Total Quality Management Tools and Techniques on Construction Projects

Abstract

In rapidly developing nations, enhancing construction quality and embracing continuous improvement are essential to advancing the construction industry. These goals are increasingly being met through the integration of quality management systems within construction firms. This paper explores the role of Total Quality Management (TQM) in driving such improvements, emphasizing its value and the tangible benefits realized by construction companies worldwide. Focusing on the Indian construction sector, the study delves into the current state of TQM adoption, the practical methods used in its implementation, and the challenges faced by organizations during this process. In addition, the paper outlines the specific advantages that TQM offers within the Indian context and proposes a straightforward framework to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in adopting TQM practices. Concluding with actionable recommendations, the study aims to support Indian construction firms in their quality improvement efforts, while also offering insights applicable to other developing countries with similar industrial environments.

Introduction

The construction industry is a critical sector responsible for building essential infrastructure like homes, offices, roads, and bridges, significantly contributing to economic growth and job creation. It involves collaboration among various professionals and operates under strict regulations to ensure safety, quality, and environmental care. Despite its importance, construction faces challenges such as skilled labor shortages, high material costs, and financial demands. Advances in technology are gradually making the industry more efficient and sustainable.

Total Quality Management (TQM) supports this progress by embedding quality at every project stage, emphasizing customer satisfaction, productivity, and continuous improvement. Effective TQM requires strong leadership and commitment, as poor quality can lead to costly rework, errors, complaints, and missed deadlines. TQM also enhances workplace safety by addressing risks proactively, reducing accidents and delays.

The study highlights that while TQM is widely used in manufacturing, its adoption in construction is limited due to the unique and variable nature of projects, which complicates standardizing quality management systems. Key quality factors include material standards, workforce skills, detailed execution, and concrete work management. The study aims to identify quality-impacting factors, quantify costs of poor quality, and raise quality awareness in small and medium construction firms.

A proposed TQM framework focuses on leadership commitment, organizational systems managing customers, people, suppliers, and information, and integrating process and improvement management. The framework emphasizes collaboration, continuous learning, and feedback loops at both corporate and project levels to ensure high-quality performance and customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

The study offers a basic framework for small- to medium-sized construction firms wishing to implement Total Quality Management (TQM). Small to medium-sized construction companies can effectively implement quality management principles and techniques to their operations by using this framework, which will improve quality control, lower the number of defects, and increase customer satisfaction. TQM strategies are largely perceived as beneficial and are already contributing to quality improvements in construction projects, a stronger organizational commitment, better training infrastructure, and cultural shift toward continuous improvement are essential to optimize their effectiveness. These insights provide valuable direction for both researchers and practitioners aiming to enhance quality performance in the construction industry.

References

[1] Pheng, L.S. and Teo, J.A., 2004. Implementing total quality management in construction firms. Journal of management in Engineering, 20(1), pp.8-15 [2] Raja, K.S. and Mubeena, M., Assessment of Total Quality Management in Construction Industry. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR), Vol-3, Issue-2, 2017 ISSN: 2454-1362. [3] Sangle, S., Aher, M.C. and Devalkar, R.V., 2017. Total quality management in construction industry. International Journal of Technical Research and Applications, 5(3). [4] Arditi, D. and Gunaydin, H.M., 1997. Total quality management in the construction process. International journal of project management, 15(4), pp.235-243. [5] Elghamrawy, T. and Shibayama, T., 2008. Total quality management implementation in the Egyptian construction industry. Journal of Management in Engineering, 24(3), pp.156-161. [6] Polat, G., Damci, A. and Tatar, Y., 2011, June. Barriers and benefits of total quality management in the construction industry: Evidence from Turkish contractors. In Proceedings of Seventh Research/Expert Conference with International Participation” QUALITY 2011 (pp. 1115-1120). [7] Patil, M.M. and Kulkarni, S.D., Assessment of Maturity Level of Total Quality Management in Construction Industry. [8] Shoshan, A.A.A. and ÇEL?K, G., 2018. Application of TQM in the construction industry of developing Countries-Case of Turkey. Anadolu University Journal of Science and Technology A-Applied Sciences and Engineering, 19(1), pp.177-191. [9] Likita, A.J., Zainun, N.Y., Rahman, I.A., Awal, A.A., Alias, A.R., Rahman, M.A. and Ghazali, F.M., 2018, April. An overview of total Quality management (TQM) practice in construction sector. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 140, No. 1, p. 012115). IOP Publishing. [10] HAUPT, T.C. and WHITEMAN, D.E., 2003. Deploying total quality management on construction sites: inhibiting factors. International Journal of Construction Management, 51, p.68. [11] Kiruthiga, K., 2016. Major factors affecting the execution of total quality management in the construction industry in India. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 9(2), pp. E135-E140. [12] Au, J.C. and Yu, W.W., 1999. Quality management for an infrastructure construction project in Hong Kong. Logistics Information Management, 12(4), pp.309-314. [13] Harrington, H.J., Voehl, F. and Wiggin, H., 2012. Applying TQM to the construction industry. The TQM Journal, 24(4), pp.352-362. [14] Elghamrawy, T. and Shibayama, T., 2008. Total quality management implementation in the Egyptian construction industry. Journal of Management in Engineering, 24(3), pp.156-161. [15] Asim, M., uz Zaman, S. and Zarif, T., 2013. Implementation of total quality management in construction industry: a Pakistan perspective. IBT Journal of Business Studies (JBS), 1(1). [16] Egwunatum, S.I., Anumudu, A.C., Eze, E.C. and Awodele, I.A., 2022. Total quality management (TQM) implementation in the Nigerian construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 29(1), pp.354-382. [17] Akintoye, A., McIntosh, G. and Fitzgerald, E., 2000. A survey of supply chain collaboration and management in the UK construction industry. European journal of purchasing & supply management, 6(3-4), pp.159-168. [18] Ngowi, A.B., 2000. Impact of culture on the application of TQM in the construction industry in Botswana. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 17(4/5), pp.442-452. [19] Coelho, C., Mojtahedi, M., Kabirifar, K. and Yazdani, M., 2022. Influence of Organisational Culture on Total Quality Management Implementation in the Australian Construction Industry. Buildings, 12(4), p.496. [20] Their, J.M. and Al Rawi, O.S., 2015. Development for proposed computerized questionnaire program to evaluate TQM implementation in Jordanian construction projects. Development, 4(9). [21] Mane, P.P. and Patil, J.R., 2015. Quality management system at construction project: A questionnaire survey. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 5(3), pp.126-130. [22] Taylor, W.A. and Wright, G.H., 2003. The impact of senior managers’ commitment on the success of TQM programmes: An empirical study. International Journal of manpower. [23] Barrett, P., 2000. Systems and relationships for construction quality. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 17(4/5), pp.377-392. [24] Pheng Low, S. and Faizathy Omar, H., 1997. The effective maintenance of quality management systems in the construction industry. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 14(8), pp.768-790. [25] Rajan, T. and Paul, A., 2017. Implementation of total quality management (tqm) in construction-a review. Vol-3 Issue-2. [26] Adeyemi, B.S., Aigbavboa, C.O. and Thwala, W.D., 2022. Factors Affecting Total Quality Management Implementation in the Construction Industry. [27] Shibani, A., Ganjian, E. and Soetanto, R., 2010. Implementation of total quality management in the Libyan construction industry. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2(4), pp.382-403. [28] Gumo, D.M., Makokha, E.N. and Namusonge, P.G., 2018. Effects of total quality management practices on performance of construction projects in Trans Nzoia County. Eur. J. Bus. Manag, 10, pp.166-175. [29] Ahmed, S.M., 1993. An integrated total quality management (TQM) model for the construction process. Georgia Institute of Technology. [30] Neyestani, B. and Juanzon, J.B.P., 2016. Developing an appropriate performance measurement framework for total quality management in construction, and other industries. [31] Polat, G., Damci, A. and Tatar, Y., 2011, June. Barriers and benefits of total quality management in the construction industry: Evidence from Turkish contractors. In Proceedings of Seventh Research/Expert Conference with International Participation” QUALITY 2011 (pp. 1115-1120). [32] Femi, O.T., 2015. Barriers and benefits of total quality management in the Nigerian construction industry: A review. International Journal of Engineering Works, 2(1), pp.7-13. [33] Ashiru, A.R., Aule, T.T. and Anifowose, K., The Use of Total Quality Management (TQM) Principles for Construction Projects in Nigerian Tertiary Institution. [34] Nayaka, Ramesh & CH, Shreyas Gowda & Murthy, Sacchidananda & BN, Shashikumar. (2015). Total Quality Management in Construction. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology. 02. 1243. [35] Suganthi, P., Sornalakshmi, R., Srinivasan, N.P., Nivethitha, M. and Priyavadhana, C., 2017. A Study on Factors affecting Total Quality Management in construction projects. International journal of civil engineering, 11, pp.203-207. [36] Raja, K.S. and Mubeena, M., Assessment of Total Quality Management in Construction Industry. [37] Love, P. E. D., Gunasekaran, A., and Li, H. 1998. “Concurrent engineering: A strategy for procuring construction projects.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 166, 375–383. [38] Arane, M.N.M. and Dod, R.D., Implementation of Total Quality Management for Managing Sewer Construction Using Quality Tools. Case Study of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pune, India. [39] Yasamis, F., Arditi, D., and Mohammadi, J. 2002. “Assessing contractor quality performance.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 203, 211–223. [40] Kululanga, G. K., Price, A. D. F., and McCaffer, R. 2002. “Empirical investigation of construction contractors’ organizational learning.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 1285, 385–391. [41] Anderson, J. C., Rungtusanathan, M., and Schroeder, R. G. 1994. “A theory of quality management underlying the Deming management method.” Acad. Manage. Rev., 193, 472–509. [42] Flynn, B. B., Schroeder, R. G., and Sakakibara, S. 1994. “A framework for quality management research and an associated measurement instrument.” J. Oper. Manage., 114, 339–366.

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Sanket Akhade , Mr. R. D. Shinde . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.