International Journal of Project Management Vol. 17, No. 5, pp.

317±322, 1999
# 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0263-7863/99 $20.00 + 0.00

PII: S0263-7863(98)00048-9

Integrating quality systems in

construction projects: the Chilean
case
Alfredo Serpell
Department of Construction Engineering and Management, Ponti®cia Universidad CatoÂlica de Chile,
Casilla 306, Correo 22, Santiago, Chile

A summary of the principal characteristics, problems, limitations and bene®ts of the integration
of quality systems based on the ISO 9000 in Chilean construction projects, is presented. These
implementation processes were carried out by di€erent construction companies with no previous
experience on quality systems or ISO 9000, at the requirement of one owner. The particular and
general characteristics of the processes and the lessons learned are analysed according to the
appraisal of the di€erent participants. Special focus is given to the impact that quality systems
had on the relationship between the owner and its contractors. Finally, some recommendations
are proposed for a successful integration of quality systems in construction projects, as well as
for future implementations in countries with limited experience on this regard. # 1999 Elsevier
Science Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved
Keywords: quality systems, ISO 9000, construction projects, owners' requirements, construction procurement

Introduction Research was carried out to understand the pro-

During the last decade, the activities of quality assur-
ance in most of Chilean construction companies have
been limited only to meet the technical speci®cations
of ®nal products, with a strong dependency on the
owner's inspection.1 However, this approach is chan-
ging rapidly and several owners are now transferring
the responsibility for quality assurance to contractors.
This situation has impelled construction companies to
make e€orts to implement quality systems in their pro-
jects. It is important to note that in Chile, most of the
construction projects are contracted using the tra-
ditional approach and that other approaches like the
design-construction or turn-key contracts are seldom
used.
Quality assurance and quality management are
topics that have received high level of attention during
the last decade in many countries and industrial sec-
tors. As stated by Hirao,2 company-wide quality man-
agement has become a serious concern for businesses
all over the world. However, in the construction indus-
try the application of quality management concepts
and tools has been more dicult due to its reactive
nature and the complexities of the construction pro-
cess. As reported by Baden Hellard3, in a study of ex-
periences in 12 countries, the construction industry has
lagged behind other industrial sectors in these
countries. This has also been the case in Chile and
most of the Latin American countries.4, 5
blems, limitations and bene®ts expected from the inte-
gration of quality systems (QS) in an environment
with limited knowledge and experience in this topic,
and how the relationship between an owner and its
contractors can be a€ected by this situation. An ad-
ditional focus of this study was to observe how it poss-
ibly a€ects the procurement of construction services.
In the cases studied, QS was a procurement obligation
and the longer term issue here is whether it should
always be one or whether QS becomes `second nature'.
To achieve the previous objectives, three construc-
tion companies which were running ®ve construction
projects between November 1993 and April 1994 were
observed and interviews applied to projects' personnel.
The contractors were contractually required by the
owner to apply quality systems based on ISO 9000
series during the execution of mining projects. The
description of the projects observed in the study is
shown in Table 1, along with the time at which the ob-
servation on site was carried out.
The interviews were carried out through all the
levels of personnel involved in the QS implementation
processes. A total of 33 persons were interviewed, as
shown in Table 2.
Figure 1 shows the relationship between the di€erent
participants involved in the QS implementation pro-
cesses. Regarding the projects included in the study,
the following aspects are interesting to note for clari®-
cation purposes:
317
Quality systems in construction projectsÐthe Chilean case: A Serpell

Table 1 Description of projects studied (adapted from Crovetto6)

Contractor's Previous QS
Project Type Completion term (months) Experience Date of study* (months)
A Civil works and steel structures 12 NO 2.5
B Civil works, piping and steel structures 7 NO 2
C Civil works, piping and steel structures 6 NO 2
D Civil works, piping and steel structures 6 NO 1.5
E Civil works, piping and steel structures 11 YES 10
*Time from the beginning of the project

Table 2 Description of interviewed personnel (adapted from Crovetto6)

Top company Owner's
Project management Site Professionals QA/QC Oce Crew Foremen Site Administratives Representatives

A 2 2 3 2 2 2
B 0 1 2 1 0 1
C 0 2 2 2 0 1
D 1 1 0 1 0 1
E 0 1 1 1 0 1
Totals 3 7 8 7 2 6

. The time between the adjudication of contracts and

Figure 1 Relationship between projects' participants
. Two of the three companies involved did not have
previous experience in the application of quality sys-
tems in their projects, neither did they possess any
knowledge of the ISO 9000 series.
the beginning of projects was 45 days and this was
used for the preparation and development phases of
the QS for each project.
. The two contractor companies without experience in
QS, required the services of a consulting company
which had acted as the owner's inspection in a pre-
vious contract.
. The control of the quality system was exercised by
the owner itself through quality auditors at the site
that were trained during a previous contract.
The structure of the implementation processes was
similar for all the projects and it included three
sequential phases: preparation, development and im-
plementation, as described in Figure 2. Each phase was

Figure 2 Description of the phases of the implementation process

318
 Quality systems in construction projectsÐthe Chilean case: A Serpell
considered concluded when speci®c planned objectives
were reached. Then it was possible to continue with
the development of the next phase.
Characteristics of the implementation process
The QS implementation introduced changes in di€er-
ent aspects of the organisations involved in the pro-
cess. Interviews served to analyse the impact of this
changes and to identify ideas for improving future im-
plementations. In the next sections of this paper, the
main issues observed are discussed.
Characteristics associated with the organisational
structure of the work
Concerning their organisational structure on site, con-
tractors had to incorporate a Quality Assurance and
Control Oce (QA/QC), which was directly under the
control of Project Management. Contractors' site or-
ganisations were quite similar, but di€erences were
found in their support towards the QA/QC oce
which depended on the magnitude of the project and
on each contractor's commitment to the QS.
The principal novelty for the owner's organisation,
was the inclusion of site quality auditors in charge of
assuring the e€ectiveness of the contractors' quality
systems. Due to the lack of experience of contractors
and indeed of their own, they had to be very ¯exible
and appeal to the good faith of contractors to achieve
this purpose.
Characteristics related to incentives
In order to motivate and achieve the workers' commit-
ment to the system, the contractors took some of the
following actions:
. Key implementation processes personnel received
monetary and non-monetary incentives.
. There was a permanent presence of management on
site to show commitment to the quality system.
. Supervisors were consulted about operating pro-
cedures and they participated in the elaboration of
procedures associated with their jobs.
. Objectives pursued through the implementation of
QS were communicated in a clear and precise way
to site personnel.
. Personnel were convinced that training on QS would
provide them with better quali®cations for future
jobs.
The main incentive given by the owner to contrac-
tors, was the promise to incorporate them into a `short
list' for future projects. In spite of this incentive, con-
tractors were not very convinced of the bene®ts of QS
and the system was only seen as an owner's contrac-
tual requirement. As a direct consequence of this, none
of the construction companies was able to maintain
the application of the system beyond the time speci®ed
by the contract.
Characteristics related to training
The contractors took several actions to confront the
training needs of personnel, as follows:
. An intensive all-level training program at work was
developed, with the objective of reducing the lack of
knowledge and experience in the use of the concepts
and techniques that sustain the application of a QS.
. A permanent evaluation of the learning and progress
of participants was performed, and a periodical
evaluation of the training program was carried out.
. Knowledge matrixes were developed, in which each
member of the organisation was associated to the
needed quality knowledge and abilities.
It is also important to underline that the results
obtained by one contractor that extended the training
programs to direct labour levels were not better than
those which only trained down to foremen level. This
situation was basically due to the lack of workers'
interest, to the work pressure produced by the short
construction time allowed, and to the lack of appropri-
ate incentives.
Barriers or limitations
At the beginning of the QS implementation processes,
both cultural and operational barriers were observed,
some of which could not be surpassed and notably
a€ected the success of the processes. The most import-
ant faced by the contractors were as follows:
. Lack of knowledge of the concepts and tools of QS
systems.
. De®cient communication of objectives to personnel.
. Unlinked implementation processes between the
main oce and the site.
. Improper organisation of the company, not ade-
quate for the implementation process.
. Lack of real commitment, leadership and interest of
the company's top management.
. Problems with the de®nition of the QS project scope
due to inexperience in the topic.
. Lack of interest and commitment of site personnel.
Furthermore, particular barriers faced by project
managers at the construction sites were as follows:
. Lack of knowledge about the company's quality
manual and procedures.
. Short project completion times.
. Lack of participation in the elaboration of oper-
ational and administrative procedures.
. Insucient knowledge of project documents, a fact
that produced an inadequate handling of changes
and supplies as well as late detection of design qual-
ity problems.
. Bad attitudes in front of the system's application.
. Lack of knowledge and expertise in the construction
market, in order to involve designers, suppliers and
subcontractors in the process.
. Natural rejection of the system due to the extra
e€orts that its implementation implied.
. Lack of quali®ed personnel on quality and quality
systems in the construction market at all levels.
The owner's sta€ also faced several important bar-
riers which are mentioned below:
. Rejection of the QS by owner personnel.
. Insucient management of changes and supplies
that a€ected the owner/contractor relationship.
319
Quality systems in construction projectsÐthe Chilean case: A Serpell

Table 3 Problems mentioned by contractors' personnel (adapted from Crovetto6)

Projects
Problems A B C D E
Lack of knowledge and expertise of site personnel q q q q q
Lack of performance parameters to evaluate the implementation process q q q q q
Rejection to the system by site personnel q q q q q
Diculties associated with system documents q q q q q
Rotation of site personnel (foremen and workers) q q q
Diculties in the design and implementation of the ®les required by the system q q q
Objectives con¯icts between production area and the QS q q q
Diculties in management and consolidation of the QA/QC oce at work q q q
Lack of presence and motivation in site of companies' top management q q q
Mistakes and diculties in the training program q q q
Diculties in the integration of professionals to the implementation process q q q
No prior knowledge about the system q q q q q
Negative reaction and bad initial attitude q q q q q
Diculties associated with training and communication of the system at the site q q q q q
Lack of relationship between the new system and bene®ts that workers could receive q q

. Improper training of the contract administration
team.
. Insucient control of the main parameters of pro-
ject management: quality, time and cost.
. Divergence of objectives inside the owner's team.
. Weaknesses in the creation of owner/contractor
teams.
Particular problems of the implementation
processes
The principal problems as identi®ed by contractors'
personnel are shown in detail in Table 3. The answers
have been individualised by each project.
According to the owner's personnel, the following
problems were associated with the contractors' per-
formance:
. Diculty for generating commitment of site person-
nel to the system.
. Contractors demonstrated severe diculties in the
management of system documentation and in the
maintenance of the system ®les.
. Lack of initiative of contractors to begin with the
implementation process, that ampli®ed the impact of
the short construction completion time.
. Once the system was put under way and accepted, it
increased the order and the speed in the projects
progress.
. Trust between the hierarchic levels on site increased
considerably.
. A re-evaluation of workers' responsibility, image,
and ethics by professionals was achieved.
. The disappearance of the classic antagonistic point
of view about work inspection for workers and fore-
men was encouraged.
Bene®ts perceived by the owner's sta€ from the im-
plementation of QS's are mentioned below:
. The relationship owner/contractor shifted to an
issue of mutual trust.
. The combination of the QS with the organisational
structure of the owner reduced the `work dead
times', due to better decision making on site.
. Re-work was reduced due to the fact that the per-
sonnel became conscious of a greater responsibility
on the quality of their assigned tasks.
. The management of changes and/or modi®cations
was improved.
. The completion of tasks was documented and regis-
tered in detail, reducing the possibility of subjective
interpretations.

Bene®ts of the system
The most relevant bene®ts as perceived by contractors'
professionals are shown in Table 4. Foremen also
added the following bene®ts:
Success factors
The processes were also supported by success factors
or positive aspects found in the cultural characteristics
of the members of the construction companies, which
should be taking into account for future QS implemen-

Table 4 Bene®ts mentioned by contractors' professionals (adapted from Crovetto6)

Projects
Bene®ts A B C D E

Relationship with the owner improved ostensibly q q q q q

System provided order, control and planning to site works q q q
System favoured quick treatment of doubts and/or work
modi®cations q q q
System increased the participation and communication at site q q q
System improved team working of personnel q q
Implementation processes allowed to spread companies and
projects objectives q q
Implementation processes improved the leadership conditions of
people in charge of workers q q

320
 Quality systems in construction projectsÐthe Chilean case: A Serpell
tation processes. Among the most important factors
mentioned are the following:
. Local companies showed high levels of personal
involvement in their human relationships. Their re-
lationships with owners, suppliers, and personnel
were based on seriousness and honesty.
. There were adequate levels of self-examination
between the professional and management levels.
. Many workers felt very identi®ed with their compa-
nies, a fact that was used for motivation purposes.
Recommendations
The analysis of the research results provided several
recommendations for future improvement of QS im-
plementation processes. These are discussed in the next
sections of this paper.
Regarding the contractors' organisation of the work
. To assure that company and project organisational
structures are ®tted to the proposed projects objec-
tives.
. To adequately structure and support the QA/QC
oce at the site, according to the tasks that it must
ful®l.
. To reduce the hierarchies and delegate decision mak-
ing at site level, in order to achieve a greater ¯exi-
bility and decrease `work dead times'.
. To provide the necessary training and abilities to
QA/QC oces members.
. To establish means for improving communication
among di€erent levels.
. To assure the use of a clear and common language
to avoid distortion of QS concepts and terminology,
specially at the lower organisational levels.
For owners
. To introduce the contractors at early stages of the
project in order that they can better understand
owner's requirements.
. To consider the possibility of `partnering' with pro-
jects participants.
Regarding incentives
Contractors can use the following recommendations:
. To develop statistical tools to measure the achieved
results and communicate them in order to increase
the commitment to, and trust in the system.
. To stipulate adequate incentive plans for critical im-
plementation personnel.
Owners can also play an important role:
. To establish actions for increasing QS knowledge
and expertise in the construction market, by requir-
ing their use within their procurement processes.
. To promote by incentive, ISO certi®cation of sup-
pliers and service companies, as well as the involve-
ment of designers and subcontractors.
Related to training
Contractors developed several training activities:
. To increase the quality of persons in charge of the
training program.
. To continue with training at all levels, given the fact
that the fundamental limitations for the implemen-
tation processes were the lack of knowledge and
expertise of site engineers and personnel on the
topic.
. Construction companies should keep applying
quality systems in their projects even if it is not a
contractual requirement, to learn and acquire exper-
tise on it.
. To use quality circles as a better and quicker way to
acquire knowledge, expertise and search of sol-
utions.
Owners should foresee realistic periods between
contract adjudication and the beginning of the con-
struction project, to allow proper planning and im-
plementation of the QS by contractors, and in this
way, to avoid the contractor's dilemma of attending to
the system or to the production.
Conclusions
The introduction of the modern concepts of quality
systems is not an easy task in environments where the
lack of knowledge and experience create particular
limitations or barriers to implementation processes.
This exploratory study allowed us to know the limi-
tations and the most important characteristics which
were present in di€erent QS implementation processes.
Also some bene®ts produced by a QS were identi®ed.
Furthermore, an e€ort was made to transform the in-
formation obtained into useful recommendations.
These recommendations are directed to prevent foreign
and local companies which want to implement a QS
basing it on external experience, without taking into
account the particular characteristics of the local con-
struction market.
It is stressed, ®nally, the need of creating a `domino
e€ect' in the market towards quality systems, in order
to convince construction companies about the advan-
tages of its application and in this way to induce their
use by their own initiative and not as an owner's con-
tractual requirement. Also, this initiative should be
extended to suppliers, designers, subcontractors and
other organisations in the construction industry.
Regarding construction procurement, the main con-
clusion is that quality systems can provide a suitable
mechanism to improve the relationships between an
owner and its contractors. The main advantages
o€ered by this approach are as follows:
. It establishes a common goal for all parties
involved.
. It performance depends on the creation of a team
spirit between the contractor and the owner, and it
favours partnering.
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Quality systems in construction projectsÐthe Chilean case: A Serpell

. It creates communication channels between owner
and contractors, as required by the QS.
. It requires a formal and rigorous handling of docu-
mentation and the creation of records that help to
solve problems.
. Because of its nature, a QS requires the attendance
to problems and con¯icts in the short-term.
However all these advantages can also be sources of
problems if the QS is not well applied and if there is a
high level of distrust between the parties. This fact
makes it necessary to teach contractors and owners to
work under this scheme.
Sjoholt, editor. Quality Management in Building and
Construction. Norwegian Building Research Institute, 1994;
41±48.
4. De Solminihac, H., Serpell, A. and Figari, C., Quality in the
Chilean construction industry: a general diagnosis (in Spanish).
BoletõÂn de InformacioÂn TecnoloÂgica BIT, 1996, 3(6), 27±30.
5. Covelo Silva M. A. A Modernizacao do Macrocomplexo da
Construcao Civil: O Posicionamento Competitivo na
Contribuicao ao Desenvolvimento do PaõÂ s. Seminario
Internacional, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 5±6 December, 1994: 5±13.
6. Crovetto A. Quality Improvement Program for Construction
Companies. Master Thesis, Department of Construction
Engineering and Management, Ponti®cia Universidad CatoÂlica
de Chile, 1995.

Acknowledgements
Alfredo Serpell is Associate
The author expresses his gratefulness to CorporacioÂn Professor of Construction Engin-
eering and Management at the
de InvestigacioÂn de la ConstruccioÂn and to Ponti®cia Universidad CatoÂlica de
FONDECYT, for the ®nancial support granted that Chile. He teaches project manage-
made possible this research through the Project ment, construction productivity
1940609. improvement, construction quality
management and construction pro-
curement. His current research
interests include quality manage-
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322