An integrated total quality management (TQM) model for the construction process

In this research, three basic and fundamental principles of TQM namely; customer satisfaction, total participation and involvement, and continuous process improvement is utilized to develop an integrated TQM model for the building construction area of the design-construction industry. Firstly, different scenarios for the improvement of quality in the design and management of construction projects through the joint efforts of the design and the project teams is developed. Secondly, a customer satisfaction model consisting of six factors is developed to structure a customer satisfaction questionnaire to quantify owner perceptions regarding "customer satisfaction" in construction. Different hypotheses are developed and rigorously tested through statistical analysis. Finally, a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) model is presented for the design-construction industry to improve the quality and owner satisfaction. The developed QFD model is expected to resolve some issues pertaining to two of the fundamental problems facing the design-construction industry: (a) the identification of owner requirements and, (b) accurately transforming these requirements through design and fabrication of components, writing of specifications, and assembly of subsystems to complete the facility.