Web-Centric Partnering Systems for Total Quality Management

Introduction

Total Quality Management (TQM) focuses not only on products and services but also on the people and processes that provide them and the environments in which they are provided (Goetsch et al. 2003). For a systematic application of TQM principles to any construction projects, processes and environment should be continuously improved across inter-organizational boundaries from the very beginning of a project. Currently, although the TQM concept is commonly accepted at the managerial level, there are still several practical obstacles in the construction industry. The implementation of TQM in the construction industry lags far behind other industries. One of the most important challenges is that the multi-party nature of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry creates a challenging environment for successful project implementation of TQM principles. TQM, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and constructability are influenced by many organizational, technical, managerial and environmental considerations. Partnering and strategic alliance in the construction industry is the approach to solve such problems, achieve the long-term goal and gain mutual benefits together.

First, in order to achieve partnering in the construction industry, a core issue is the effective management of information, both in the form of information flow that permits rapid inter-organizational transactions between supply chain partners, and in the form of information accumulated, coded, and stored in partner’s systems. Second, to achieve the never-ending PDCA cycle, partners need to form a strategic team to collaborate with each other. The new partnering information system model helps partners share information for the continuous improvement of their production processes and work environment. Thus, the main objectives of this paper are: (1) to achieve partnering in the construction industry, and (2) to achieve the never-ending TQM Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA) cycle.

To achieve the above objectives, this study first examines the fragmented construction industry, TQM and current Information Technology (IT) for partnering and then develops a conceptual information partnering model for an integrated partnering information system to facilitate partnering collaboration, and the implementation of the TQM PDCA process cycle. This model also helps achieve feasible TQM programs in the fragmented construction industry at the technical level. The state-of-the-art information technology for the construction industry is implemented in this model and accomplished through the following major steps. First, partners’ computer systems are integrated through web-centric database portal. Second, partners’ system interoperability and collaboration are achieved through the support of IFC (Information Foundation Classes) compatible front-end integration. Third, a mission statement that describes the organization, its value, guiding principles, purposes and vision developed and followed by partnering information systems. Fourth, the results are monitored and measured against previous performance standards and goals through the PDCY cycle. 

An Overview of the Fragmented Construction Industry and TQM

The construction industry is fragmented, complex, and competitive. Different roles are taken by different partners in different locations. Compared to main business processes in other industries, the construction process runs across large numbers of organizational boundaries, and typically requires several years to finish one facility project. Coordination of the process, that is, maintaining the flow of knowledge and information across organizational boundaries, is often and traditionally perceived to be poor (Banwell 1964; Latham 1994; Cooper 2005). Due to fragmented phases and various participants, management of engineering and construction is problematic. Perceived low productivity, cost and time overruns, conflicts, disputes, claims, and time-consuming litigation have been acknowledged as the major causes of performance-related problems in the industry (Halfawy 1998). Although architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and owners join a temporary collaboration team in order to fulfill a specific project in a timely manner within budget, the legacy of this high level of fragmentation makes the project delivery process of the construction industry highly inefficient in comparison with that of other industry sectors. That is the reason why TQM, which focuses on continuous process improvement, needs to be implemented in the construction industry.

Much research has been done on the implementation of TQM and a lot of organizations, including the electrical and electronic engineering industry in Malaysia, UK companies from different industries, and companies in the US, such as Ford Motor Company, have already adopted TQM (Idris et al. 1996; McCabe, 1996). A survey of construction firms in the upper Midwestern United States shows that substantial economic benefits that can be attained through the implementation of TQM techniques (McIntyre et al., 2000). Understanding TQM concepts and then developing techniques to adopt them in engineering organizations were the prior challenges in implementing TQM. The new challenge is to transform the use of TQM to make it an enduring, well-integrated characteristic of an organization (Emison, 2004).

The success of TQM methods in the fragmented construction industry is highly dependent on a cohesive team working toward congruent goals and objectives. To accomplish this, a partnership relationship is needed. Partnering is a method of avoiding and resolving conflicts at the project level (Forbes, 2002). Partnering reduces adversarial relationships and construction claims by reducing the cost of change orders. It is an agreement whereby two or more parties agree to cooperate with each other to achieve separate but complementary objectives. Through partnering and strategic alliance, partners obtain mutual benefits and achieve excellent customer satisfaction using the Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA) cycle. PDCA cycle refers to a specific step-by-step process to achieve the goal of continuous improvement by continually establishing and revising new standards or goals. In order to facilitate and implement TQM principles across partners, a web-based or web-enabled information system is required. Such a system provides more timely information flow along the TQM processes and seamless inter-communication with other organizations’ information systems without inter-connection problems.

An Overview of Current Information Technology for Partnering

It is not surprising for communications/networking via Information Technology (IT) to be regarded as one of the most important opportunities for the future in the construction industry. There have been many attempts to capture construction information using various components of IT and the task is extensive. Stronger wireless network, multimedia real-time data exchanges, enhanced smart devices capability and new programming architecture for IT application have given project participants an opportunity to assist the application of TQM. Web-based networks are associated with inter-organizational communication, leading to the deduction of delays in time, conflicts in services and information flow among partners.

There are two types of management for TQM in the construction industry. One is home office management and the other is project management at construction sites. The former covers business transactions related to the management of finance, accounting, human resources, purchases and so on. The latter covers business transaction related to the management of schedule, budget, quality, safety, contract, and so on. There are five major e-business solutions being used in the industry: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Project Management System (PMS), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Knowledge Management System (KMS), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Separate management systems have their respective business information models. Due to the lack of standard business processes and data integrity, electronic data interchange between the solutions has been a critical issue in project collaboration. It is impossible to achieve the TQM partnering concept without the continuity of practitioners’ information systems. The same data are usually captured multiple times, in multiple places, and not available in real time. It is especially difficult to employ e-business solutions for small and medium business (SMB) firms because of high cost and the variety of trades. Due to the characteristics of the SMB business, they need to focus on their special fields so as to gain more economic results in the fragmental construction industry. The whole comprehensive and systematic e-business ad-hoc and integral solutions are for larger firms, as they are too expensive and over-equipped for the SMB firms.

Lack of consistency and standardization in construction processes has become a significant issue in construction project management. In order to accomplish business process integration, it is necessary to develop a framework of construction management tasks, which is represented as an industry standard. With that standardized industry object data model, intelligent digital solution will allow partners to output their information to industry standard format, and then allow other partners to easily use it in the downstream systems.

Substantial efforts have been made to continuously develop the Industry Foundation Classes—IFC object models (International Alliance for Interoperability—IAI, 1998, 1999 and 2000) and to promote the IFC-based software applications to the Architecture, Engineering and Construction/Facilities Management (AEC/FM) industry. In the architectural CAD area, commercial IFC solutions have been or are being made available to CAD users and to other software applications. For example, the leading architectural CAD packages, such as Architectural Desktop (ADT) (Autodesk, 2001) and ArchiCAD (Graphisoft, 2002) are currently providing and developing facilities to support the IFC format in architectural and structural design. The IFC model also enables the exchange of some non-CAD data used by applications that primarily generate and manipulate non-geometric information. These data include classes (object/attribute/relationship sets) that describe surface properties for architectural visualization and lighting simulation, and equipment performance metrics for tracking the performance of mechanical systems. Such classes are particularly important to simulation tools. It provides a new opportunity for the implementation of TQM in the construction industry through integrated partnering application systems. The benefits of the IFC model are summarized below (Table 1).

Table 1:

The evolution of information modeling

An Information Model for TQM Partnering

An Overview of Partnering Information Model

TQM is a continuing process of improvement which involves all aspects of the business. The keys to continuous improvement are commitment and teamwork. TQM tools and information flow are included at all levels of partners’ information systems so that all partners’ team members have the opportunity to participate in the TQM process. There are specific requirements for the integration of partners’ application packages, thus partners need to work together to form a web-centric portal as well. With the new information architecture, the web-centric portal helps partners to retrieve indispensable TQM information timely anywhere, which includes plans, mission statements, clear tasks and personnel training. Information partnering tools help partners easily collaborate and cooperate with each other to do more pro-active actions for better quality and customer satisfaction. The basic conceptual information sharing model for partners is shown in Figure 1. Interacting information with each other, the Web-Centric Database Portal and Partnering TQM Data Warehouse are two important information system components. When partners form a strategic alliance and share their long-term strategic goal, partners’ computer systems are integrated from the very beginning of the project planning and design to the end of project maintenance. All information flow is streamlined through these systems. Data are inputted once and stored forever not only for a specific project but also for future project management. As a result, partners’ computer systems become important historical data warehouses.

There are two ways of system integration: back-end and front-end (Zhu 1999). The former builds the information system integration based on a web-centric server database. The latter integrates separate information systems through data interchange interfaces. In the construction industry, due to the fact that every partner owns its own information systems and databases, they are unwilling to rebuild an expensive web server central database for the back-end integration. The new front-end model is expected to overcome such problems. Currently, with the new managerial concept such as TQM and with the development of standardized Industry Foundation Classes—IFC, more and more software developers support IFC standards and customize IFC compatible front-end integration systems to provide a more economic and efficient method for partners. Thus, people are provided a new opportunity to build a rich functional computer system with acceptable costs that actually connects several partners. Partners can not only own their respective information systems and software tools, but also simultaneously achieve system interoperability and collaboration as a virtual organization. The new approach of partnering information integration is shown in Figure 2.

 As a TQM partner group, partners share common strategic goals and work together to continuously improve customer satisfaction. They use IFC-based application tool packages, which are seamlessly integrated with new partnering systems. Therefore, significant for all partners, the new information system model is considered as the foundation for the TQM process implementation across organizational and disciplinary boundaries. The team’s first step in the TQM process is to develop a mission statement or plan that describes the organization, its values, guiding principles, purposes and vision. When the mission is clearly transmitted throughout the organization, employees will identify it and follow its principles. Following the TQM PDCA cycle for selected processes, the new methods are implemented, measured and validated and the new procedure and policies are established. The never-ending TQM process is recorded and applied by the partnering information system, which facilitates the implementation of the TQM process in the company’s future through the investment of today’s resources. The cost of errors including rework, delays, unplanned work, accidents, and excessive paperwork are greatly reduced. The cost of prevention, including supervision, training, inspection, planning and meetings, is decreased as well. The continuous improvement cycle is shown in Figure 3.  Using the integrated information tools, partners coordinate along the overall quality improvement process and across different construction projects systematically. Existing methods, knowledge, training resources and new processes will be conveniently distributed and used to facilitate further improvement for projects in the future (Fergusson et al. 2002).

An Information Model Implementation Case for TQM Partnering

Figure 4 illustrates the collaborative efforts of the general contractor (including field personnel and project manager), owner, and architect/engineer required during the TQM PDCA continuous improving process. The field personnel visit the site, review the plans, inspect and verify the program performances. If some violations of the project TQM programs happen, the field personnel will try to use their trained knowledge and skills to implement the TQM programs and solve field problems with the support of partnering information systems. Their action and feedback will be stored and flowed back to the system in real-time. The responsibility of the project manager is to evaluate the report and check for corrective actions when required. Another task performed by the project manager is the elaboration of periodic reports for the owner. The responsibility of the project manager is to implement corrective actions for the TQM program and give field personnel resources and detailed support for program action as a top leader. The role of the owner in the process varies depending on his level of construction knowledge and experience. Some owners work closely with the project manager; others delegate all responsibilities. Architects and engineers are involved in corrective design and redesign during the TQM cycle (Rojas et al. 1999).

Along the process, the instant collection of inspection and TQM information is captured in the field with wireless PDA-end devices and sent back to TQM partnering systems instantly. The updated information is then accessible to owners, contractors, subcontractors, construction managers, architects / engineers, and suppliers. Every item done and checked according to the definition of TQM program is treated as an object that includes a set of attributes. Item attributes include description, classification, status, priority, location, condition, and comment. Workflow information in this system will be automatically exchanged among relative quality action team members. Such a team is established to study needed improvements for targeted processes more efficiently and effectively. Once the TQM missions and plans are implemented, the results are monitored and measured against previous performance standards and goals. Employees working in a given process are trained and empowered to affect continuous improvements with the support of this information system. Feedback, or “lessons learned” from the TQM PDCA cycle will be put in place to gather, evaluate, and implement corrective actions through partners’ interoperable information systems as well.

Expected Benefits of the Implementation of Information Partnering Model

With the implementation of the new TQM model above, all parties are capable of accessing and updating the required project and TQM item information efficiently during the PDCY cycle process period; the project information web-centric portal and TQM items databases are organically and systematically linked with each other. The partnering information management system provides the following functionality:

Conclusion

TQM is a structured approach to improvement. If correctly applied, it will assist a project team to continuously improve its performance. Partnering, as one of the important concepts of TQM, is a feasible approach to facilitate the implementation of TQM principles in the fragmented construction industry. To improve processes and satisfy customer, an integrated partnering system is devised to provide team members a new chance to achieve their long-term TQM goal together. In this way, the actions in the TQM processes are identified, summarized, categorized and stored in the comprehensive information system. It is also convenient and economically feasible to implement the quality culture change program and personnel training program. The never-ending TQM process is improved and experiences are shared through quicker and more fluent information and knowledge interaction among partners. In summary, communication, as one of the biggest challenges for partnering, can be improved efficiently and effectively through the new partnering information system.

References

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