DELGADO-HERNANDEZ, David Joaquin

Quality management case studies in the UK construction industry - Oxfordshire, UK : Taylor & Francis, September-October 2008

The UK construction sector has been challenged to adopt manufacturing concepts to improve its performance. Total Quality Management (TQM) has been suggested as one approach that could bring about benefits to the industry. However, to date, the associated literature offers little specific information relating to current practices in the UK. To determine how construction companies deal with quality issues within their processes, seven case studies were performed. The information collected shows that the industry has begun to take up the challenge and, as a result, companies have won repeat business, increased their market shares and improved their customer satisfaction levels. Nevertheless, participant companies also recognised that there are still shortcomings in their practices such as lack of internal communication, ineffective decision-making processes and poor identification of customer needs