The effectiveness of formal quality management systems in achieving the required cover in reinforced concrete

Shammas-Toma, Mazin; Seymour, David; Clark, Leslie

doi:10.1080/014461996373421

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Similar approach has been applied in some other researches on the implementation and effectiveness of quality management systems in the UK construction industry (Moatazed-Keivani et al, 1999;Abdul-Rahman, 1996;Shammas-Toma et al, 1996). Such approach is deemed to be suited to the aims of this study which is concerned primarily with ascertaining the perceptions and experiences of practitioners in the industry (Moatazed-Keivani et al, 1999).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of Quality Management in Construction Projects

2011

CBR

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This research explores preliminarily the practices of quality management, management commitment in quality management, and quality management implementation problems in construction projects in the context of Malaysian construction industry. The research applies semi-structured interview approach with twelve project management practitioners. The findings of the study indicate that the state of quality management in construction projects in Malaysia needs to be strengthened and there are problems in relation to quality management implementation that require attention and further research. The paper provides an insight on the state of quality management in construction projects in Malaysia.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of Quality Management in Construction Projects

2011

CBR

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“…Meanwhile, the contractual role of such drawings, in specifying a further product, contributes to an air of unreality and antagonism on site (Shammas-Toma, Seymour & Clark 1996).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, even when constructing identical elements, there was found to be substantial variation in the consistency of the processes involved. Statistical analysis of variability, stated by Juran and Gryna (1993) as a necessary criterion for the use of constant tolerances as an effective quality standard, were found to be non-existent on the study sites (Shammas-Toma, Seymour & Clark 1996).…”

Section: Case Study: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was found that the cover achieved in a sample of walls and columns on twenty-five construction projects, all being undertaken by quality assured contractors, Things or Flows? Rooke, Koskela, Seymour 2007showed significant variation from values specified in the design (Shammas-Toma, Seymour & Clark 1996). Design practice for specifying required cover is based on codes of practice which assume that there are consistent patterns in the variability of cover achieved in the finished product, where, in other words, the yet-to-be finished product on site provides the standards for assessing the functionality of the design, ignoring the process by which the product will be realised.…”

Section: Case Study: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Producing things or production flows? Ontological assumptions in the thinking of managers and professionals in construction

Rooke

Koskela

Seymour³

2007

Construction Management and Economics

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New approaches to production management can be conceptualized as treating production as flow rather than transformation. These alternatives can in turn be regarded as reflecting opposing ontological positions, holding respectively that reality is constituted of temporal process, or atemporal substance. The new production philosophy thus arguably represents a process ontology radically different from the atemporal metaphysics underlying conventional methods and theories. Moreover, research in physics education has identified the disjunction between ontological categories of 'substance' and 'process' as a particularly acute barrier to understanding process phenomena. Studies are presented which demonstrate the possibility of specifying and classifying mental models, with regard to two important management solutions in construction. Thus, procedures typically adopted in Quantity Surveying and the implementation of Structural Engineering Design are examined. Methods of measurement used in Quantity Surveying are designed to account primarily for physical, rather than temporal properties. In design, the emphasis is on representing properties of finished structures, rather than the construction processes. The process is then managed by treating the design and its Things or Flows? Rooke, Koskela, Seymour 2007 1 execution as separate products. It is argued here that alternative, more effective management solutions are derived from a process ontology.

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“…In this conception, design specifications can be seen as a resource to the construction process. This analysis is noncongruent with traditional contractual arrangements and highlights a conflict between contractual provisions and the optimisation of production, such that the contractor is forced to adopt an ineffective mode of quality control (Shammas-Toma, Seymour & Clark 1996). It brings into focus the range of variations in conditions that occur in the construction process that are beyond the predictive capacity of the designer.…”

Section: Management Studies: Holding-up-a-mirrormentioning

confidence: 99%

Studies of Work: Achieving Hybrid Disciplines in IT Design and Management Studies

Rooke

Seymour

2005

Hum Stud

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We explore the relationship between ethnomethodology (EM), ethnography and the needs of managers and designers in industry, considering both ethnomethodological and industrial criteria of adequacy and explicating their relationship through the concept of "audience." We examine a range of studies in this light, with a view to their possible candidacy as hybrid studies and identify three types of application of EM studies of work: market research, design, and business improvement. Application in the first of these fields we dub "anthropological," in that it consists in studying and reporting back on the ways of exotic people (customers). This is the application most commonly found in studies of computer supported co-operative work (CSCW). A second CSCW application, "technomethodology,"involves the introduction of EM concepts into the design process. A further application, dubbed "holding-up-a-mirror," involves reporting back to members of a setting upon their own activities. We argue that technomethodology and holding-up-a-mirror both offer the possibility of creating hybrid disciplines. We consider the objection that improvement and design involve the introduction of value judgements that threaten the practice of EM indifference, arguing that action research can serve as a guarantee of unique adequacy (UA) by testing the researcher's understanding as analysis in action in the setting. Furthermore, the standard of reporting required by the UA criterion contributes to the effectiveness of proposed solutions.Key words: Ethnomethodology; Studies of Work; Hybrid Disciplines; Unique Adequacy; Ethnomethodological Indifference; Technomethodology. 3 Studies of Work: Achieving Hybrid Disciplines in IT Design and Management Studies Ethnography and Ethnomethodology (EM)Harold Garfinkel (1988Garfinkel ( /1991 offers an eight point definition of ethnomethodological (EM) studies and phenomena. This can be seen as identifying four aspects of EM:1. that its phenomena are substantive, unique, local, reflexively produced and ubiquitous; 2. that they are available through EM policies, notably the policies of EM indifference and the Unique Adequacy (UA) requirement of methods; 3. that they are unavailable to the various conventional procedures of formal social analysis and, while necessary to the practice of such analysis, are properly absent from it; 4. that they "specify 'foundational' issues, in and as the work of a 'discipline' that is concerned with issues of produced order in and as practical action" (1988/1991: 16).It is arguable that the use of EM policies alone is sufficient to distinguish EM phenomena.These phenomena are by definition available through EM policies and not through any policy of formal/constructive analysis. Further, we suggest that EM phenomena are the only phenomena available through EM policies. It is arguable that these phenomena are necessarily foundational. However, we will suggest that the foundational nature of EM phenomena is itself context dependent, an idea we will explicate through the con...

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The effectiveness of formal quality management systems in achieving the required cover in reinforced concrete

Cited by 24 publications

References 10 publications

Study of Quality Management in Construction Projects

Study of Quality Management in Construction Projects

Producing things or production flows? Ontological assumptions in the thinking of managers and professionals in construction

Studies of Work: Achieving Hybrid Disciplines in IT Design and Management Studies

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