21th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Fortaleza, Brazil - 2013

Supplier Quality Surveillance Practices in Construction

Thaís da C. L. Alves1, Kenneth D. Walsh2, Yoshua Neuman3, Kim LaScola Needy4 & Rufaidah Almaian5

1Assistant Professor, J.R. Filanc Construction Eng. and Mgmt. Program, Dept. of Civil, Constr., and Env. Eng., San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, [email protected]
2Professor and Chair J. R. Filanc Construction Eng. and Mgmt. Program, Dept. of Civil, Constr., and Env. Eng., San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, [email protected]
3Graduate student, J. R. Filanc Construction Eng. and Mgmt. Program, Dept. of Civil, Constr., and Env. Eng., San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, [email protected]
4Department Head and 21st Century Professor, Dept. of Industrial Eng., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA, [email protected]
5Ph.D. student, Dept. of Industrial Eng., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA, [email protected]

Abstract

Construction processes require the marshalling of resources to install components of the intended structure into the desired location based on design documents, with all the necessary structural and service connections. Construction management activities are often conceived as the facilitation of having the right labor and equipment in the proper location with the correct components, at the proper time, to allow safe and cost effective progress of the work. To avoid rework associated with the installation of project components that turn out to be deficient, general contractors deploy a number of efforts to assure the quality of components procured for the project. This paper will provide a summary of Supplier Quality Surveillance (SQS) practices in common use in major construction companies, primarily in Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) delivery projects in the process chemical industry. At present, SQS practices are rooted in an inspection culture, with a series of largely adversarial interventions conducted most commonly either at the supplier’s manufacturing or fabrication facility, or at the construction site itself. The SQS practice will be analyzed from a lean perspective to suggest potential alternative processes to assure supplied components can be installed into the project in an acceptable condition to provide expected client value.

Keywords

Supplier quality surveillance, Engineering-Procure-Construct (EPC), value stream, manufacturing, supply chain management, lean construction..

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Reference

Alves, T. C. L. , Walsh, K. D. , Neuman, Y. , Needy, K. L. & Almaian, R. 2013. Supplier Quality Surveillance Practices in Construction, 21th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 833-842. doi.org/

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