The role of project management is traditionally concerned with overseeing budgets, timelines, and customer relationships. A project manager must keep them all in balance as it is a fine juggling act. Moreover, he must integrate quality management systems to ensure the project's adherence to established standards, implement quality control measures to monitor and maintain the desired quality levels, and continuously focus on quality improvement throughout the project's lifecycle.
The truth is, that budgets, timelines and customer relationships all are intrinsically tied to quality. Indeed, as a project manager, wouldn’t it be so much easier to keep costs down, stay on schedule and improve customer satisfaction if quality was achieved first time, every time?
Of course, it would.
And this is precisely why construction quality management needs to be an organization-wide goal and a part of your project management processes, with project managers playing a leading and active role.
Ghost Management – Until There Is A Major Problem
While the project team is primarily responsible for maintaining a robust quality management system, ensuring quality assurance, and meticulously crafting quality planning, it is also true that top management leaders rarely get involved with quality control until a major problem occurs. This can put the project objectives or the entire project in jeopardy. For instance, a structural defect that threatens to set the project back by weeks and necessitates profit-eating rework will see project managers coming out of the woodwork. They will have to explain the delay to the customer and account for the additional costs to their management, underscoring the critical importance of these quality-related processes.
Even so, project management still tends to view construction quality management as a cost center rather than a profit driver. This is unfortunate – and a view that is in fact a cost center in itself.
Why?
Because achieving first-time quality is more cost-effective than allowing quality to suffer, mistakes to be made, and defects to occur – only to have to fix them later. Rework is expensive, not just in terms of mounting labour costs, but also in terms of customer satisfaction and time delays. as well. For that reason, it is important to understand the project life cycle and track project progress from the planning phase all the way to project completion.
These are all hugely important factors that project management needs to consider.
It goes without saying that the more you can reduce costs and embrace total quality management, the higher the project’s profitability will be. However, looking at the bigger picture, incurring persistent time delays while rework is conducted may ultimately impact your company's reputation, which can hamper your future business prospects and your customer focus. In addition, the longer it takes for the current project to be completed, the longer it is before you can move onto the next one, underscoring the importance of enterprise quality management software in streamlining your operations.
Benefits of a Company-Wide Construction Quality Management Process
The three main benefits of a deploying a company-wide construction quality management process chime in perfect harmony with the three primary concerns of project management – project costs, schedules and customer confidence.
When it comes to controlling costs, striving for first-time quality is far more effective than second- or even third-time quality. Money is inevitably saved when the job is done right the first time. When you’ve got numerous personnel spending half their days dealing with issues that could have been avoided, labor and material costs go up. Then there are the costs involved with the time it takes to deal with project delays – and the delays themselves chipping away at the project’s profitability and making it impossible to get things wrapped up so you can move onto the next jobsite.
A first-time quality management program will also help to improve customer confidence. Customers notice quality and they recognize when a contractor delivers it. This can lead to more repeat clients, more referrals and fewer unhappy customers. Indeed, first-time quality can be an extremely powerful sales tool for bringing on new clients and keeping your pipeline full.
Read How to run a Quality Management Program on 20 minutes a day
Building a First-time Quality Program with FTQ360
According to the Project Management Institute and our personal experience, achieving first-time quality on a consistent basis demands the establishment of a quality management system standard. This sets the foundation for preventing issues before they emerge and ensuring process improvement. It requires a top-down commitment from project management and the implementation of effective quality improvement methods. Having the right digital tools in place to execute the program is vital to this comprehensive approach.
Handling all first-time quality project management needs, across a whole Jobsite with multiple crews and subcontractors, is simply not feasible when relying on traditional paper documents and spreadsheets. Adopting an integrated construction quality management software solution like FTQ360 will help you eliminate these cumbersome tools as you roll out a consistent program and bake first-time quality into the very culture of your company.
One of the most important elements of achieving first-time quality involves building a structured inspection schedule. With FTQ360, this is achieved through inspection checklists which can be accessed by all team members and subcontractors via an easy-to-use smartphone or tablet app that stores all data and important documentation in the cloud.
These checklists can be built during pre-construction, where project managers and quality managers can identify errors that have happened before – as well as any concerns about potential issues – and add those items to the inspection checklist. This provides a clear and concise tool for communicating acceptance criteria to all personnel before the work starts, helping the project stay on schedule, while allowing managers to keep the project under control and prevent recurring issues – all of which contribute to lower costs and increased customer satisfaction.
When all participants understand what the desired outcome of a project is, the more likely they are to get it right the first time.
More than this though. With FTQ360, not only can you implement company-wide app-based checklists, you can also keep track of all many other elements of the quality inspection process, including who is going to perform the inspections, how frequently they will be performed and how deficiencies will be handled.
The system can even be used in between projects to help project management identify and hire subcontractors capable of performing quality work.
What’s more, once they’ve been selected, performance measuring functionality means you can keep everyone on track for delivering first-time quality – every time.
Final Thoughts
In order to reduce costs, improve timelines and increase customer satisfaction, quality management needs to be a pillar of your project management process right across the board. There are several reputable sources of information like "The Guide to the Project Management Body" that outline the importance of doing the right work during all project management phases. Adding quality management with our software will be a game changer.
FTQ360 is the tool for the job. To learn more about our solution and how it will help you accelerate towards first-time quality excellence, get in touch to find out more or request a software demo today.
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