1.1 PREAMBLE TO INTRODUCTION According To CII (1995) Project Planning Is The Process Through Which The Management Collects And Organize The Strategic Information To Cope Up With The Specific Uncertain Situation Or Project. The Resources Required To

1.0 Background in construction project quality management

Along with economical trade globalization and market economy development, construction enterprises are facing new market competition. For construction enterprises, construction project quality is the key to the success of the construction. Therefore, it is particularly important to do well on the control of construction quality, especially under the condition of today's growing infrastructure construction in China.

The US-led western developed countries started early in the aspect of quality management. They have formed a sound quality management system and achieved significant effects. On the contrary, the oriental countries started late in this respect. In 1958 and 1959, the Swedish Government issued the "construction Law" and "construction Law Act" with the approval of the parliament. Then, the National Planning and Construction Bureau issued building regulations and codes. In order to strengthen quality control, an authoritative professional quality control committee was formed. It assisted the government to make a lot of quality control, achieving outstanding effects. French Government adopted legislation and economic means to make construction enterprises strengthen quality management, improve the quality of engineering and products. It has already formed a relatively complete system in such aspects as legislation, management, supervision and inspection. At the same time, it combines the mandatory inspection and enterprise self-inspection, and establishes a complete self-inspection system to ensure the engineering quality.

In 1958, China started to promote the use of mathematical statistics in some enterprises for quality management. In March 1980, State Economic and Trade Commission formally issued the "Interim Measures of Industrial Enterprises' Total Quality Management". This was implemented in enterprises in a timely manner, which greatly accelerated the pace of the implementation of total quality management. Since 1995, China has adopted GB/T 1995-ISO 9000 "Quality Management and Quality Assurance" series standards. The series standards integrate the world's advanced management experience, and describe the modern high efficiency management mode.

However, nowadays many enterprises in China still have oversights on the construction quality. Major construction quality accidents occur frequently, and there are a number of shoddy "jerry-built" projects, which cause huge negative influence in society. The Ministry of construction conducted quality and safety inspection on residential construction. It found almost 8? projects with hidden dangers among 10075 projects. According to the statistics of National Urban Housing Conditions by National Bureau of Statistics in 2007, the construction area of dangerous housing was 77.0321 million square meters. Though construction quality were improved to some extent in recent years, the ratio of unqualified projects is still very high. Therefore, it is a topic worth studying on how to strengthen the control of construction quality so as to improve and guarantee the quality of building products.

 

2.0 Aim and objectives

2.1 Aim

The aim of this study is to further strengthen China's projects quality management, thereby promoting the development speed of China's construction industry. At the same time, it also provides reference for other related enterprises on project quality management.

 

2.2 Objectives

• Analyze the present situation and existing problems of enterprises' project quality management.
• Through the establishing the quality management system of construction projects, further demonstrate the importance of quality control and management.
• Case study: through analysis on real project, find out the main reasons affecting the construction quality.
• Make strategies and recommendations to improve project quality management.

 

3.0 Scope of study

Scope of study mainly include: investigation and analysis aim at China's current construction project quality management; then on the case of Shanghai Sheshan Villa construction project of Shanghai Greenland construction Ltd., conduct critical analysis and discussion on the strength and weakness of project quality management in the construction stage.

 

4.0 Literature Review

In order to conduct a research on project quality management of China’s construction industry, it is extremely necessary to review relative theories and previous researches on project quality management. As project quality management is quite a new subject in China, therefore, in this part, the review of quality management and the review of project quality management aim to offer some guidance for the following case study on project quality management of Shanghai Sheshan Villa construction project in China.

 

4.1 The review of quality management

The concept of quality has always been in a constant development and many researchers have proposed their own viewpoints. For instance, Crosby (1984), an American quality management scholar, believes that the quality means being suitable for the certain standard. While Juran (1994) thinks that product quality refers to applicability, that is, the products can successfully meet the needs of users. Sears et al. (2015) proposes that the quality of the product refers to the extent of losses to the society. All in all, it can be said that the formation of quality theory is a combination of famous quality master’ theory and various organization's research results.

 

The current literature researches mainly focus on engineering quality management, and they generally carry out a unified research on quality supervision, quality management, safety management and quality management. Elhott (1991) believes that personnel training and education are the premise to achieve reasonable and effective use of quality system. Thus, he pays attention to the whole process and the control of people. Hughes and Ahmed (1991) put forward that personnel's quality is the key point to achieve product quality and they proposed the rating of employee is a significant factor in an effective performance of the QA-QC (Quality Assurance-Quality Control) system. In addition, Crosby (1979) put forward the concept of "zero defect". He indicated "the quality is free", which jump out of the old view that a good level of quality generally means high cost. He also put forward that high quality would bring high economic returns to the enterprise.

 

4.2 The review of project quality management

According to modern project management theory, quality, cost and time are not only the three objectives of project, but also the important factors to measure weather a project is successful (Sears et al., 2015). Therefore, project quality management is an important part of project management. As a cross discipline developed on the basis of quality management and project management, project quality management is still in the early stage of development, and it has not yet formed a mature theoretical system.

Walker (2015) defines project quality management process as organization's activities that insure the implementation of originally scheduled project, which includes all the activities such as quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, quality (if applicable) policies, procedures, and processes to implement the quality system. According to Walker (2015), the concept of continuous improvement of quality is proposed, and since then, the project quality management process starts to form a closed loop. Gould and Joyce (2003) point out that the project quality management must consider two aspects, which include both project management and product management. In any case, as long as one of the two substandard can’t be in accordance with quality requirements, it will give bring serious negative consequences to some or all of the project stakeholders. Besides, Turner (2002) put forward the five elements model project of quality management, including product quality, management process quality, quality assurance, quality control, good attitude. In his theory, products and management are two elements that represent the essential contents of the quality management, quality assurance and quality control are the elements that represent what the managers should do to control the qualities, and the final element represents the project personnel's attitude to participation. The five elements model achieved complete quality management in the whole management process.

As a cross discipline, project quality management develops on the basis of quality management and project management, the theory are actually still in the early stages of development, the research achievements about project quality management is less than other management theories. And the vast most of the theoretical study is based on general quality management theory; however, since the management object is the project itself, particularity still exists in the practice.

 

 

 

5.0 Methodology

This study will adopt the quantitative research method combining with qualitative research method. Based on multiple theories, discussion is carried out by combining theoretical analysis and case analysis research methods. The methods are as follows: 

Case study: Through the case of Shanghai Sheshan Villa construction project, each link and factor in the process of project construction were investigated and studied, including management and control of human factors, quality management and control of mechanical equipment, quality management of materials, quality management and control of construction methods and process, management and control of environmental factors. Through the case study, the advantages and potential problems of the quality management methods during the project construction phase are analyzed.

Quantitative research method will be one of my research methods. Survey method is the most common method. It can comprehensively collect the specific conditions and data of some aspect of the research object. Through data statistics and analysis, it leads to conclusions. I would adopt the questionnaire method to obtain data and information. The research content will be the enterprise's policy, system and behavior to the project quality and safety management, as well as the factors that affect the quality and safety. The research objects are personnel responsible for project quality and safety including safety inspectors, managers and directors in the construction units. My goal is to get 100 complete questionnaires, which will help me get more accurate data.

In-depth interview: Interview, which is research talks, is in an oral form. According to replies of respondents, it is a method to collect objective, unbiased fact materials in order to accurately show the overall conditions the samples stand for. The information collection through interview method is achieved by direct face-to-face conversations between researchers and respondents. It has good flexibility and adaptability. The research method is suitable for the research object of this topic. Through interviews on project managers of Shanghai Sheshan Villa construction project, in-depth data collection can be conducted on the project quality management.

 

 

Reference

Akintoye, A. S., & MacLeod, M. J. (1997). Risk analysis and management in construction. International journal of project management, 15(1), 31-38.

 

Arditi, D., & Gunaydin, H. M. (1997). Total quality management in the construction process. International Journal of Project Management, 15(4), 235-243.

 

Burati Jr, J. L., Matthews, M. F., & Kalidindi, S. N. (1991). Quality management in construction industry. Journal of construction Engineering and Management, 117(2), 341-359.

 

Chan, A. P., Scott, D., & Chan, A. P. (2004). Factors affecting the success of a construction project. Journal of construction engineering and management, 130(1), 153-155.

 

Clough, R. H., Sears, G. A., & Sears, S. K. (2000). Construction project management. John Wiley & Sons.

 

Crosby, P. B. (1979). Quality is free: The art of making quality certain. New York.

 

Crosby, L. B. (1984). The just-in-time manufacturing process: control of quality and quantity. Production and inventory management, 25 (4), 21-33.

 

Edum-Fotwe, F. T., & McCaffer, R. (2000). Developing project management competency: perspectives from the construction industry. International Journal of Project Management, 18(2), 111-124.

 

Elliott, R. P. (1991). Quality Assurance: Specification development and implementation. Transportation Research Record, (1310).

 

Gould, F. E., & Joyce, N. E. (2003). Construction project management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

Hancher, D., & Lambert, S. (2002). Quality-based prequalification of contractors. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (1813), 260-274.

 

Hendrickson, C., & Au, T. (1989). Project management for construction: Fundamental concepts for owners, engineers, architects, and builders. Chris Hendrickson.

 

Hughes, R. K., & Ahmed, S. A. (1991). Highway construction quality management in Oklahoma. Transportation Research Record, (1310).

 

Juran, J. M. (1994). The upcoming century of quality. Quality Progress, 27(8), 29.

 

McKim, R., Hegazy, T., & Attalla, M. (2000). Project performance control in reconstruction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 126(2), 137-141.

 

Navon, R. (2005). Automated project performance control of construction projects. Automation in Construction, 14(4), 467-476.

 

Oberlender, G. D. (1993). Project management for engineering and construction (Vol. 2). New York: McGraw-Hill.

 

Pheng, L. S., & Teo, J. A. (2004). Implementing total quality management in construction firms. Journal of management in Engineering, 20(1), 8-15.

 

Sears, S. K., Sears, G. A., Clough, R. H., Rounds, J. L., & Segner, R. O. (2015). Construction project management. UK: John Wiley & Sons.

 

Turner, J. R. (2014). The handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). UK: McGraw-Hill.

 

Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. UK: John Wiley & Sons.

 

Wong, A. (1999). Total quality management in the construction industry in Hong Kong: A supply chain management perspective. Total Quality Management, 10(2), 199-208.