Companies have a need to internationalize and locate all over the world to gain advantages against competition. However, when companies internationalize, they face difficulties. One of the major difficulties is how they can reach the same high quality around the world in their business facilities. Over one third of all construction projects reporting major defects. The purpose of this thesis is to research how companies implement Quality Management in offshore construction projects, what are the common challenges related to the subject and how to overcome these challenges. The theoretical framework for the study is gathered from academic literature. The thesis uses a qualitative research approach. The primary data is gathered through interviews and observations that are conducted on an offshore construction site. The case study in this thesis researches how a multinational company handles Quality Management in an offshore construction project.  The company’s Quality Management guidelines and practices have been established in Europe, whereas the location and context of this study is in Southeast-Asia. The difference in business context and cultures causes additional challenges in implementing Quality Management in the project. After analyzing the data, the company’s Quality Management practices are compared to suggested practices in the academic literature. These suggestions can be valid for other multinational companies that are expanding to different continents. The results show that when companies do offshoring decisions, relationship quality with contractors and partnership credibility should be central attributes, even if it means doing business with higher priced companies. Many companies do not focus enough on the quality aspect in the contractor tendering phase. Instead they tend to base decisions solely on cost and speed even though bad quality work results in increased costs and delays in construction projects.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第23557号 / 地環博第214号 / 新制||地環||41(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 勝見 武, 准教授 高井 敦史, 教授 木村 亮 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, 1996. / This research project is an investigation into the effectiveness of an inspect and rework system called dynamic section control which has the purpose of improving the assembly quality of the BMW-3 series manufacturing in the Rosslyn Plant just outside Pretoria in South Africa, The system was introduced into the assembly plant in February 1995 to improve the assembly quality of the vehicles as quickly as possible. The main motivation behind the need for this system was to bring the quality onto the same level as the German plants in order to become recognised in the international network of BMW's manufacturing plants along with the new manufacturing plant in the USA The origins of the dynamic section control system come from the Munich 3-series plant as well as being based on the principles of poka yoke, a quality philosophy devised by the quality expert from Toyota in Japan, Shigeo Shingo, Defects found on the assembly plant's line, identified by the quality auditor and information from the marketing department regarding warranty claims are entered onto a checklist which is used by reworkers in the plant to inspect and make good the defects that have been found. The checklist is updated on a weekly basis, hence its name: dynamic section control. Seven rework stations, in which the dynamic section control reworkers work, have been strategically positioned in the assembly plant which trims the painted bodies it receives from the paint shop, The effectiveness of the system has been measured by analysing the information from the daily audits as well as investigating the trend of vehicles If rving the assembly plant still requiring rework and repairs off-line. The analyses were divided into three distinct periods. The first being approximately 4 months before the introduction of :he dynamic section control system, and the second and third periods after the introduction of the system. The results show that the dynamic section control system have a positive influence in improving the assembly quality of the vehicles, especially reducing the number of recurring defects. The number of defects that have only occurred once in each of the periods has remained reasonably constant indicating that the system has no impact in reducing the random occurrence of "one-off" defects. Another significant finding was. the increase in the number of vehicles requiring Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand repair off-line, attributable to the assembly plant, after the vehicle has left the assembly line. This increase is probably the result of an increased quality awareness within the assembly plant, resulting in reworkers identifying an increasing number of defects for repair off-line. Other factors such as clearer identification of production goals, training and development of a proportion of the assembly plant's workers in the German plants lor three weeks, reorganizing of support. staff by installing "the right people in the right place" and reducing the number of model derivatives in the plant have also contributed to the enormous quality improvement achieved. Further development of the. dynamic section control system is recommended by installing a rework station within each team area, and including the actions of dynamic section control in the work content of that team. Currently, the system uses external workers which are not part of individual teams as the current sections overlap team areas. Finally, it is recommended that the work of the dynandc section control reworker be incorporated as a noma! function within the team and be rotated amongst the team members. / AC2017

The aim of this thesis was to develop a methodology to systematically investigate the effect of different procurement options on the outcome of a construction project. This methodology combined the qualitative analysis based on experts' performance assessment of each procurement option with quantitative analyses of generic process models for each option, in order to perform a comprehensive analysis of different procurement alternatives. This methodology was further applied to the specific problem of this research which was to assess the performance of Commissioning Delivery Systems (CDS). The goal was to use the findings from the study to provide a comparison between CDS, and assist Construction Owners in identifying the appropriate commissioning delivery option for their project. The process of each CDS was modeled, and systematic differences between different options were analyzed. Five major internal performance aspects of the commissioning process were identified based on literature: PAi1: Communication; PAi2: Validation; PAi3: Collaboration; PAi4: Integration; and PAi5: Integrity. These performance aspects were used as a basis for a Delphi study to obtain commissioning experts assessment of each CDS. Fourteen experts, representing different disciplines in the construction industry, participated in three phases of the Delphi study. A statistical measure was used to validate the expert performance assessments by measuring their level of consensus. Experts did not show any agreement on two performance aspects of Communication and Integration. These aspects were further investigated through quantitative analyses of process models. The developed methodology proved to be a valuable technique in analyzing the effect of procurement options on the outcome of a construction project. Based on the findings of the study, Owner-led Commissioning presented a higher performance rating than Designer-led Commissioning in four out of five performance aspects. Hence, Owner-led Commissioning is identified as a better alternative for procuring commissioning services on construction projects. Designer-led Commissioning presented a higher Communication performance than Owner-led Commissioning. At the same time, the Communication performance of both delivery options was very poor, which further indicates communication difficulties in current commissioning practices. Therefore, this study suggests a more-thorough investigation of the Communication aspect of commissioning process as a follow-up investigation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:48:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 EriksonRMO_DISSERT.pdf: 2593729 bytes, checksum: e7be854fab647e1f1602ce7096cdca4c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-16 / In recent years, the Brazilian construction industry has gone by changes like currency stability, increasing competition, shortage of skilled labor and increasing quality importance required by the customer, who made the sector companies seek solutions through new management practices in order to become more efficient. A alternative to these management practices is known as Lean Construction which is derived from the Toyota System Production. Lean Construction main goals are to reduce parts of activities that do not add value, increase product value by considering customer needs, reduce variability and production cycle time, simplify process by reducing the number of parts or steps, increase the flexibility in the product execution and transparency process, focus the control on overall process, introduce continuous improvement process, maintain a balance between improvements in flows and conversions and seek to learn from practices adopted by competitors. However, the construction industry is characterized by having nomadic activity, which undertakes an unique product with high cost of production and big inertia for behavioral change, making it difficult to implement the philosophy of lean construction in companies. In this sense, the main objective of this study is to develop a methodology for implementation of the principles of Lean Construction. The method of implementing the proposed management system was designed with the aid of 5W2H tool, and the implementation process is divided into three phases. The first one aims to know in a macro way the current operation of construction, identify who is its target audience and what are the products and services offered to the Market. The second phase aims to describe what actions should be taken and which documents are needed to be created or modified; finally, the third step goal consists in how to control and monitor established processes, where through Strategic Planning the company goals would be set along with their respective targets and indicators in order to keep the system working, aiming for continuous improvement with focus on the customer. This methodology was conceived as a case study analyzing a medium size construction with more than 18 years of activity and certified for almost 10 years with ISO9001 and level A in PBQP-H. We also conclude that this implementation process can be used in any developer and / or builder / A constru??o civil brasileira, nos ?ltimos anos, tem passado por mudan?as como estabilidade da moeda, aumento da concorr?ncia, escassez de m?o de obra qualificada e aumento da import?ncia da qualidade requerida pelo cliente, obrigando que as empresas do setor procurem solu??es atrav?s de novas pr?ticas de gest?o, buscando se tornarem mais eficientes. Uma alternativa dessas pr?ticas de gest?o ? conhecida como constru??o enxuta (Lean Construction), sendo derivada do Sistema Toyota de Produ??o. A constru??o enxuta visa a reduzir a parcela de atividades que n?o agregam valor, aumentar o valor do produto atrav?s da considera??o das necessidades do cliente, reduzir a variabilidade e o tempo do ciclo de produ??o, simplificar o processo atrav?s da redu??o do n?mero de passos ou partes, aumentar a flexibilidade na execu??o do produto e a transpar?ncia do processo, focar o controle no processo global, introduzir melhoria cont?nua no processo, manter um equil?brio entre melhorias nos fluxos e nas convers?es e, ainda, buscar aprender com as pr?ticas adotadas pelas empresas concorrentes. A ind?stria da constru??o civil ? caracterizada por possuir atividade n?made, que empreende produto ?nico, com custo elevado de produ??o e grande in?rcia para mudan?a comportamental; desse modo, torna-se dif?cil a implanta??o da filosofia da constru??o enxuta nas empresas. Sendo assim, buscando facilitar a aplicabilidade da constru??o enxuta nas empresas, o objetivo principal deste trabalho ? elaborar uma metodologia de implanta??o dos princ?pios desta nova filosofia de gest?o. O m?todo de implanta??o do sistema de gest?o proposto foi concebido com aux?lio da ferramenta 5W2H, tendo o processo de implanta??o dividido em tr?s etapas, sendo a primeira com a finalidade de elaborar diagn?stico da empresa, visando a entender o funcionamento da construtora, identificando qual ? seu p?blico-alvo e quais s?o os produtos e os servi?os oferecidos por esta ao mercado. A segunda etapa consiste em descrever quais a??es devem ser tomadas e quais documentos precisam ser criados ou modificados; e, por fim, a meta da terceira etapa compreende como controlar e acompanhar os processos estabelecidos, extraindo do planejamento estrat?gico os objetivos da empresa com suas respectivas metas e indicadores com a finalidade de manter o sistema funcionando e almejando a melhoria cont?nua com foco no cliente. A presente metodologia foi concebida utilizando como estudo de caso uma construtora de porte m?dio com mais de 18 anos de atividade e certificada h? quase 10 anos com a ISO9001 e n?vel A do PBQP-H. Conclui-se, ainda, que esse processo de implanta??o possa ser utilizado em qualquer incorporadora e/ou construtora do segmento da constru??o

Byggindustrin har problem med stora kvalitetsbristkostnader, förutom att organisationer jobbar på ett reaktivt sätt gällande kvalitet identifieras sällan rotorsaken till uppkomna kvalitetsbristkostnader. Tillverkningsindustrin har under många år jobbat med att komma till bukt med kvalitetsbrister och har utvecklat metoder för att förebygga uppkomsten av kvalitetsbrister. Förbättringsmetoder som DMAIC och PDCA anses vara generella metoder som är lämpade för alla organisationer och industrier. Trots att dessa metoder påvisats ha positiv verkan för organisationers kvalitetsarbete finns det enligt akademiska skrifter brist på systematiska arbeten mot bättre kvalitet inom byggindustrin. För att undersöka och testa systematiskt förbättringsarbete inom byggindustrin utfördes en fallstudie på ett företag inom industriellt byggande. Fallföretaget för studien producerade prefabricerade betongelement. Genom att utföra ett DMAIC-projekt på Fallföretaget undersökte studien möjligheten att applicera metodiken och dess verktyg. Studien utgick från en kategorisering av Fallföretagets kvalitetsbristkostnader för att finna områden för förbättring. Syftet med studien var således att undersöka möjligheten att använda kategorisering av kvalitetsbristkostnader som avstamp för systematiskt förbättringsarbete inom industriellt byggande. Genom kategoriseringen av kvalitetsbristkostnader kunde studien använda paretodiagram för att finna de största kostnaderna för företaget. Utifrån de mest kostsamma kvalitetsbristerna undersöktes dess härkomst genom produktionsmätningar. Från produktionsmätningarna upprättades styrdiagram och en duglighetsanalys utfördes. Genom produktionsmätningarna konstaterades att de kvalitetsbristkostnader som kategoriserats hade delvis inte sin uppkomst i produktionen. Därav misstänktes bristfälliga processer innan produktion som eventuell orsak till kvalitetsbristkostnaderna. Utifrån studien presenterades olika rekommendationer som delades upp i produktionsförbättringar och organisationsförbättringar. Organisationsförbättringarna berörde de kringliggande processerna som inte är en del av produktionen. Förslagen var att investera i teknik för kvalitetssäkring av produkterna i produktion. Studien rekommenderade även förslag på förbättringar som inte krävde investering. Så som referensmätningar och formjusteringar samt visuell styrning och planering. På organisationsförbättringar rekommenderades att utveckla och strukturera projektledningsprocessen och konstruktionsprocessen, vilket var de processer som identifierats som potentiella källor till kvalitetsbristkostnaderna. Studien kunde genom insamlade data i form av intervjuer och observationer tillsammans med en litteraturstudie konstatera att byggindustrin idag arbetar på ett reaktivt sätt med kvalitet. Därav förespråkar studien att byggindustrin arbetar med ett mer förbyggande arbetssätt för att nå kvalitet. Studien kunde även konstatera att ett DMAIC-projekt med utgångspunkt att kategorisera kvalitetsbristkostnader bidrar till att finna förbättringsområden för en organisation inom industriellt byggande. Arbetet i sin helhet bidrar även till att skapa en bättre förståelse för hur kvalitetsarbete kan appliceras inom industriellt byggande.