Just like in every area of life, quality matters in construction. A construction project that is built with the highest standards can be favorably evaluated by many. However, quality in construction does not happen instantly or accidentally. Quality can be best achieved through methods and processes that are being put in place to ensure the highest results are achieved.
You and other people involved in projects have a duty to understand how their performance affects the project as a whole. Any sort of crisis should be avoided firsthand, and quality should be prioritized.
In this blog, let’s discover everything about quality management in construction, including the role it plays and some of its important methods and core processes to best achieve it.
What is Quality Management in Construction?
Construction projects typically involve multiple functions across different activities and segments. Yet, the one thing being offered is the goal of delivering quality work within the schedule and budget. The term quality seems an important aspect to learn about, and it really is.
Going over to quality management – it is the foundation for your projects and plays a big role in determining whether your project is a success or a failure. As a business leader, you want to deliver quality work, and it has become your company’s vital judging criteria and plays a role in establishing its reputation.
To get the desired and required quality, there are numerous questions you have to answer, like how quality should be controlled, how to enhance it, how to assess it properly, and so on. To put it simply, quality management is the complete process that directly answers all such questions.
Key Challenges in Quality Management
Although the effort of all contractors and teams involved, only some construction projects meet compliance. And you must be aware of that. Know that it can only be possible to achieve quality control and quality assurance using management systems and cutting-edge tools like construction employee scheduling software.
Quality management in construction can only be fully understood when you know the factors influencing quality and safety. These factors are the following:
1. Poor subcontractor management
Know that human errors account for over half a percent of all construction defects. When you hire people without the right skills and no proper training, they can commit a lot of mistakes that go unnoticed for years. It will be best to screen your subs and the rest of the team to ensure they are skilled, competent, and capable of catching their own mistakes.
2. Supplier quality issues
Issues with vendors and suppliers can lower quality levels and increase costs even if the materials are not to blame. For instance, building supplies that are instantly changed for another brand of construction material do not meet the necessary standards, leading to expensive reworks.
Make sure all of your selected suppliers understand all requirements. You also need to perform regular audits and track everything. Whenever a construction project is in the midst of the process, finding new suppliers can be a cause of distraction that affects the quality of your projects.
3. Lack of documentation for practices and changes
There are a lot of instances when quality issues are not caused by errors or design changes but rather due by the lack of documentation. Another common example is when you are changing materials in different replacement or maintenance periods. It can lead to improper handling from your maintenance team if all the documents need to be updated.
You should make updates to your documents, and only with sophisticated software for construction management can you able to track capture, and store documents of all sorts. A versatile software just like Pro Crew Schedule helps you with the retrieval of your documents, as well as enhanced security and better backup to all of them.
4. Lack of communication between the team
Communication problems may lead to most project quality issues. Know that a lack of communication can lead to inefficient use of new tactics, faulty and low-quality materials, and the lack of evaluation to determine the problems. You can best improve the overall communication between you and your crew members while working on a project with a fully-integrated construction management software for subcontractors with specialized built-in features for more enhanced communication.
5. Failure to perform regular audits
Are you the type of contractor who continues to ignore quality issues despite the results of the auditing plans? If you are, then be aware that it is not a good practice. You have to change the way you work on these matters. You want to avoid having reports that bounce back from you and your team while dealing with an unclear workflow and process.
Make sure to do some regular edits and pick the right person to monitor them. Ensure that there have been respective follow-ups and recommendations for improvements from time to time.
How Can You Improve Overall Construction Quality?
1. Define quality requirements
For your construction quality to be more effective, it is crucial to research the quality specifications and requirements for every project step. Documentation is necessary for clarification and distribution. Therefore, it is more than just knowing the standards, and the process should involve more specifications and clarifications through further documentation.
2. Hone in quality workflows
Another thing you can do to enhance construction quality is to establish your quality workflows early on. Accountability and ownership are both crucial to effective construction quality management. Even snag lists alone cannot determine your success results, especially if your construction team’s responsibilities and roles are not clearly defined.
That is why assigning quality tasks to a particular team, and people early in your project’s life cycle is imperative. Ensure clear due dates and deliverables to build accountability into your quality management processes and closeout.
With the right cloud-based construction time tracking software, notifying and assigning stakeholders and tracking overall progress is easy. This is a very modernized and strategic way to streamline your quality workflows from the very start and ensure your teams are on the same page throughout the project.
3. Perform risk assessments
More than at any point in the course of your projects, performing risk assessments is crucial to moving the job forward. Consistent monitoring of the risks is particularly important, especially when closing the project schedule. Also, carrying out risk assessment entails determining any concerns and threats on the job. With this approach, you can spot potential liabilities for mitigating all issues you determine in the process.
Again, make sure to conduct such assessments, especially if you want to avoid doing anything with zoning challenges, legal risks, cash flow concerns, and other issues.
4. Standardize using subcontractor construction management tool
Improving standards around documentation and data collection of all your projects can help lessen risks and enhance construction quality in the future. In addition, many construction firms today are already taking advantage of or open to using the latest and most advanced construction technologies in the market. There are sophisticated solutions that can level up your game regarding quality management, risk assessment, and mitigation.
Consider adopting today’s latest tools to help you predict, manage, and prevent risks to optimize project closeout and eventually improve the overall quality of your projects.
5. Work towards project closeout earlier
Create a task list and use it as you go. The closeout process in your project can start at the end, and as a matter of fact, it should not. Right from the start, you should use a list format to ensure that everybody is on the same page and set some expectations for every project phase.
Certain software solutions provide flexibility and accessibility to streamline the quality processes of your projects such as the tools we mentioned earlier. So, again we are here to remind you to take advantage of such tools because project closeout is quite complex and will affect everything from your client to your construction team to your bottom line. Therefore, it is worth investing to do closeout early on and use the right construction software app.
Pro Crew Schedule is Your Tool Kit for Improving Quality
As you reach the final part of this blog, we hope you understand what quality and its role in your business. We hope that quality in construction involves a ton of moving parts, and you must do your part to achieve a certain level of quality. And use the right strategies and incorporate Pro Crew Schedule, the leading project management software for the construction industry. You can manage, assure, control, and enhance the quality of your projects in the most efficient way.
Pro Crew Schedule serves as your toolkit for ensuring all jobs and tasks meet the highest possible quality standard for construction.
Look no further than this software solution. Explore it now. Click here for a free trial.
