Reference no: EM132632587 , Length: word count:1200

Management Systems in Construction

Reflective Essay

It is a reflective essay on quality management tools and initiatives to improve the quality performance in the Australian apartment building sector, 1,200 words.

Objectives
On completion of this assignment, the student should be able to:
• Identify the key quality management concept and associated tools
• Understand the quality performance indicators of construction
• Understand the benefits of and barriers to implementing quality management concept in the construction firms

Background

For the past two decades, Australia has been in an apartment building boom. But when Sydney's Opal and Mascot Towers were evacuated because of structural cracking, the issue of defective high-rises was laid bare. Defect inspectors say the hundreds of apartment dwellers who were forced to evacuate three buildings in Sydney are just the beginning. In a 2012 study, UNSW's City Futures Research Centre found 72 per cent to 85 per cent of owners corporations in multi-level apartment buildings had major defects. Building inspector and facilities manager Lynda Kypriadakis even put it, "All buildings across Australia have defects". Research released by Deakin University's Nicole Johnston and Griffith University's Sacha Reid surveyed buildings in Australia's east coast states and found more than 70 per cent had at least one defect. All were built after 2003. Among 13 components examined, issues to do with building fabric and cladding were the most serious, followed by fire protection, waterproofing, roof and rainwater disposal and then structural defects. "Unfortunately, new residential buildings in Australia appear to be plagued with defects," their report said. "The concern is not that defects occur, they are inevitable. The concern is the extent, severity and impact these defects have on buildings and their occupants." But so far on building sites there has been no change. Many cited the causes to the issues included but not limited to:

1) A lack of accountability by builders, reflected in poor oversight of construction

2) No real quality control in many construction projects

3) A lack of independent oversight over construction works

Despite the fact that many organizations in the construction industry have started out with the use of ISO9001 certification, Love and Li (1998) noted many have taken this certification route for the wrong reasons: e.g. because they see that "everybody else is doing it", or "because it is supposed to improve performance". Apart from the mandatory ISO9001 certification, the construction organization should seek quality management practices elsewhere hoping to improve their project quality performance.

One area that is worth studying is the manufacturing industry where it "always" performed better than construction sector in terms of quality products. Product quality is rapidly becoming an important competitive issue. The evidence of outstanding performance of Japanese manufacturers (in particular) in the late 1970s and the 1980s led to the development of world-class manufacturing and high-performance manufacturing. Dr Womack et al. (1990) in his best-selling book, The Machine that Changed the World, noted "Toyota uses less of everything compared to US giant automobile manufacturers - half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing space, half the investment in tools, half the engineering hours to develop a new product in half the time with half the average defects."

Inspired by success stories of innovative quality management practices that have already been widely used in manufacturing industry, the question lies if the manufacturing industry can benefit from implementing such innovative quality management practices, why not in construction. This assignment 3 challenges you to seek innovative quality management practices, principles, or tools that maybe originally developed in other sectors, and to discuss the possibility of its adoption in the construction industry in Australia.

Report Requirements

This assignment 3 focuses on quality management practice, attempting to address the aforementioned issues. The reflective essay should be crafted based on ONE (1) innovative quality management practice that can be possibly implemented in the construction industry. The essay should contain, but not limited to the followings:
• Introduction
• What is the selected quality management practice?
• Suitability to construction, or apartment building sector
• Any successful story or case studies

Attachment:- reflective essay.rar