Non-conformance and rework in construction: a quality management improvement initiative for change

Ford, Gavin 2024. Non-conformance and rework in construction: a quality management improvement initiative for change. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

Preview	PDF (Thesis) - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (21MB) | Preview
	PDF (Cardiff University Electronic Publication Form) - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only Download (644kB)

Abstract

Rework plagues the construction industry, with rework costs as high as 12.6% of total contract value. Enormous pressures are put on public spend as a result of significant project cost and time overruns. Non-conformance reports (NCRs) are widely used as a quality assurance tool to record and correct non-compliant works in accordance with standards. Unfortunately, the frequency of NCRs infers the industry is struggling to grapple with right-first-time (RFT) delivery, partly due to a lack of investigation into quality failures on projects, and lessons learning. The overall aim of this thesis is to derive quality management improvement practices and learning outcomes through NCR analytics and practitioner feedback to enhance construction quality outputs. The research adopts a mixed method approach in two phases. Phase 1 analyses 1260 NCRs from a unique UK highways mega-project dataset to uncover the most impactful failure themes for improvement. Phase 2 presents a survey within a tier 1 principal contractor to gain further insights into the perceptions of quality from industry professionals. This research highlights critical failure themes in construction projects through NCR data, gains insight into industry professional perceptions of quality, provides lessons learned outcomes to prevent recurrence, and presents a detailed quality excellence and improvement framework to help transition towards RFT. It also explores the use of cognitive tools like the ‘Cynefin framework’ to aid in quality problem solving with the aid of RCA techniques. Collective findings from each phase are synthesised into a holistic quality management framework to help drive continuous improvement. The generalisability of the findings is limited to highways projects. However, the learning outcomes and quality management practices developed may be transferrable across other sectors. The framework can be adopted by leaders and quality management practitioners at organisation, sector and industry levels to enhance quality outputs and drive continuous improvement.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Quality management, non-conformance, rework, construction, highways, complexity, decision-making, problem-solving, framework
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	15 August 2024
Last Modified:	15 Aug 2024 13:26
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171412

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item