How Can Digital Quality Management Platforms Help to Identify and Address Quality Issues in Construction Industry

Some of the common causes for quality issues include:

• Frequent Changes to Scope: It is quite common for the scope of a construction project to keep changing, and this phenomenon is called scope creep. These changes could happen because the customer wants to add some elements or remove some to contain costs and time delays. Too many variations entering the picture will affect budgets, time frames, and quality.
• Poor Documentation of Changes: When changes are introduced, they need to be documented, reviewed, and approved by the various stakeholders involved in the project before they are accepted and finalized. However, in the absence of a system, this can become challenging, and there may be gaps that affect the quality of the project.
• Change Management: When a change is introduced, suppliers, masons, designers, and so on must be made aware of the changes. The implications of the change introduced must be analyzed and suitable changes made to other aspects based on how it will affect construction quality. Verification and validation of changes are critical aspects of introducing changes to a construction project.
• Quality of Materials and Processes: The quality of the materials used will impact the life of the building. Similarly, the construction process involves several steps, such as building, curing, etc., and can be affected if too much or too little water or sand is used. Identifying reliable and reputable suppliers and ensuring the quality of the materials procured is a key aspect of quality management.
• Supply Issues: The construction industry relies heavily on various supplies such as timber, sand, cement, bricks, etc. Their supply can be affected for various reasons, affecting timelines, budgets, and quality of construction. Having a ready list of authorized suppliers becomes critical to managing such supply issues.
• Subcontractor Management: The construction industry relies heavily on contract workers. Contractors may subcontract to other suppliers of workers, and there can be a lack of control over the quality of the people working at the construction site. They may have experience but no training or awareness of quality and safety issues. Auditing subcontractors is crucial to avoid mishaps and identify and mitigate issues early.

These are but the tip of the iceberg. Manual process management can be challenging and make it difficult to ensure the quality and safety of the project. Using the right quality management solution will help improve process efficiency, quality of construction, timeliness, and cost management.

Improving Construction Quality Management with Digital Platforms

Digitalizing quality management on a single platform facilitates a centralized view of all processes, increasing transparency and ensuring all stakeholders have a unified view. It also provides an audit trail of all changes to let everybody know what new changes were introduced, when, by whom, and whether they were approved or not.

Some of the key benefits of a digital quality management platform for construction projects include:

• Defining Quality Requirements: The first and foremost requirement of quality management in the construction industry is defining quality requirements and specifications for every process and sharing them with the relevant stakeholders. This ensures active participation even at the worker level in the quality process, with tools to report any deviations.
• Gap Analysis and Training: The next step is to analyze the existing capabilities, identify gaps, and provide the required training to fulfill those gaps. As the standards evolve, new members are added, or existing ones take on new roles, they must be provided with appropriate training to ensure they have the right skills and understanding of the quality requirements.
• Change Management: Any change introduced is alerted to all stakeholders, enabling them to review and approve the change and make appropriate changes to their processes once all have accepted it. This minimizes confusion, rework, and delays at a later stage.
• Audits and Inspections: Periodic audits and inspections are critical to ensuring the processes and materials comply with the required standards. Any nonconformance or deviation must be reported and corrected in a timely manner.
• Continuous Improvement: Using past and current data, management can identify trends and initiate preventive action for continuous improvement. This will help constantly reduce the risks to construction projects and lead to improvement in quality, customer satisfaction, and efficiencies.
• Improved Communication: A unified platform enables multiple teams to communicate and collaborate more easily. This enhances quality control and prevents miscommunications at the root of more quality issues. Sharing documents, reviews, and approvals also become easier and more efficient.

A cloud-based solution such as ComplianceQuest is scalable and flexible, aligned with ISO standards that help improve compliance and take a risk-based approach to quality control of construction projects. To know more, visit www.compliancequest.com.