22nd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Oslo, Norway - 2014

Integrating Production and Quality Control with the Support of Information Technology

Cibeli F. Leão1, Carlos T. Formoso2 & Eduardo L. Isatto3

1Architect, Master Student, Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. [email protected]
2Ph.D., Associate Professor, Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Phone +55 51 33083518, [email protected]
3Dr., Associate Professor, Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. [email protected]

Abstract

The construction industry has faced major changes in the last few decades including a reduction in profit margins, the government’s requirements for quality management certification and an increasing level of quality demanded by consumers. Moreover, intense competition between companies has stimulated interest in developing innovations in managerial systems, seeking to improve product quality while reducing its cost. Recent studies have pointed out a category of waste, called makingdo, which occurs when a task starts before all inputs are available. There is evidence that this type of waste is closely related to the execution of informal packages, and that it is the root cause of other types of waste in construction, such as accidents, material waste and rework. Integration between production control and quality management has been pointed out as a means to reduce the incidence of informal packages and, hence, making-do. This type of integration needs the support of information technology, due to the amount of data that needs to be processed by the same person, and also the need to synchronize the application of some controls. Hence, this research study explores the use of information technology in production control systems. A control model was devised and tested in a Brazilian construction company involved in the development and construction of low-cost housing projects. The control model was implemented in one of the company’s construction sites, where a set of quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including making-do events, the occurrence of informal work-packages, project completion and quality control indicators. The paper will present some production control data that were produced in the empirical study, as well as a preliminary assessment of the model that was devised.

Keywords

integrated control, production control, quality, making-do, informal packages

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Reference

Leão, C. F. , Formoso, C. T. & Isatto, E. L. 2014. Integrating Production and Quality Control with the Support of Information Technology, 22nd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 847-858. doi.org/

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Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.

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