Quality Management System

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN CONSTRUCTION

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ABSTRACT: This paper describes the Quality Management System (QMS) concept and its application in the construction industry. A misunderstanding among the construction players on the QMS concept has become the stumbling block for its successful implementation. QMS could be implemented either at the company level or at the project level. The researches on the company-based QMS in construction can be considered as comprehensive in view of the various aspects of implementation have been studied. While many studies have been done on the company-based QMS, study on the project-based QMS is lagging behind. Notwithstanding the claims that the construction organisations enjoyed the benefits and advantages of being an ISO 9000 certified are literally proven, the main objective of QMS implementation namely the achievement of customer satisfaction in the construction projects is still at large. At the project level, QMS requires Project Quality Plan (PQP) as part of the system. PQP is also not well understood by the industry players and consequently the implementation of PQP faces a lot of problems. The significant information to be considered in developing, implementing and maintaining the PQP are the project policy and objectives, the process, the process owners and the work procedures. PQP could be developed either individually for each party of the project or as an integrated documents for all parties of the project team. Keywords: Quality Management System, Project Quality Plan, Construction

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INTRODUCTION For the past decade, the Malaysian construction sector has been going through a radical change driven by the (ISO) quality policy of the Malaysian government. Recently, the number of contractors obtaining certification of ISO 9000 Quality Management System (QMS) is ever increasing. However, this progress is seemed to be a drastic response to the constant pressure and reminder made by the Ministry of Works and

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