 02 main sections of the stated study model (quality and schedule), from that, it is easy to recognize score issues effect to quality and project schedule. Throughout this case study, we propose a solution to improve and develop strategy in the coming time and give a recommendation framework in making planning and control planning for enterprise so that it could be applied in bigger project in the future.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted below

Abstract

Since the 1990’s, construction companies and business organizations throughout the world have begun to focus on the process of creating quality products and satisfy requirements of the schedule progress of the construction project. During the course of establishing planning ,schedule, progress and quality have been set up by construction enterprises based on variation modulus, for example: applying MS project on monitoring schedule, primavera, excel and other means to control, monitor quality, cause and effect analysis, PDCA cycle, … The above-mentioned means help project management units easily analyze, control and follow up progress and project quality status, especially in construction field.

In large-scale companies, after many years implementing project, they have accumulated many database, important experiences to support them in the course of establishing schedule and quality plan as well as human resource in order that construction duration has executed quickly. Plans have been carried out based on company’s established procedures. Implementing plans included schedule, quality, human resource, cost and risk in construction project management.

This case study mainly focused on analyzing process of establishing plan and controlling plan of procedure, project quality in medium-size limited company in Vietnam. From applying practical construction experience together with operation procedure that built up by company, schedule and project quality were executed based on the following steps: Firstly: development construction process included: definite work scope of project, analyze activity list by WBS, standardize schedule. Secondly: creating schedule consisted: type of schedule, implementing work list, schedule activity duration, work activities relation, constrain and milestone. Thirdly: implementing and controlling schedule.

During the time of making and controlling quality, contractor executed based on 03 main steps that are establishing project quality plan, execution quality assurance and quality control.

In conclusion, this report after being finalized and completed shall be a significant proposal for improvement and development of enterprises, especially construction department. If this framework is applied successfully, it shall bring potential benefits for company in the future.

Happy Lunar New Year 2013

Owner Project Management Approach for Quality Performance of a School Project

Construction is one of the most complex industries due to its heavy influence in lots of elements and involvement with many parties such as the Owner, the Consultant, and the Contractor etc.. This leads to the difficulty in managing the quality of product in construction. Since clients are becoming more and more demanding on the product quality, construction companies in this high competitive market are now striving to improve the quality management aspect as much as possible.  There is no doubt that apart from the traditional relationship, quality has become one of the key factors in the survival and success of construction companies.

In Viet Nam nowadays, there are many issues related to the quality of construction project. Therefore, one being able build a quality management system for a particular project will certainly gain a competitive advantage over the competitors and meet the client’s expectation accordingly.

Recently, there have been a lot of foreigner investors come to Vietnam and invested in the development of international schools with high quality facilities to attract potential parents and satisfy their expectation. Unfortunately in some cases, the investors cannot get what quality they were guaranteed due to the following problems:

 1. Project delayed

2. Poor coordination between Contractor and Sub-contractors

3. Miscommunication among participants’ parties

4. Poor management in terms of scheduling, planning, controlling, etc.

5. Low quality in finishing work.

Mr. Nguyen An Vi Nghia made a case study which objectives were to: (i) study owner project management for managing quality performance starting from design, construction and handover; (ii) discuss strengths and weaknesses; (iii) propose recommendations; (iv) highlight lessons learnt; and (v) develop a Quality Management System framework.

 

Conclusion

The following conclusions were drawn after accomplishing the objectives:

 

Objective 1: The purpose of this study is considered and analysed the way the owner managed the quality performance of school project from the design stage to handover construction stage. The author found out that the way the owner managed the quality of project was not good enough, and there were many serious problems remained.

Objective 2: Strengths and weaknesses

Some major strengths of project were identified such as:

1. Standardized information by owner such as colour, size of function rooms, furniture arrangement, design brief, draft design, etc.

2. Owner has the technical team, who able to support with the design and construction work.

3. The school is a simple building for construction.

4. The owner is an expert in school operation and they have run many schools before.

However, some major weaknesses and sources of the problems were also identified such as:

1. The owner’s requirements and expectation were unclear from the beginning. Owner was the source of problem

2. The designer did not conduct a land survey before designing. Designer was the source of problem

3. Tender document was insufficient and inconsistent. Owner, designer and appraiser was the source of problem

4. Project members did not know clearly about the project’s objectives. Owner was the source of problem

5. Unrealistic schedule. Owner was the source of problem

6. Unclear responsibilities and scope of works in the contract. Owner was the source of problem

7. Owner did not test and commission before signing off the handover letter. Owner was the source of problem

8. Owner did not prepare any form or check list for inspection. Owner was the source of problem.

Objective 3: Recommendations

In order to solve and to prevent the problems, the author proposed the following:

1. The owner needs to provide clear requirements and expectation in the beginning of each step

2. The owner needs to request designers to go to the land site to study the land condition and the design should be suitable with land condition.

3. The owner should provide sufficient tender document for bidding and make sure that the contractor’s proposals followed the template. By this way, it will be easier for the owner to compare “Apple to Apple”.

4. Before the start of the construction, the owner should organize the meeting to brief all project members about project’s goal and their expectation for the project

5. The owner needs to have a good master schedule to ensure that the construction work has sufficient time for proper construction. They need to recognize that “if we have unrealistic time, we will not have good quality product.

6. Besides providing clear requirements and expectation, the owner also needs to write down clearly the responsibility and scope of works of other parties related to project.

7. The owner needs to conduct the testing and commissioning of the whole school before signing off the handover letter. For efficiency of the testing and commissioning step, the owner needs to appoint people who have fully knowledge for testing and commissioning parts.

8. To save the inspection time and more efficiency inspection, the owner needs to prepare the check list and tools related to the work they want to inspect.

Objective iv: Highlight Lessons learned

 

Below are some of the works owner needs to prevent and some works they need to maintain and improve:

1. Prevent changes.

2. Prevent contractor to construct the work without site engineer’s supervision

3. Prevent construction’s finishing stage in rainy season.

4. Prevent or reduce the construction works during studying time.

5. Prevent unrealistic duration for construction fixed by owner.

6. Provide the design brief and draft design as requirements of project’s concept design.

7. Provide the furniture manual is required for project’s concept design. The owner hired a professional foreign consultant company for concept design and hired a local consultant company for basic and detailed design. This was a good idea since it saved the design cost. However, the owner needs to manage their communication with each other and control them accordingly.

8. The owner in-house project team was appointed as the project management team. However, the allocation of team members should be more sufficient since the personnel are trained properly to manage the construction project.

 

Objective v: Develop a quality management system framework

 

The owner can use that QMSF for their future projects in term quality approaching. After studying the above factors, the author found that the problems related to communication, unclear requirements and unreasonable schedule were the most common problems occurred in school project. And that was also the main caused for project delayed and not good quality as well.

 

To support the theories in this study, the Quality Management in Construction Project eBook was the main source for theoretical and management tool to manage the quality in construction.

 

Besides some studies as mentioned above, the report still has some limited and did not study clearly the following parts:

1. Financial source is the most important for construction project and it affects directly to the quality of product.

2. How to manage the contractor and sub-contractors in term of quality

3. How to manage the quality of work in construction site

4. The applicability of the proposed solution in reality.

5. Managing the contract in terms of consultant and construction

6. The situation of this study is from the owner’s view. Thus, the study just studies some factors related to the owner’s view only.

 

Recommendations

 

In general, to prevent problems occurred; the owner should follow some recommendation as blow:

1. More careful in feasibility study

2. Clear requirements from initial step of project.

3. Clear consultant’s responsibilities and write down clearly their scope of works into the contract.

4. Get user involves in the beginning of project to prevent the changes and not usage. It is a waste of time and money.

5. The owner is developing more and more school projects. Thus, they should standardize all school facilities, brand and design requirements from the design step to handover step so that the quality of school project will be getting better and better.

6. Try to manage the time schedule and plans to avoid the unreasonable time schedule. It is one of the major factors that affect the quality of project.

7. Applying the tools to measure the quality of product.

Design process

1. Applying quality management system framework

2. Applying QA/QC for design process

3. In the tender requirement, the owner needs to specify that the contractors’ proposals must follow exactly 100% of the owner’s BOQ (including format, content and specification). In case the contractor has some comments or further proposals, they should put it in an appendix of proposal. The BOQ’s specification needs to specify the materials, brands and sources of equipments. To study the contractors’ proposals, the owner needs to have professional people who have fully knowledge to check and compare the contractors’ proposals and make sure the comparison is “Apple to Apple”.

 

Construction process

1. Applying Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS) for quality assessment.

2. Using QA/QC for construction process

3. Using some tool to measure quality as CONQUAS

4. Preparing and using check list for construction inspection.

5. Nowadays, almost people prefer has good quality for their project and they have recognized that high quality and more investment will go together. Thus, CONQUAS method will be used more in the future, because it is very useful for quality assessment. Regarding to some of recommendation for construction process, I would like to recommend that owner should use Quality Management System Framework as proposed in Chapter 3 (please refer 3.8 of Chapter 3) for whole project as standardize and consistent for their school system overall of the world. Besides, Owner applies CONQUAS method for quality assessment

Abstract

In construction project, the scenario of each project is not the same. Only if small thing goes wrong in construction phase, nonconforming work is very difficult for us to repair or take remedial action and in some cases it is impossible to get fixed. Furthermore, quality management is affected by many elements such as manpower, technique, unforeseen weather etc. Therefore, construction phase is very difficult to determine the expected quality.

Besides, scope of the work, cost and time of delivery are also important characteristics of quality. Quality in construction project is not only the quality of product, technique and equipment used in construction but the total management approach from the beginning of project to completion stage. The quality of construction depends mainly upon the control and monitor of construction, which are the primary responsibilities of the contractor.

This report has been analysed based on a real school project in Viet Nam and discussed clearly about project performance from the beginning step to the very end. And then, it also proposes solutions on how to get better performance for any cases especially school project.

Regarding to the practice process, the report has also built the quality management system framework to serve as a management model for developing school projects in Viet Nam.