Construction's experiences of attempting to become world class: The role of academics in assisting practitioners

The use of quality management in construction is well established. The introduction of initiatives such as Quality Assurance (QA) using ISO 9000 (formerly BS 5750) was for some organisations a requirement imposed by customers. Many organisations have used the formalisation of documents and procedures necessary for third party accreditation (the crux of QA) as a foundation for pursuing 'lean production' initiatives such as TQM, BPR and benchmarking. The paper explores the issues that construction contractors must confront in their efforts to start and then to sustain what are undoubtedly radical programmes of change. In particular, we compare their experiences of implementing quality management to research carried out by Dale & Lascelles (1993) which indicates that there are six levels of TQM adoption. Specifically, we will describe our involvement with a group of quality managers from large contractors in the West Midlands. As a result of the more demanding requirements of clients in the wake of Latham, the group is now increasingly attempting to learn and apply lessons for improvement derived from other industries, particularly manufacturing. As part of the change process, we, as academics, are increasingly being looked to for advice on how to transfer the lessons and knowledge from the other industries.