Total Quality Performance of Design/Build Firms Using Quality Function Deployment

Abstract

The belief that the design-build (D/B) project delivery system does not lend itself to effective quality assurance and control is quite common in construction circles. Total quality consists of: (1) the corporate quality culture; (2) the quality of the project service; and (3) the quality of the constructed facility. This paper describes a model that was developed to measure the total quality of a D/B firm using quality function deployment (QFD). The first part of this model is described elsewhere and measures the effectiveness of the corporate quality culture and the quality of the service when delivering a project by using QFD. The second part of the model is described in this paper. It makes use of eight building quality factors, three building performance factors, and the relationships between building quality and performance factors (obtained from building users/evaluators) and it measures the quality performance of the constructed facility by using QFD. A total quality performance index is generated by combining the quality performance at the corporate, project, and product levels. The total quality performance measurement model described in this paper can be used by D/B firms to benchmark themselves against their competitors or to monitor their own performance. It can also be used by owners to rank D/B firms relative to their total quality performance.