Poor Construction Quality Standards

Are you frustrated by any of the following:

• Poor construction quality standards?
• Lack of availability of quality labour?
• Poor quality design and information?
• Poor communication channels and standards?
• Poor project cost control and lengthy time over-runs?

I have grown up and worked in the construction industry my whole life and throughout the last 30 years, I have witnessed the gradual decline in construction quality standards, without any measurable increase in productivity or efficiency. Construction is one of the only industries not to have experienced an improvement in quality and productivity levels.

In my experience and view, the decline in quality standards and availability of quality consultants, management, supervision and labour all began back in the 1980's and 1990's, when there was a reduction in apprenticeship opportunities. This was the result of a large percentage of workers in the industry choosing to operate under the Governments SC60 and 714 construction industry tax schemes. These schemes offered benefits for both the contractors and sub-contractors in terms of flexibility, simplified admin, less responsibilities and tax advantages, which meant that employers were using sub-contract labour rather than directly employed PAYE labour. This resulted in significantly reducing the level of apprenticeship opportunities for new people to enter the industry and be trained to a high standard and then go on to climb the career ladder into supervisory, management and consultancy positions. The industry has never recovered from the decline in apprenticeships during that period.

I think there are six significant challenges, which the construction industry currently faces:

1. Build quality standards.
2. Skilled labour / availability.
3. Productivity levels.
4. Design, cost and contractual information & risk / reward.
5. Communication.
6. Defined responsibilities and accountability.

Build Quality

I watched a programme on TV recently, which was on the poor quality build standards of new homes. This is an all too common and familiar issue these days, which gives the industry a poor image. The solution being put forward by the experts on the programme was to introduce further additional regulation to carry out further quality checks during the build process and on completion. In my opinion, this is an all to common typical 1st Aid bandage approach, which will do nothing to address the route cause of the problem and merely lead to additional bureaucracy, costs and time delays without any increase in quality and possibly an decline in productivity. What we need is quality training to produce people who are capable of producing quality information, communicate it effectively and carryout the work to the desire standard at the first time of asking.

Skilled Labour

The problem is not so much the lack of labour but the lack of good quality skilled labour. The problem with each generation coming along is that they are being trained and learning from the previous generation of poorer quality labour not knowing anything different leading to a gradual downward spiral.

Productivity

Despite the advancements in technology, the construction industry has failed to improve productivity levels, whilst most other industries have significantly increased theirs. I feel this is mainly due to poor quality consultants, poor quality management, poor organisation and planning both pre-construction and during the construction phase, poor communication leading to works not being done on time, being done incorrectly or being done in the wrong sequence and having to be undone or completed more than once.

Design Information & Risk Reward

Consultants are producing less relevant quality design information and passing more and more of the design responsibility and liability to the contractor without any reduction in their consultancy fees or transfer of any of the reward to the contractor for the additional responsibilities. The result is more problems during the construction phase with an often them and us approach between the consultants and contractors and the client being stuck in the middle and often being incorrectly influenced by one or more parties.

Communication

Despite the increase in technology and speed of communication, both over communication and the lack of it are responsible for a large percentage of errors, disputes and low productivity.

Defined Responsibilities and Accountability

There has been a steady increase in people taking less responsibility and accountability for their role and actions and instead passing it off to others wherever they can, leading to disputes, stalemate positions, errors and delays.

The Solution

1. More apprenticeships,
2. Better quality skills and knowledge training at all levels and professions,
3. Clearly defined responsibilities, standards and expectations.
4. Change in attitude and culture throughout the industry. Solution focused collaboration rather than problem focused approached. Team rather than individual approach.
5. Everyone taking full ownership and accountability for their responsibilities and actions.
6. Common sense approach to addressing the route cause of problems and not applying additional unnecessary layers of regulations as a first aid bandage approach that only treats the symptoms and not the cause. There needs to be greater simplification through greater standardisation and less over complication through additional layers of unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy.

If measures are taken to address the root cause of the problem areas rather than treat symptoms, it would lead to improvements being seen in:

• Pre-construction planning and quality of design and contract information.
• Communication at all levels and stages.
• Quality standards and satisfaction.
• Reduced costs & Improved profit margins.
• Less time overruns.
• More enjoyable work culture and improved industry image.

Quality Design + Quality Information + Quality Management + Quality Communication + Quality Workmanship + Quality Control = Quality Teamwork & Quality Outcome

The construction industry training system is broken and needs fixing....It all begins with the quality of the training and the approach adopted by all those involved to create a better culture and outcomes.

Whats your thoughts? share in the comments below.