Proactive Quality Management in a Multi Residential Housing Project

Abstract

Costs of lacking quality, errors, and defects regarding housing projects within the Swedish construction industry account for up to 111 billion Svenska kronor yearly. A proactive approach towards quality management has been found facilitate a reduction in these costs. In this study literature regarding causes of errors and defects and measures to improve the proactivity towards quality management in housing production is studied. This is done in combination with a case study of a multi-residential housing projects to identify potential error and defect causes and how to manage the identified causes more proactively in the specific project. The method of the study is a qualitative, abductive case study where empirical material is gathered through interviews and a workshop in the case project. The primary causes of errors and defects identified is a lack of motivation, a lack of planning, time pressure, and a lack of knowledge or knowledge generating processes. They are found to be mutually dependent in relation to each other. Measures of improvement identified and recognized as prioritized action of improvement within the case project include: • Quality rounds, to allow for earlier detection of errors and defects. • Development of routines and standardization regarding digital tools for quality management, to facilitate the error management project of specific projects and provide groundwork for organizational learning from defect data. • Adapted work preparation for uncomplex work activities, to facilitate the development work preparations by being less extensive and time consuming. Potentially leading to mitigation of errors and defects during the performing of the prepared activity. • Part-completion controls, to facilitate earlier detection of errors and defects, while they require less rework to be corrected, while potentially also mitigating the recurrence of errors and defects. • Initial quality meeting, a meeting held early in the project to facilitate knowledge transfer regarding risks potentially causing costly and extensive errors.