More than two decades have passed since the introduction of Quality Assurance Systems in the form of BS 5750/ISO 9000 yet the effectiveness of these systems are still a matter of controversy and debate. Although the implementation of Quality Assurance Systems in the construction industry has been slow to emerge, most large construction organisations are currently implementing such systems. Much has been written about the advantages and disadvantages of Quality Assurance Systems but unfortunately without any direct reference to any hard data. Most of the reported advantages and disadvantages are based purely on perceptions and views of individuals involved. The British Standards Institution (BSI) acts as a collaborating establishment for this research. This is the first research that attempts to assess the effectiveness of Quality Assurance Systems, in the construction industry. Based on data collected from literature, construction companies and experts in the field of Quality Management, the research provides a better understanding of the objectivity of available data regarding the effectiveness of QA Systems and examines the possibility of fording reliable measures. This thesis shows that no construction company has managed to assess the effectiveness of its Quality Assurance Systems in an objective manner. Regarding measures of the effectiveness of QA Systems, most experts believed that such measures are very important because an organisation must justify the existence of such systems, which are considered as overheads. However, all experts declared 1 that they are not aware of any construction company that has managed to assess the effectiveness of its ISO 9000 in any reliable manner. This research is of a particular value to construction companies who are considering implementing an ISO 9000 as well as those companies that are already implementing such systems.

Orientador: Leonardo de Souza Mendes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T16:36:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mattos_EklerPaulinode_M.pdf: 2049372 bytes, checksum: d292b2d52c2a0c0bf5326e8f7e533665 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O Sistema Tutor Inteligente (STI) pertence a uma categoria de sistemas de natureza educacional, utilizado como ferramenta de suporte ao ensino-aprendizagem. Possui uma estrutura modular que tem por finalidade auxiliar o aprendiz na realização de atividades educacionais, bem como a capacidade de adaptar-se de acordo com as necessidades de um aprendiz, o que faz do STI uma arquitetura interessante na construção de softwares educacionais. O trabalho proposto tem por objetivo utilizar a arquitetura de STI, aplicada à área de sistemas de e-Gov como proposta de solução de problemas de natureza distribuída. Como estudo de caso, foi escolhida a área Gestão de Materiais e Medicamentos, justamente por apresentar problema pertinente à distribuição de materiais e medicamentos, nas unidades básicas de saúde (UBS). Cada STI funciona como representante de uma UBS, que tem por função realizar o papel de um agente gestor de estoque (Agente Gestor Tutor - AGT), cargo pouco comum na rede municipal de saúde, auxiliando o administrador de cada setor (visto como o aprendiz) a realizar tarefas complexas de gestão de materiais e medicamentos. Foi realizada uma série de simulações usando o protótipo desenvolvido para testar a sua viabilidade de aplicação com relação ao tratamento do estoque distribuído de uma arquitetura de rede municipal de saúde / Abstract: The Intelligent Tutor Systems (ITS) belong to a category of educational nature systems, used as a tool to support the teaching and learning. It has a modular structure, which aim to help the apprentice in the execution of educational activities, as well as in adapting itself according to the apprentice¿s necessities, what makes the ITS, an interesting architecture in the construction of educational softwares. The proposed work aim to use the ITS architecture in the management of materials, as a solution for the problem of medicine distribution in the health basic units (HBU). Each ITS works as a HBU representative, whose function is to play the role of a managing agent of supply (Tutorial Managing Agent - TMA), a post job not so common in the municipal health¿s network. The TMA assists the administrator of each sector (seen as the apprentice) in executing complex tasks of management of materials and medicines.In this way, many simulations were carried out, using the developed prototype to test its feasibility of application, in relation to the management of the distributed materials of architecture of a municipal health¿s network / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica