Construction

engineering and
Management (18CEC24)
UNIT-4

Presented by
V Sai Teja
Safety in construction
Why construction is accident
prone sector
Losses due to Accidents
Causes and Sources of
accidents
Preventive measures
Personal protection equipment
Costs of an accident
 Direct cost
 Indirect cost
HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT AND
REGULATIONS
 There are two major pieces of legislation governing health and safety law.
These are:
 • Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and
Condition of Services) Act 1996
 • Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and
Condition of Services) Central Rules 1998
 Allied to these are several statutory instruments governing safety. These
are:
 • Factories Act 1948
 • The Delhi Building and Other Constructions Workers (Regulation of
Employment and Condition of Services) Rules 2002
 • Indian Electricity Act 1948
 • Indian Electricity Regulations 1956
 • Motor Vehicle Act 1998 Although the Central Rules 1998 came into
existence over 10 years back, the formulation and implementation of these
rules at state level is yet to materialize. In order to make these rules
operational,
 the states need to (1) establish a state advisory committee, (2) establish an
expert committee, (3) establish a welfare board, (4) appoint inspectors, and
(5) formulate rules applicable in the specific state.
Quality
 The quality of construction is one of the matters of great
concern with most civil engineering constructions.
 builder constructed a house but did not make his work strong
with the result that the house which he built collapsed and so
caused the death of the owner of the house, the builder shall be
put to death.
 Existing laws might prevent such harsh penalties in the present
scenario, but the consequences may rather be in terms of loss in
productivity, additional expenditures by way of rework and
repair, re-inspection and retest in the short term. In the long
term, poor quality can hurt reputation, and if the company
continues in the same way it might have to close its shop for
want of new projects. If a number of construction companies of
a country start neglecting the quality aspects in their projects,
this also starts reflecting on the reputation of the country
Quality control
 Definition of Quality The term ‘quality’ has many connotations
when used by different stakeholders. Some of the ways in which
‘quality’ has been defined as follows
 It is the fitness for purpose.
 It is conformance to specification.
 It is about meeting or exceeding the needs of the customer.
 It is value for money.
 Consistence – lack of variability
 It is customer satisfaction/customer delight.
 It is doing it right the first time and every time.
 It is reduction of variability
Quality control and
management
Quality assurance
 Total quality
 Total quality control
 Total quality management
 Zero defect
 Statistical quality control
 Stochastic statistics applied to sampling inspections
 Use of sampling tables for acceptance inspection
Quality costs
Example
 It becomes very complex when we try to put it into actual practice.
For a user, quality is nothing but satisfaction with the appearance,
performance and reliability of the project for a given price range.
 The term ‘quality’ is often associated with products that are costly;
however, it does not mean that products of low price cannot be of
good quality.
 If the product meets the stated and unstated (intended)
requirement of the customer, it can still be called a quality
product. Most of the works in ‘quality’ are reported from the
manufacturing industry, while very few are reported in the context
of construction quality.
 How do we define construction quality? Is it the quality of
materials being used in construction, the quality of workmanship,
or the fulfilment of the end user’s ultimate requirements?
INSPECTION, QUALITY CONTROL AND QUALITY
ASSURANCE IN PROJECTS
 Quality standards obtained from modern construction projects have
not kept pace with developments in technology and management in
construction industry. Recurring incidents of faulty design and
construction have caused untold damage and loss of life and
property.
 Economic and legal implications of construction failures are nothing
compared to the human lives that are lost and the permanent or
temporary physical, mental and psychological suffering. Construction
quality can be affected by:
 Whether a clear set of design and drawings is available—sometimes
the confusion in design and drawings may show up in poor quality of
construction
 Whether a clear, well-laid-out and unambiguous set of specifications
is available
 Whether a clearly defined quality-control methodology exists
 Whether there has been usage of proper materials, workers and
equipment during the construction processes
 A well-defined quality control programme should be established for
each project and the organization structure of the programme
should be very explicit. For an efficient quality control system, it is
essential to develop and encourage cooperation among the
participants so as to minimize the adversary relationships the
traditional contract methods tend to generate. Designers should
work closely with contractors to meet project quality objectives.
Situations in which the designers ‘police’ the contractor’s
performance do alienate them from the latter.
 Quality control is the responsibility of the entire project team
(including owner). Quality control inspections should be done with
the motive of encouraging and ensuring good workmanship rather
than to catch culprits. Specifications should be realistic and these
must consider natural variations in workmanship.
 In spite of the diverse factors influencing construction quality
control, it remains a possible goal. The process entails a system
approach that makes participants in the construction process work
together as a team. By taking better care and offering incentives
for good workmanship, quality construction can be obtained.
Legislation and regulations can ensure and safeguard the health,
safety and welfare of the public by securing better construction
quality.
 Inspection
 Inspection usually entails checking the physical appearance of an item
against what is required. Activities such as measuring, examining, testing
and gauging one or more characteristics of a product or service and
comparing this with specified requirements are part of inspection. It is
generally a non-destructive qualitative observation such as checking
performance against descriptive specifications and, thus, it could be
subjective in nature. In some cases, gauges or machines may be required
to do some simple measurements or examinations. Collecting concrete
cube samples and testing them for quality interpretation is one of the
most common examples of inspection in concrete construction operation.
The three common levels of inspection are—
 (1) at the time of receiving the raw materials, parts, assemblies and other
purchased items;
 (2) at the time of processing; and
 (3) final inspection prior to acceptance of product. The process of
inspection is undertaken in a structured way using checklists. One such
sample checklist is shown in Figure in next slide
 Needless to say, the checklist helps to compare the characteristics
required out of a product vis-à-vis what is inbuilt in the product
 Quality Control (QC)
 ‘quality control’ Essentially the activities and techniques employed to
achieve and maintain the quality of a product, process, or service. It
involves a monitoring activity, but also concerns finding and
eliminating causes of quality problems so that the requirements of
the customer are continuously met. According to ISO, quality control
is defined as a set of activities or techniques whose purpose is to
ensure that all quality requirements are being met. In order to
achieve this purpose, processes are monitored and performance
problems are solved. Thus, quality control describes those actions
that provide the means to control and measure the characteristics of
an item, process, or facility against the established requirements.
Quality control is basically the responsibility of the production
personnel. A typical quality control programme would consist of
defining quality standard, defining procedures for the measurement
of attainment of that standard, execution of the procedures to
determine probable attainment or non-attainment of the standard,
and the power to enforce and maintain the defined standard as
measured according to the defined procedure.
 In the context of construction, quality control is administered
by the contractors or by the specialist consultants such as
consulting engineers or testing laboratories. Construction
quality control entails performing inspection, test,
measurement and documentation necessary to check, verify
and correct the quality of construction materials and methods.
Primary objectives of construction quality control are to
produce a safe, reliable and durable structure so that the
owner gets the best value for his investment. The construction
industry does not abide by a formal quality control programme
as do the construction-related industries. Quality control on
some projects could be haphazard and inconsistent. Because of
heterogeneity, it is impossible to employ a uniform approach to
check quality standards of construction work. Three major
quality control methods commonly used on construction
projects are:
 • Inspection
 • Testing
 • Sampling
Quality Assurance (QA)
 quality assurance is broadly the prevention of quality
problems through planned and systematic activities
(including documentation). These will include the
establishment of a good quality management system, the
assessment of its adequacy, the audit of the operation of the
system, and the review of the system itself. According to ISO,
quality assurance is defined as a set of activities whose
purpose is to demonstrate that an entity (such as product,
processes, person, department and organization) meets all
quality requirements. QA activities are carried out in order to
inspire the confidence of both customers and managers, that
all quality requirements are being met.
 In the context of construction, quality assurance activities include
all those planned and systematic administrative and surveillance
functions initiated by project owner or regulatory agents to enforce
and certify, with adequate confidence, compliance with established
project quality standards to ensure that the completed structure
and/or its components will fulfil the desired purposes efficiently,
effectively and economically. The increase in complexity in a project
has further increased the need for more efficient QA measures to
ensure compliance with contract specifications. Quality assurance
programmes encompass the following:
 Establishing the procedure for defining, developing and establishing
quality standards in design, construction and sometimes the
operational stages of the structure and/or its components
 Establishing the procedure to be used to monitor, test, inspect,
measure and perform current and review activities to assure
compliance with established quality standards, with regard to
construction materials, methods and personnel
 Defining the administrative procedure and requirements,
organizational relationships and responsibilities, communications
and information patterns, and other management activities required
to execute, document and assure attainment of the established
quality standards
ISO STANDARDS
 The growing need for common quality standards throughout
the world in manufacturing, inspection and test
specification, and the need for standardization led to the
formation of an international committee with the objective
of producing an international quality standard. The
committee considered many national inputs, especially the
stringent quality requirements for defense contractors, and
in 1987 produced a series of standards. These standards
were called ISO 9000. These are a set of guidelines to
effectively manage the important activities in an
organization which affect quality. These standards only
specify generic guidelines—applicable to any
industry/service organization. These are system standards
and not product standards, and are generally considered as
a milestone on the path to total quality management (TQM).
These establish a metric to evaluate continuous
improvement. International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) located at Geneva, Switzerland, is the approved body
for issue and guidance of international standards today.
Benefits of ISO 9000

 The ISO standards are advisory in nature and have worldwide

acceptance under two-party (for example, client–contractor)
contractual situations. There are agencies that certify that a
particular company is following ISO standards. ISO 9000 is
more than a certificate hanging on the wall of an
organization. Some of the benefits of implementing ISO
standards are listed below:
 It is increasingly becoming the requirement for global
export/tender and increases access to global supply to large
indigenous companies.
 It is increasingly becoming an effective marketing strategy
and provides decisive edge over competition. It also helps in
acquiring new customers.
 It ensures consistently dependable processes, less field
failures, less wasted time, materials, and efforts, and
reduction in scrap and rework. Thus, it helps in improving
overall productivity and profit. Some documented case
histories of ISO 9000 benefits (http://www.isocenter.com/9000/
benefits.html) for different categories of business include:
 Ten per cent sales increase directly attributable to ISO and a
reduction in costs yielding $300,000 per year in case of a
wholesale distributor
 Return on investment being achieved in less than two years
for a manufacturing-assembly shop
 Savings of $250,000 in the first year following registration in
case of a service and repair shop
 Eighteen per cent reduction in customer focus and 25 per cent
increase in production backlog in case of hardware
manufacturers
 In case of process-control systems and instrumentation
manufacturer, inventory reduction of 50 per cent; product-
cost reduction of 5 per cent; decrease in lost workdays of 80
per cent; increase in on-time deliveries of 12 per cent;
reduction in credit memos of 70 per cent; increase in market
share of 15 per cent
 Two per cent increase in overall margin in case of a keypad
manufacturer A company following the ISO standards
provision may wish to get certified by an assessment agency
and thereby get ISO registration. Of course, these
registrations are audited at certain specified intervals by
both external and internal auditors
Principles of Quality Management
Systems
 The ISO 9000 series of standards, being generic in nature,
can easily be tailored to fit the needs of a construction
organization. The crux of these standards is to say what it is
doing to ensure quality, to do what it says, and to document
what it has done is in accordance with what it has said. The
quality management systems adopted by ISO is based on the
following broad principles:
 1. Customer focus
 2. Leadership
 3. Involvement of people
 4. Process approach
 5. Systems approach to management
 6. Continual improvement: Organizations must improve their
overall performance on a continual basis and this should be
one of the permanent objectives.
 7. Factual approach to decision-making: In order to make an
effective decision, organizations must make their decisions
based on an analysis of factual data and information.
 8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationship: Organizations and
their suppliers are interdependent and, thus, a cordial
relation benefits both parties
ISO 9001–2000 Family of
Standards
ISO 9001 standard has eight sections. Out of the eight sections, the
first three are provided for information and the remaining five lay
down the requirements to be followed by the organization that is
implementing the standard. The International Organization for
Standardization developed a series of international standards for
quality systems (ISO 9000, 9001 and 9004).
 1. ISO 9000 describes the fundamentals of quality management
systems and specifies the terminology for quality management
system and that used in the other two standards.
 2. ISO 9001 specifies requirements for a QMS wherein an
organization needs to demonstrate its ability to provide products
that fulfil customer and applicable regulatory requirements, and aim
to enhance customer satisfaction.
 3.ISO 9004 provides guidelines that consider both the effectiveness
and efficiency of the QMS.
 4. ISO 19011 provides guidance on auditing quality and
environmental management system.
 The main sections deal with scope, normative reference,
terms and definitions, quality management system,
management responsibility, resource management, product
realization, and measurement analysis and improvement.