In the construction industry we can define quality as the accomplishment of satisfactory performance levels from construction activities. The acceptable and satisfactory performance can be achieved when the activity fulfills or surpasses the customer’s or owner’s requirement. A quality policy for construction, is a document which summarise a construction company’s commitment to quality and the framework for their objectives. There can be a difference in the length and detail of the quality statement across various construction companies. However, usually the contents of quality policies are quite similar and includes “quality” through main features of the value chain in construction, including compliance, service and experience, customer needs, health and safety, environmental quality, testing, defect management, waste management, sourcing and supplies. A quality policy for construction is inclined to focus on these things and demonstrate the principles behind the organisation’s attitude towards them.
Significance of a Quality Policy
Generally, the quality policy for construction companies can be taken as their assurance in terms of how their organisation is delivering their projects in a way which is compliant with their quality policy. Indeed, it is quite important to have a good quality statement, however it is more important to live and breathe that promise, since the everyday processes and working teams become the reputation of an organisation as well as display the reliability level of its quality policy and other formal statements. A quality policy statement should clearly show the organisation principles since they are very personal and significant to specific companies and play the role of a company’s individual personality. The ideal quality statements are those which are thorough and related to the particular industry and their activities exemplify them. It must be kept in mind that in construction a good quality policy should mention and highlight their quality management systems in every aspect.
How to Create a Quality Policy for Construction
First of all, it must lay out its objectives for the organisation’s commitment towards quality assurance. For example, it can have an objective of documenting and measuring quality objectives and targets by means of internal audit as well as management reviews. In order to achieve these objectives and meet the customer requirements, the construction company must be committed to implement and maintain an Integrated Management System (IMS) based on ISO standards. An IMS typically include ISO 9001 which cover Quality Management, ISO 14001 which cover Environmental Management and ISO 45001 which cover Occupational Health & Safety Management. They are all very important, particularly to construction industry.
In addition to that, a quality policy for construction must highlight the role of its senior management team and their commitment representing leadership in regards to the quality management system and taking accountability for the system’s effectiveness. It must demonstrate their complete support with other related management roles to establish their leadership role as it’s relevant to their area of responsibility.
A quality policy must also ensure the incorporation of the quality management system into the business processes of an organisation. Likewise, it must also encourage the use of risk-based thinking and a process approach. The identification of improvement in any area of the organisations must be addressed in an ideal quality policy. These improvements must be supported by implementing supporting action plans to ensure its efficiency. During the creation of a quality policy, the resources including both technical and personnel should be shown as being focused towards preventing quality deficiencies. Furthermore, commitment towards continual improvement is also an essential aspect of a quality policy for construction, which covers monitoring, analysis and training. An ideal feature of a quality statement is its reference towards how the complete workforce and all business operations are being committed to quality assurance.
There is no doubt that it is hard to deliver projects and even harder to deliver them with all of these promises. If a construction company is having a difficult time to reach the heights established by its quality policy statement and to stay above its quality processes and operations, then it must explore to streamline and automate these tricky elements by means of dedicated ISO document control and quality software. Organisations of all sizes can take help from these systems for documenting, organising and tracking quality in an easy way.
