Product and process integration for the US design-construction industry

In this study, a reinterpretation of design of product and process in the design-construction industry is presented. This reinterpretation promises to provide a means to improve the quality and productivity of completed facilities, and improve the competitiveness, both domestically and internationally, of U.S. design-construction firms. The reasons for the decline in competitiveness and productivity in the design-construction industry, various solutions proposed to remedy the decline, and potential solutions available to reverse the decline are reviewed. The relationship between poor quality and declining productivity in the industry is analyzed. Statistical process control (SPC) theory as developed by Shewhart and Deming is reviewed. The most recent quality management theories, quality function deployment (QFD), and Taguchi Methods are reviewed. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of quality in current design-construction processes are developed using techniques from graph theory and Garvin's five definitions of quality. The possibility of utilizing statistical process control theory to improve the productivity of the existing design-construction process is explored. Quality function deployment concepts from manufacturing are rigorously reinterpreted for the design-construction process and a set of axioms which must be satisfied if the design-construction process satisfies all quality function deployment requirements are developed. Using these axioms, the existing design-construction construction process is then evaluated using QFD as a basis of measurement. Also using QFD as a basis of measurement, the relative improvements in quality and productivity to be gained are evaluated if: (a) the recent ASCE quality manual is implemented, (b) constructability is adopted, (c) new safety formats such as the LRFD Code are adopted, and (d) two prominent approaches to human error reduction and control are adopted. In addition to proposing a more robust approach to design and construction, this study also identifies several fundamental weaknesses in U.S. design-construction practices, namely the inability to: (a) accurately determine user requirements; (b) accurately establish target values to reflect these requirements; and (c) accurately transform these target values through design of components, fabrication of components, assembly of subsystems, and writing of specifications to reflect the fabrication and assembly.