Int. J. Productivity and Quality Management, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2014
Review of quality management system research in construction industry Tiong Kung Leong* and Norhayati Zakuan Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Fax: +(6)07-5566911 E-mail:
[email protected] E-mail:
[email protected] *Corresponding author
Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Fax: +(6)07-5566159 E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: This paper explores the role of quality management system (QMS), such as ISO 9000, and total quality management, and their approaches in construction industry. The aim is to determine if these systems have the potential to generate new knowledge for improving quality management practices and outcomes in construction projects. This paper reviews all the prior literatures relevant to QMS in construction industry. The findings and conclusions obtained are sorted out into different categories to develop the framework of the paper. To date, very few researches have been performed on the areas, such as project management, ‘hard’ and ‘soft quality practice, technical and non-technical approaches, project performance, and system maintenance which come under the purview of the QMS in construction industry. The findings can help researchers doing QMS studies in construction industry to bestow new knowledge in the academia. It also provides useful implications for industry practitioners to determine their strengths and weaknesses and the area of improvement in their current system or practices. Keywords: quality management system; QMS; construction; integrated systems; project management; ISO 9000; quality practices; total quality management; TQM; maintenance; technical; non-technical. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Leong, T.K., Zakuan, N. and Saman, M.Z.M. (2014) ‘Review of quality management system research in construction industry’, Int. J. Productivity and Quality Management, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.105–123. Biographical notes: Tiong Kung Leong is a PhD student of Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He completed his MBA (Business Economic) in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He has few years of working experience as a Senior Engineer in construction industry. Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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T.K. Leong et al. Norhayati Zakuan is a Senior Lecturer of Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Her PhD was entitled ‘Structural analysis of total quality management, ISO/TS16949 and organisational performance in Malaysian and Thailand automotive industry’. She is the project leader and also main supervisor of Tiong’s PhD research under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS). Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman is an Associate Professor of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He completed his PhD entitled ‘Methodology design for end of life value in automotive engineering’. He has 20 years experience in education industry. He also has more than 70 publications in international journals and conferences. He is the co-supervisor of Tiong’s PhD research.
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Introduction
Quality management system (QMS) has been widely implemented and adopted in the construction industry, especially by companies capable handling mega-projects. Although uncountable researches have been carried out to study the role of QMS in various industries (e.g., manufacturing, food, service, etc.) but there is lack of relevant studies for the role of QMS in construction industry. This is because researchers are more interested to look into the quality and costing of projects rather than QMS (Soetanto et al., 2001; Xiao and Proverbs, 2002; Kam and Tang, 1997). Those studies based on QMS in construction industry are compared using international parameters for ascertaining the construction quality. Comparisons are conducted among different developed countries, such as the USA, UK and Japan (Xiao and Proverbs, 2002) and between Singapore and Hong Kong (Kam and Tang, 1997). Some robust benchmarks have been generated through these attempts in order to improve the competitiveness of the professionals from various countries. However, some studies have examined the effects and benefits of implementing QMS in construction industry. Some evidences show that implementing QMS had improved communication problems, minimised mistakes, reduced rework and wastage of materials, and exercised better control on sub-contractors and suppliers. Thus, the productivity, profitability, and market share gradually increased which enabled contractors to meet clients’ requirements (Motwani and Kumar, 1996). Besides, a study by Water (2000) aimed at designing a model for maintaining the processes of QMS in construction industry because it has been suggested as an essential activity for every organisation. Earlier, maintenance concepts were linked with concepts of the quality management matrix to define the maintenance of quality management (Blanchard, 1986; Gits, 1984; Peraza, 1995). Nonetheless, most of the studies on QMS are not only done specifically to examine the objectives of the construction industry, but their scope also includes exploring numerous industries for comparison purpose. For example, recent studies by Kim et al. (2011) indentified ten critical success factors for QMS implementation after reviewing 100 studies from different industrial backgrounds. Furthermore, some researchers have also emphasised the relationship of QMS with organisational and business performances (Martinez-Costa et al., 2009) instead of project performances
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(Choi and Chin, 2001; Sharma and Gadenne, 2002). Some studies have also indicated that the implementation of ISO 9000 can benefit organisations by improving their production performance and quality awareness of their employees in diverse industries (Mo and Chan, 1997; Parsa and Keivani, 1997; Thelen, 1997; Endrijonas, 1994; Gader et al., 2009). Many studies have indicated that some organisations have received quality benefits and also increased productivity after the QMS implementation, but significant differences have still been found across industries and organisations (Choi and Chin, 2001; Jayaram et al., 2010). Furthermore, differences in quality management effectiveness are found among the East Asian countries in a study. The findings show that specific cultural dimensions in different countries are statistically related to quality management effectiveness (Kull and Wacker, 2010). Therefore, some researchers are keen on conducting comparative studies within the construction industry in a country rather than on diverse industries or in various countries.
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QMS in construction industry
Towards the end of 1990s, ISO 9000 was adopted all over the world by the construction community as a quality policy (Moatazed-Keivani et al., 1999; Barad and Raz, 2000; Chan and Tam, 2000; Hiyassat, 2000; Landin, 2000; Choi and Chin, 2001). Consequently, ISO 9000 has gradually become the most famous QMS in construction industry in the recent past, in comparison to other types of quality practices to improve quality performance of the organisation. Initially, quality performance was measured in the manufacturing industry in order to enhance the quality control of manufactured products and services. However, the scope of quality management has been expanded to include all levels of business activities and it is known as total quality management (TQM) (Lee et al., 2011). However, a study by Lau and Tang (2009) shows that contractors in Hong Kong construction industry are less familiar with TQM (Lau and Tang, 2009). Sharma and Gadenne (2002) indicated that only three factors out of 11 factors in TQM are significantly correlated the with firm’s performance (Sharma and Gadenne, 2002). Furthermore, another study by Curkovic et al. (2000) argued that TQM can have either no effect or negative effects on the firm’s performance (Curkovic et al., 2000). In spite of this, TQM has been increasingly introduced into the construction industry in order to improve the project performance (European Construction Institute, 1996; Arditi and Gunaydin, 1997; Egan, 1998; Mclintyre and Kirschenman, 2000; Forbes, 2002) and achieve same results as in manufacturing industry. A study by Rounds and Chi (1984) suggests that implementation of TQM concept will result in higher quality, lower costs, and increased productivity in the construction industry. Some researchers further indicate that TQM has been recognised as a successful management philosophy that can be implemented successfully in the construction industry (Elghamrawy and Shibayama, 2007). According to some studies, the main factors for the successful introduction of TQM are customer focus, measurement and improvement, total involvement, leadership, training, empowerment, teamwork, motivation, systems/processes approach, and culture change (European Construction Institute, 1996; Tam and Hui, 1996; Arditi and
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Gunaydin, 1997; Carr et al., 1999; Chin and Choi, 2003; Emison, 2004; Low and Teo, 2004). Additionally, there are many organisations in the construction industry, which have implemented the new QMS after standardising the concepts of ISO 9000 factors (Chin and Choi, 2003; Chini and Valdez, 2003; Gu and Zhou, 2002). Research findings in China reveal that most construction firms prefer ‘TQM integrated with ISO 9000’ in order to achieve effective implementation and continuous improvement in quality management (Zeng, 2003).
2.1 Integration of ISO 9000 with other management system The construction community also tries to integrate other concepts in QMS in order to raise productivity and quality standards in construction projects. The case study of a private condominium project argues that buildability concepts can be integrated within ISO 9000’s QMS, which are normally considered separately by many consulting and construction organisations (Low and Abeyegoonasekera, 2001). Besides, a study also examined the compatibility of integration between 9001: 2000 QMS with ISO 14001: 1996 (Low and Tan, 2005). As per the study, although there would be some implementation and potential problems, yet the integration is still practically possible in construction industry. In addition, the relevance of safety elements and quality requirements has been studied by interviewing quality managers and safety managers in construction companies. The findings show similarities between QMS and safety management system (SMS). The study also indicates the possibility of integrating these two systems in order to have better project performance by improving coordination and utilisation of scarce resources (Low and Shiua, 2000). Through continued research, a computer-based system for construction quality management has been introduced, which is integrated with the elements of ISO 9001. It is designed to be compatible with other computer-aided project management functions. The purpose of the integration is to the improve overall quality performance in construction projects (Battikha, 2002) regardless of contractor’s or consultancy firm.
2.2 QMS in ECC Engineering consultancy companies (ECC) play an important role in construction industry because they assist in designing the initial and critical stages of project management. Therefore, it is crucial to implement QMS in ECC besides contractor companies, so that the quality of projects and organisational performance can improve concurrently. In spite of this, the suitability of ISO 9000 implementation has been assessed in an intensive study conducted for certified ECC in Hong Kong (Tang and Kam, 1999). The study intends to find out the initial motivation of these companies to get ISO 9000 certification, to evaluate their experience and problems while developing ISO 9000, and to collect their opinions about the maintenance of QMS. The results show that the requirements of ISO 9000 are not fully understood by the staff of ECC that mostly poses as a significant problem.
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Hence, retention of quality staff has been agreed as the best way to maintain QMS. The survey also found that ‘the company’s enhanced quality image’ has become a significant benefit for ECC after ISO 9000 implementation so that they can get more projects in the competitive market (Tang and Kam, 1999). According to a study in Middle East (Ezeldin and Abu-Ghazala, 2007), the implementation of QMS has successfully improved the efficiency of the designs and the production process distributions of design consultants. Conversely, the results of a research in Hong Kong imply that the improvements in quality performance of engineering consultants after getting ISO 9000 certification are generally lower than the expectation of clients (Ng, 2005). Nevertheless, effectiveness of ISO 9000 in ECC does not have any general conclusion because limited researches have been carried out on it, especially in Malaysia.
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Research objectives and methodology
This research is conducted in three major parts. First, all the QMS theories which have been applied and practicing in construction industry are reviewed. Then those QMS theories are used as based theories of framework to do thorough review on previous literature relevant to QMS in construction industry. In second part, those similar studies in literature have been categorised and sorted in order to compare and determine the linkage towards QMS in construction industry. Subsequently, the findings are listed to develop the framework of the research. In third part, all the QMS researches in Malaysian construction industry are reviewed to compare the current theories and practices in Malaysia with the whole construction industry over the world. The main objective of this research is to determine the gap in current theories and practices, then list out the potential of generating new knowledge to improve quality management practices and outcomes in construction projects. Moreover, the findings of this research will contribute to new research area for the QMS studies in Malaysian construction industry.
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Classification criteria for literature review on QMS in construction industry
From the literature reviews, there are few major type of QMS have been studied and discussed including ISO 9000, TQM, Kaizen and business process reengineering (BPR). Those researches have been classified into seven groups by the following criteria (see Figure 1): a
research objectives
b
scope of research
c
target groups of research
d
fundamental theories.
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Figure 1
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Overview of QMS research in construction industry
Overview of QMS research in construction industry
QMS has been applied in construction industry with the same concept but with a different approach in comparison to other industries. Although there is no standard definition of QMS but it generally refers to “all kind of activities concerned with management functions that determine the quality policy, objectives and responsibilities along with implementing them by means of quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement within the quality system” (Malaysia, 1994). There are several types of QMS in used in construction industry. These include the famous ISO 9000 quality standard, TQM, and Kaizen and BPR. A study by Landin (2000) indicates that the construction industry is still lagging behind in implementing the modern quality practices. Therefore, implementing a QMS for many construction companies still become an endeavour in the last two decades (Cachadinha, 2009). Some studies have identified numerous obstacles in implementing ISO 9000 in construction industry (Low and Goh, 1994; Yusoff et al., 1994; Oakland and Aldridge, 1995; McCabe, 1996; Low and Omar, 1997a; Giles, 1997; Abdulaziz and Tawfiq, 1999;
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Ashrafi, 2008; Rezaei et al., 2011; Senaratne and Jayarathna, 2012). Those obstacles include: 1
peoples’ resistance in adapting themselves to the modernised process of QMS
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wrong perception of people due to their lack of understanding about the ISO 9000 quality system
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some companies perceive quality as secondary to their business
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involvement of extra cost
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loss of productivity at site while learning and also in the implementation stage
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people have a perception that implementation of ISO 9000 is difficult in the construction industry.
Although there are various obstacles of ISO 9000 that affect its implementation and acceptance in US construction industry, it has been referred to as an appropriate and effective tool for construction companies to improve their internal management systems (Chini and Valdez, 2003). Besides, a lot of researches have been carried out to explore the value and benefits of ISO 9000 in construction industry (Al-Khalifa et al., 2008; Taş and Yildirim, 2011; Din et al., 2011; Ali and Rahmat, 2010). According to a study by Low and Lim (2000), construction companies in Singapore are greatly benefited by the implementation of ISO 9000. They are now capable of meeting customer requirements, with improved communication between their construction site and main office. They have managed to implement other types of QMS such TQM, have better quality of workmanship, and finally with the reduced cost of operation, they have gained a competitive edge over their competitors, that has helped to improve their employees’ morale (Low and Lim, 2000). Moreover, a study by Palaneeswaran et al. (2006) indicate that the implementation of ISO 9000 benefits the construction industry in general. According to the consolidated observations from the client’s project supervisory staff in that study, the implementation of ISO 9000 improves the overall quality projects as well as materials (Palaneeswaran et al., 2006). However, the benefits of implementing QMS can vary in different companies because the efficiency and effectiveness cannot be the same. The efficiency and effectiveness are depend on the quality objectives set and the level of commitment to achieve business excellence (Poksinska, 2010). There are many studies, which reveal that some companies can improve rapidly after ISO 9000 implementation while some companies cannot achieve the same kind of improvement (Karim et al., 2005; Seymour and Low, 1990; Low, 1993; Anonymous, 1994; Brown and Wiele, 1996; Shammas-Toma et al., 1996; Seymour, 1997; Anderson et al., 1999; Moatazed-Keivani et al., 1999). Some researchers have associated ISO 9000 with various advantages and positive changes in the construction organisation’s internal procedures (Kubal, 1994). But some researchers argue that neither ISO9000 is applied directly to the construction industry nor it is associated with a substantial improvement in the delivery of construction product (Aniftos, 1996). Moreover, some research papers also indicate that it has been very difficult to convert the principles of QMS used in manufacturing to construction (Sullivan, 2011). On the other hand, there are many construction companies in Hong Kong which have obtained ISO 9000 certification standards due to initiatives from their
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government (Ahmed et al., 2005). On the contrary, some of the US construction companies did not realise the necessity of ISO 9000 and thus, failed to obtain it (Ahmed et al., 2005). Some studies have now begun to find out the effectiveness of QMS in the construction industry. A study by Low and Alfelor (2000) suggested that cross-cultural influences can have significant impacts on the effectiveness of QMS in international construction projects. Another research have indicated that an alternative better method for improving the effectiveness of QMS implementation is to quantify the quality improvement, but most companies use different tools for quality measurements, which are mainly used for monitoring and recording purposes only (Ahmed et al., 2005). In addition, a study indicated that the quality of construction projects can be referred to as the fulfilment of expectation or satisfaction of the participants involved besides the success of the project (Sanvido et al., 1992; Barrett, 2000). Nevertheless, the ISO accreditation never guarantees that construction companies will have better performance though it is usually deemed to be an indicator of quality performance. But in general, ISO 9000 certified companies are perceived as high quality performers. Therefore, ISO 9000 certification has been listed as a pre-requirement for the open tender of some mega projects. A study suggested that the major intention of ISO certified companies of Hong Kong-based construction companies is to have better performance (Choi and Chin, 2001). For the successful implementation of ISO9000, the key factors can be enumerated as follows: 1
genuine commitment from the management (Ubani, 2011; Leonard, 2010)
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sufficient training of employees (Inn et al., 2010; Ubani, 2011; Marasini and Quinnell, 2011)
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efficient and effective team work
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internal audit on timely basis (Lee et al., 2011)
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maintaining the quality culture (Kuo and Kuo, 2010; Choi and Chin, 2001; Chin and Choi, 2003).
In case of Singapore construction industry, top management commitment and support have been found as the most important factors for ISO 9000 certification and maintenance (Low and Omar, 1997a). Some case studies suggested that QMS in construction industry, basically means maintaining the technical requirements set out in the ISO 9000 Standard while the non-technical or socio-cultural aspects, which helps in promoting an integrative environment were not emphasised (Low and Omar, 1997b). Nonetheless, limited research has been carried out on the non-technical or socio-cultural aspects in construction industry. On the other hand, there was a study, which mentioned internal audits as one of the important tools for monitoring the workmanship quality in the construction industry (Landin, 2000). Usually, in a contractors company, considerably expensive audits are conducted to evaluate the validity and effectiveness of QMS, keeping in mind the quality policies and goals of the company (Mills, 1993). Nonetheless, a contractor’s relative performance of QMS, against its competitors, cannot be quantified by audits. Audits can only be able to identify different kind of nonconformities after individual processes have been investigated in a system but it cannot measure the overall firm-wide performance
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(Lee et al., 2011). As a result, the construction community agrees that measuring the contractor’s quality performance by quantifying the customer satisfaction is important in QMS (Yasamis et al., 2002; Cheung et al., 2004). Some studies have been carried out to measure customer satisfaction in various industries included construction industry and the results show that ISO 9000 can significantly improve customer satisfaction (Al-Refaie et al., 2011). Besides, ISO 9000 is also significant for quality performances of any construction company, such as structure documentation procedures and better control, project cost cutting, reduction wastages of project, decreased reworks and diminished conflicts, claims and disputes (Dick, 2000; Leung et al., 1999; Lee, 1998; Chan and Chan, 1997; Tam, 1996; Dissanayaka et al., 2001; Low et al., 1999).
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QMS research in Malaysian construction industry
In year 1987, there are many local companies in Malaysia began to notice the importance of ISO 9000 Standard and implement it as the QMS after launching of ISO 9000 certification scheme by Standard And Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) in Malaysia. SIRIM has introduced MS ISO 9000 to Malaysia construction industry in the year 1993 (Mahmood and Mansor, 1996; Abdullah, 1996). There are total 680 organisations included public agencies, consultants in engineering field, main-contractors, sub-contractors, developers and property services companies had been certified in the end of October 1996 (Yeoh and Lee, 1996). The numbers of ISO 9000 certified companies keep increase up to 2425 companies in the year end of 2005 (Malaysia, 2005) and 532 companies out of the total numbers are in construction industry. In order to achieve the International Standards’ requirements, the ISO 9000 has become a standard guideline to follow so that can create a new quality system or innovate a system which is existed (Low and Omar, 1997a).
6.1 QMS and performance of construction companies Besides, a study by Lasserre and Probert (1994) found that quality expectations in Malaysia are generally better than other growing economies in Asia. Generally, Malaysian companies adopted QMS in order to improve their quality on products and services, so that can get higher performance to compete in current industries. Some significant findings show that ISO 9000 certifies a higher organisational performance in small and medium Malaysian enterprises (Sohail and Hoong, 2003). The relationship between ISO 9000 and the performance elements of construction project environments have been explored in Malaysian construction firms. The results showed significant differences in enhanced levels of performance in project environment, in the ISO 9000 certified construction companies than the non-certified construction companies (Din et al., 2011). A study tried to describe the ISO 9000 QMS concept and its application in the construction industry (Mohammed and Abdullah, 2006) but it was not explained on how QMS is going to improve project performance. From literature reviews conducted by researchers, it becomes an evident showing that till date no research work on QMS exclusively focussed on the relationship between project performance and ISO 9000 (Din et al., 2011).
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However, some studies on Malaysian construction companies found that, most of the contractors were able to improve their project productivity, which enhanced the business competitiveness after implementing ISO 9000 QMS. The contractors also agreed that implementing ISO 9000 considerably reduced the construction material wastage and completed the projects on time. The significant areas of improvement in project management also included storage and traceability of project records, better organised and systematic submission of variation order (VO), better organised test and inspection at site, and the overall improvement of site management (Zin et al., 2009). Most of the above studies suggested that ISO 9000 is effective in improving project performance. Besides controlling on construction material wastage, number of days delayed for the accomplishment of project works usually becomes the indicator of project performance in construction project management. The delay has become a very common problem for Malaysian construction industry. About 17.3% of 417 government contract projects in Malaysia were considered sick, delayed by more than three months or were abandoned in the year 2005 (Sambasivan and Soon, 2007). Therefore, many researchers in Malaysia intended to identify the factors that delay the construction projects. Ten important factors were identified in a study that were directly or indirectly related with improper QMS. Some of the factors included 1
contractor’s poor site management ability
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inadequate contractor experience
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lack of equipment availability
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lack of communication between parties
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mistakes during the construction stage (Sambasivan and Soon, 2007).
Besides, findings from another study also revealed that the delay in Malaysian construction projects were due to poor site management and inefficiency of sub-contractors, apart from financial and manpower problems (Abdul-Rahman et al., 2006). Furthermore, a study by Alaghbari et al. (2007) also considered poor coordination among employees in an organisation as the second most important factor causing delay in construction projects in Malaysian construction projects (Alaghbari et al., 2007). In such companies, poor site management or poor coordination can be related to poor QMS. Therefore, an effective QMS plays a crucial role in construction project management.
6.2 Effects, effectiveness and benefits of QMS implementation Looking at the results of the above studies, it can be considered that, an effective implementation of ISO 9000 is very important as it can effectively handle critical issues, which can benefit the entire organisation by improving the management control (Lee, 1998; Carlsson and Carlsson, 1996), efficiency (Ebrahimpour et al., 1997), productivity (Terziovski et al., 2003; Huarng et al., 1999) and customer services (Yeung et al., 2003). Most of the researches intended to focus on the applicability of ISO 9000, its benefits and obstacles, along with its implementation (Mohammed and
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Abdullah, 2006). The results obtained from a study, which examined the benefits of implementing ISO 9000 standard in Malaysian construction companies clearly supported the findings of previous studies (Ali and Rahmat, 2010). Nevertheless, the effectiveness of ISO 9000 post implementation depends highly on the maintenance or post-certification of QMS. The maintenance of ISO 9000 has been divided into two levels: a
the first level of maintenance means to strictly follow the requirements of the standard
b
the second level that has a deeper meaning than the first level is related to the embedding of principles that underpins the ISO 9000 standard (Wahid et al., 2011).
Some barriers, which affect the effectiveness of ISO 9000 in Malaysian construction industry includes misunderstanding the quality terminologies, the implementation of partial quality management in projects, and group dynamisms in a team (Abdul-Rahman, 1997). Although, there are many Malaysian construction organisations, which are certified to ISO 9000, but there are lack of research on how these organisation maintain the certification. However, a study in Malaysian service industry suggests that the firms will be able to get higher employee enthusiasm and commitment for the maintenance of ISO 9000 when these firms incorporate a higher level of human resource aspects, such as reward, recognition, and empowerment into the system, which have been emphasised in TAM (Wahid et al., 2011).
6.3 TQM and ‘soft’ quality practices Some of the contractors in Malaysia have tried to implement TQM in their projects. Although there is an increased acceptance of TQM as a quality management philosophy to improve the effectiveness of an organisation, but the development of empirical research on TQM still lags far behind (Thiagaragan et al., 2001) especially in construction industry. TQM consists of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ factors while ISO 9000 consists more of ‘hard’ practices. There is a study which showed that high performing organisations concentrate more on ‘soft’ quality practices so as to remove the barriers between departments and its continuous improvement, while the low performing organisations usually focus more on ‘hard’ practices such as to get ISO 9000 certification and benchmarking (Terziovski, 1998). Therefore, some respondents in a study believed that “ISO 9000 integrated with TQM to combine hard and soft practices” is the best way for quality management in Chinese construction industry (Zeng et al., 2005). In addition, non-technical approach has been suggested to maintain an effective QMS in construction industry (Low and Omar, 1997a). There are some similarities between non-technical approaches and ‘soft’ quality practices. The main purpose of the non-technical approach is to achieve the primary objective of quality improvement by the development of change and innovation and form an integrative environment. Indeed, very little research is available on ‘soft’ quality practices or non-technical approach in Malaysia construction industry and also its relationship with ISO 9000.
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6.4 Gap of QMS researches in Malaysian construction industry As a conclusion, there are lack of studies, which examined the relativity of quality management and project management in Malaysia. It is because, normally the quality management functions that come under the purview of operations management is generally used for repetitive processes while project management is applied for meeting temporary endeavours in order to create distinctive products and services (Orwig and Brennan, 2000). In addition, most of the QMS researches are still based on ISO 9000:2000, while the latest ISO 9000 series had just been published on 14 November, 2008. There is a lack of research on the new ISO 9000:2008, which has improved its compatibility with ISO 14001:2004 because many of the contractors in Malaysia have still not changed their certification to the new ISO 9000:2008.
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Future research directions and propositions
Although many more QMS researches are being carried out in the construction industry, but it is obvious that they are trying to refine the findings obtained from previous studies. Limited studies have been conducted in some of the research areas of QMS, such as project management, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ quality practices, technical and non-technical approaches, project performance, system maintenance, etc. Therefore, future researches shall look into the relationship between different types of quality practices and project performance to determine the effectiveness of those quality approaches. Moreover, most of the researchers tend to focus on contractor companies when studying the construction industries. They normally overlook the consultancy companies and developer companies, which play important roles in construction projects. Developer companies manage both the overall project as well as the financial resources. Improper project management by developer companies causes financial problem, which eventually results project delay. ECC are consulted for designing the starting stage of all construction projects. Hence, quality management researches should involve the consultancy companies and developer companies so that their findings can contribute new knowledge, which will be applicable to the entire construction industry.
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Conclusions
The findings of this research shows the overview of quality management researches in construction industry and the gap for future researches to contribute new knowledge. There are lack of quality management researches in construction industry discuss the applications of the technical and non-technical approaches or human behavioural issues. Besides, it is obvious that only little studies try to link the quality management researches in construction industry with the performance of companies. Nevertheless, different countries will have dissimilar culture and others factors which will indirectly affect the QMS. Therefore, the future researches should be conducted in different countries for comparison to obtain the better conclusions.
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Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Vot. 4F093 (MOHE), MyBrain15 (MOHE) and UTM Johor Bahru.
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