MODEL RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON

APPLICATIONS OF O.R. TECHNIQUES FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN CONSTRUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND Construction is an activity, which cuts across almost all sectors of the economy. It is an activity, which transforms various resources into economical and social infrastructure and facilities. It includes all phases of the process of transformation viz.- planning, designing, financing, procurement, construction, operations etc. The construction sector is an essential contributor to the process of development. Roads, dams, irrigation works, factories and other construction works are the physical foundations on which the development efforts and improved living standards are established. It usually accounts for three percent to eight percent of a developing countrys Gross Domestic Product. In the context of liberalization of the Indian economy, domestic and foreign investment is likely to flow into various infrastructure projects in a big way. This is more so, taking into consideration the conferring of industry status to the construction sector by the Government of India. Fluctuations in construction demand affect the economy in many ways. They affect the demand for labour and materials as well as the lag time taken to supply the industrys output. Backward and forward linkages affect the working of a wide range of operations. Infact, construction industry has been ranked among the top four out of twenty economic sectors in terms of intersectorial linkages.1 These linkages together with a high, value added output ratio, indicates that construction provides a substantive growth stimulus throughout the economy. Its importance as an agent for development is enhanced by its ability to provide gainful employment for a large number of people.2 1.2 THE NEED FOR QUALITY Quality is receiving attention around the world on an unprecedented scale. Rising customer expectations and competition are setting new benchmarks for quality in every sector. Customer expectations for better quality products and services will increase as the world gets better traveled and quality awareness is constantly raised. The need for suppliers to give assurance that the product or service they provide will meet customer requirements will increase. Third party certification, which indicates that a supplier has a quality system in place, will give added confidence to the customer. Clients expectations for better quality products and services pervade all sectors. The construction sector is no exception. In fact, quality management is even more crucial in a construction project owing to the high investment and the wide range of expertise and trades involved. In construction quality assurance represents increasingly important concerns for project managers. Defects or failures in constructed facilities can result in very large costs. Even with minor defects, re-construction may be required and facility operations impaired. Increased costs and delays are the result. In the worst case, failures may cause personal injuries or fatalities. Indirect costs of insurance, inspection and regulation are increasing rapidly due to these increased direct costs. Good project managers try to ensure that the job is done right the first time. Quality management is thus an integral part of the construction sector. 1.3 MANAGEMENT THROUGH SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUES Scientific or quantitative techniques also known as Operational Research techniques are management techniques, employing mathematics as an aid in arriving at a rational decision in situations where there are large numbers of likely alternative solutions. Operational research does not necessarily aim at the establishment of a solution that is better than the practice already in hand. Its stated object is to find the best possible solution to a problem. For one reason or another this may not always be practicable, but the aim is always evident in the work. The title of the science includes the word research because this is, in fact, what the operational researcher is doing into the managers task. The concern here is not so much with what has been done, or what is being done, but rather with how the particular job should be done in order to obtain the optimal result.
1

NICMAR, Employment Projection in Construction Sector 1995-96 to 2004-05, NICMAR Publication, Mumbai, 1996, p. 3.
2

According to Narayan, J.L., Joint Advisor, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation in the Third National Conference on Construction, New Delhi, 2000; the construction industry employs almost thirty one million work men, within the three million construction entities of large, medium and small size where, age old traditions and state of the art technology co-exist to meet the demand.

Scientific techniques assist in the managerial function of decision making by not only providing solutions to the existing problems but also by providing the most optimum solution thus simplifying the burden of decision making by the manager. An important feature of these scientific techniques is that they can be employed in any field of management, at any circumstances and for any problems. Thus scientific techniques are a boon to the management fraternity and its proper understanding and utilisation would yield the best results for a given problem. Scientific techniques are more commonly utilised in the manufacturing sector and their scope in the other sectors, especially the construction sector is very much limited, mainly due to the fact that these techniques are more appropriate for the organised sectors and the construction sector is a highly unorganised sector. 1.4 OBJECTIVE OF STUDY The overall objective of the study is to analyse the applications of OR techniques for quality assurance in construction. In particular the study will examine i. the important Operation Research techniques applied in the manufacturing sector and try to implement the same in the construction field with greater emphasis on the applicability of these techniques in the improvement of quality in the construction sector. ii. how to reduce the limitations of the sampling method, commonly used in practice to determine the quality of the product, with the help of quantitative techniques such as Statistical Quality Control (SQC). 1.5 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY Quality Assurance System is an important ingredient of any construction project. The issue becomes critical in large infrastructure construction projects under execution. The checking of quality at various stages of such large volumes of construction work becomes more difficult and demanding. The common practice of quality control is to conduct sample testing and conclude on the basis of the results obtained. This sampling method has limitations. First issue is about the applicability of the samples to the whole volume. The other issue is about minimum specified values of strength and hardness. These minimum specified values do not assist us in judging the actual values obtained during the sample tests, which have large variations above the minimum, prescribed. All these issues need investigation and method of judging the utility of values obtained during testing. Operational research methods including quantitative techniques such as statistical quality control may provide solution to these issues. But the approach requires large test data to analyse and to come up with some pattern. Application of OR techniques in the day to day operations leads to the improvement in the work performance and helps to optimize costs and time factors in the organization. This eventually would lead to the overall performance improvement of the company, thus improving the overall quality of work. Some of the operational research techniques have given excellent results in the manufacturing field. Similar attempt is made to see if these methods can be applied to the construction sector for beneficial study. 1.6 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY The study requires a detailed understanding of Operational research techniques and their applicability for various situations. It also requires a detailed understanding about the quality assurance measures employed presently in the construction industry. The following method of study will be adopted for conducting the study. i. ii. iii. iv. Literature reviews regarding Operational research techniques and quality were collected and studied from the published materials available on the subject. Interviews with experts in the field of operational research techniques and quality were made to obtain a practical and realistic view about the topic. The websites related to operational research techniques and quality was accessed and relevant information was collected. In an effort to apply the operational research techniques in construction to improve the quality of construction, case studies were undertaken and various data were collected from the

companies/ projects, chosen for the study. The data collection was mainly through personal investigation. 1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Although scope of OR techniques are enormous, the study will have following limitations: i. ii. Applications of all the operational research techniques are not suitable in construction as certain techniques are mainly suitable for the manufacturing sector. The operational research techniques are mainly employed in the manufacturing sector and they are scarcely utilized in the construction sector. This scarcity is reflected in the availability of literatures on the topic. Time and monetary constraints limits the depth of penetration of the study. The data required for the case studies are confidential data of the companies and the nonavailability of the necessary data has limited the study to a certain extent.

iii. iv.

1.8 SCHEME OF THE STUDY The study will consist of six chapters. Chapter I will be an introductory chapter. This chapter highlights the importance of construction sector. It also deals with the importance of the concept of quality and introduces the reader to the concept of scientific management. Chapter II will be an introduction to Operations Research techniques. It will provide insight to the various fields of applications of these techniques. This chapter will also trace the growth of quantitative techniques from its origin to the present situation and the concept of mathematical models that are the basics of operational research techniques. Chapter III deals with linear programming techniques of operational research and the transportation problem of operational research. It explains the technique with suitable illustrations. This chapter also will be dealing with models that help to optimize the transportation cost. Chapter IV deals with forecasting methods of operational research, statistical quality control & quality assurance in construction. Forecasting techniques helps to predict the future requirements based on the past trends. This chapter will also provide information about statistical quality control charts and sampling methods & the importance of quality in construction sector. Chapter V will be two case studies. The first case study will be about Ready Mix Concrete Plants owned by The Associated Cement Companies (ACC), located at Bangalore. An effort will be made to implement the operational research techniques in the day-to-day operations of the plants, through this case study. The second case study will be a highway project near Pune, executed by M/S Ashoka Buildcon Limited. Statistical quality control is applied in this case study. Chapter VI will be summary findings, conclusions and recommendations. BIBLIOGRAPHY Give a select bibliography on the topic/area of study.