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The Plan–Do–Study–Act Cycle

The plan–do–study–act (PDSA) cycle describes the activities a company needs to perform in
order to incorporate continuous improvement in its operation. This cycle referred to as the
Shewhart cycle or the Deming wheel. The circular nature of this cycle shows that continuous
improvement is a never-ending process. Let‟s look at the specific steps in the cycle.

 Plan The first step in the PDSA cycle is to plan. Managers must evaluate the current
process and make plans based on any problems they find. They need to document all
current procedures, collect data, and identify problems. This information should then be
studied and used to develop a plan for improvement as well as specific measures to
evaluate performance.
 Do - The next step in the cycle is implementing the plan (do). During the implementation
process managers should document all changes made and collect data for evaluation.
 Study - The third step is to study the data collected in the previous phase. The data are
evaluated to see whether the plan is achieving the goals established in the plan phase.
 Act - The last phase of the cycle is to act on the basis of the results of the first three
phases. The best way to accomplish this is to communicate the results to other
members in the company and then implement the new procedure if it has been
successful.

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Conclusion
(CPM)

The planning of a site layout in practice will depend upon a number of factors such as the time
and money. The need for careful site layout and site organization planning becomes more
relevant as the size and complexity of the construction operation increases, and especially
where spare site space is very limited.

In 1957, DuPont developed a project management method designed to address the challenge
of shutting down chemical plants for maintenance and then restarting the plants once the
maintenance had been completed. Given the complexity of the process, they developed the
Critical Path Method (CPM) for managing such projects.

CPM provides the following benefits:

 Provides a graphical view of the project.

 Predicts the time required to complete the project.
 Shows which activities are critical to maintaining the schedule and which are not.

CPM models the activities and events of a project as a network. Activities are depicted as nodes
on the network and events that signify the beginning or ending of activities are depicted as arcs
or lines between the nodes. The following is an example of a CPM network diagram.

Quality assurance

Construction quality assurance is a necessary process that is followed during any construction
activity such as construction of residential or commercial buildings, roads, industrial buildings,
manufacturing plants, sports stadiums, flyovers, bridges and so on. Assurance and monitoring
of quality in any of the above construction process is very important as even a minor defect in
the quality can cause a lot of serious problems. Any lapse could also cause damage to the
property. The cost of quality is very high especially in the case of structures.

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Reference

a. http://www.processtechnicalservices.com/quality-assurance.asp
b. http://www.totalqualityassuranceservices.com/steps-to-construction-quality-
assurance/
c. www.bspconstruction.com.au/construction-quality-control.htm
d. www.qualitycc.com/
e. http://www.civilcraftstructures.com/construction-workforce/site-layout-in-
construction/

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