Prioritizing the Main Elements of Quality Costs in Design-Build Mass-Housing Projects

Abstract

Reducing the cost of quality in mass-housing projects can reduce the overall cost and can also result in increasing profitability or the possibility of getting more projects due to the lower price offered in the tenders. The first step to reduce the cost of quality is to identify different elements, determine their impact on the final product quality and then prioritize them. In this study, questionnaires and structured interviews with experienced construction professionals were employed to identify and prioritize the fundamental elements using the P-A-F (prevention, evaluation, and failure) method, one of the most well-known methods for categorizing quality costs. The results indicate a high impact of preventive activities and the low impact of external failure activities on final product quality. According to the results, the use of experienced specialists and skilled workers is more effective than in-service training of inexperienced forces. Corrective actions of non-conformities and design improvements have a significant impact on final product quality. The new approach to COQ elements ranking, used in this research, can help decision-makers to prioritize the most effective activities in construction projects to increase final quality with an optimum quality cost.

Quantifying the cost of quality in construction projects: an insight into the base of the iceberg

“…The former occurs before dispatching, whereas later cost arises after dispatching the product to the client (Farooq et al 2017). Both these failures must be carefully managed to minimize the overall COQ (Balouchi et al 2019a). COPQ can have a detrimental impact on project constraints and dent the company's reputation and customer satisfaction (Sansalvador and Brotons 2017).…”

“…However, the cost items do not take the industry type into account. Hence, there is a need to categorize the main COQ cost items as per the construction projects (Balouchi et al 2019a). Based on the previous research regarding COQ in building construction, different prevention, appraisal, and failure costs have been identified.…”

The Effect of Prevention Aspects, Assessment Aspects, Internal Failure Aspects, and External Failure Aspects on the Benefits of Construction Company Projects

“…Increasing product quality can certainly reduce the rate of return of returned products from customers so it will therefore have an impact on reducing warranty and repair costs (Mulyana, 2020). Increasing product quality can also reduce production costs through the reduction or elimination of internal failure costs which have the largest share compared to assessment and prevention costs in production costs (Balouchi et al, 2019). Quality products will lead to low inventory in the warehouse, be it the inventory of raw materials, spare parts, and finished products (Ditkaew, 2018).…”