EMPM5103 (Sept10 Intake) CGS00528817 Assignment Part a&B

Master of Project Management

Faculty of Science & Technology

30th November 2010

Principles of

Project

Management [EMPM5103]

Assignment

(Part A & B)

Name : Neoh Wen Wan

Student ID : CGS00528817

EMPM5103 Principles of Project Management

Neoh Wen Wan CGS00528817 Page 1

Table of Contents

Part A

Question 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Question 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Question 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 18

Part B

Question 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 23



PART A

Question 1

The primary project success/failure criteria involve time, cost, and performance. Discuss

how these parameters may be defined as project objectives to achieve the criteria.

[20 marks]

A successful project is a project that meets the project objective in the primary

context of time, cost and performance together with satisfactory safety compliance,

effective usage of assigned resources and satisfactory acceptance and handover to client.

According to Gill [2008], time, cost and quality/performance have increasingly been

recognized as the major determinants of project success and they have been frequently

used as metrics to track the project’s health. The above is further supported by Alaghbari

et. al. [2007] who states delay is the most important problems in the construction industry

and cost is one of the factors that is related to delay. In a project there are various stages of

accomplishment to achieve at different level or time of that specific project in order to

achieve the overall project success.

The main path towards the project objective is that it must support the project goals

and mission. Therefore it is crucial for the project objective to be inline and heading

toward the project goals and mission, in short it must be able to drive the project forwards

toward this direction. The project objective set must be firm, reasonable, realistic, well

defined, measurable and with timeline. This is because a project consists of many phases

such as Conceptual Phase, Planning Phase, Design Phase, Implementation Phase and

Closing Phase; here every phase is important to ensure success of the project. Hence the

project objective must be well documented for monitoring and constant alignment. This



means that the established milestone, budget and performance must be simple and clearly

defined; dates and timeline set in the milestone must be clear and realistic; budget set

during feasibility study must be consistence with the project budget with reasonable

variance and must be all inclusive (i.e. overall difference from feasibility until

establishment of project budget must not be more that 10% difference); performance

requirement must be clearly spelled out (i.e. plastering variance level must not be more

that 1mm for any 1m length) and according with the budget provided. If all these are not

well documented then there will be a problem in setting the baseline for the measurement,

hence the degree of success of each factor that contribute to the success on project could

be monitored.

The project objective also needs to be firm, realistic and stable because this is one

way to drive project forward to achieve to goals. If it is unstable or constant changing then

it creates more uncertainty environment and no direction for achievement. It will also de-

motivate the team members into working in their best effort towards the direction of

success. Realistic objective is also required, however the definition of realistic if often very

subjective as at different level and different people have different point of view. We

understand that from the management point of view, there is a need for improvement and

always calls for a better time, cost and performance, however from the other point of view,

the workers may sees it as unrealistic objective. Hence there is a need reach to a reasonable

platform of understanding by all the team members. This process requires the ability of

convincing and influencing power of the lead person so that every team members or a

large majority of the team members have a common understanding and acceptance to the

said project objective.



As mentioned above, there are many activities at every level and phase; hence any

excessive impact at each level and phases will have impact to another level or phases. This

may lead into a domino effect which causes project failure if left uncontrolled and manage.

In addition to these, there are also external factors such as unstable economy, soaring of

prices, shortages, government policies, act of god, etc, which may lead to a project failure.

From all the above factors, there is a need for the project objective to be measurable in

qualitative and quantitative with the timeline set for achievement so that it can be

monitored and managed accordingly towards successful project completion and meeting

the projective objective. Quantitative measurement are base on numbers or quantity such

as days or cost, as example reduce the number of days for constructing the tiling works or

reduce the cost by an amount. Qualitative measurement on the other hand are base on

quality standards or indicators such as reduce defects by certain ratio and improve value

via value management.

Delay is generally acknowledged as the most common, costly, complex and risky

problem encountered in construction projects [Alaghbari et al, 2007]. Therefore milestone

and project schedule need to be set and established at various levels to ensure the project is

delivered in timely manner. As an example there must be a dateline set for the

procurement of long lead equipments such as transformers, chillers and air handling units.

In relation for this, dateline must also be established for the complete of design to a level

that it is sufficient for procurement. Any delay at any of the datelines may have impact not

only to the delivery schedule and work progress but also may be to cost and quality

matters. Cost may increase as consideration may be taken to air freight the equipment

instead of by transported by sea to reduce the time lost while impact on quality if

alternative sources are used, for example a pump imported from Germany may have the



same performance specification than a pump from India however the quality of the pump

may be different due the culture and understanding towards quality control that may varies

in different country.

Planning is important here for time, cost and performance to meet project objective

and it involves around three level that is overall project plan (long term plan), monthly

plan (mid-term plan) and weekly or daily plan (short term). Overall plan involve each start

and completion of a phases or entire project such as dateline for completion of design,

dateline for start of construction stage, feasibility study during conceptual stage, cash flow

during construction and quality of works during construction. Mid-term plan involve

specific completion of each milestone such as ‘Ready for Tools/Equipment move in’,

ready for specific trade to start work, monthly cash flow, projection of variation order.

Weekly or daily plan (short term) involve more on time and performance as these are daily

activities for individual trades or group. Time shall involve establishing, review and

monitoring of schedules and milestone; Cost shall involve feasibility study, budget, cost

plan, cash flow and manpower/resources plan; Performance shall involve quality plan,

quality control and quality improvement. These three factors (time, cost and performance)

are actually inter-related and inter-dependent as any increase or decrease of one factor, the

other two will be affected. For example if one need to reduce the time and maintain the

performance then it will increase the cost. The relation of time, cost and performance are

further illustrated by Gills [2008].

Having the right and required resources at the right time will have helps to enhance

the cost and performance factor and unnecessary losses in cost due to idling time and

performance/quality due to extensive speed. As an example, a specific task requires a



certain man hours complete it, there are two approached to complete the task that is add

additional resources or work extra hours; by working extra will increase the overtime cost

and may decrease the productivity and quality if it is done overboard and stress the

workers. Here the supply chain management [see Segerstedt and Olofsson, 2010], Just-in-

Time and Lean construction [see Low and Teo, 2005] concept can be used to address the

above.

To ensure that the established project objective together with the time, cost and

performance factors are achievable and move towards project success there is a need to

monitor and control all the timeline and parameter set. Essential communication and

information sharing tools such as Information Technology will help in reporting systems to

ensure efficiency and standardisation. Information Technology also helps in the

monitoring and controlling of timeline and processes set as part of the tools to achieve the

project objective. As explained by Ahuja et. al. [2008], Information Technology does not

only have benefits related to project success but also enhance effective management and

increased organizational efficiency.

Project management with the approach in planning, scheduling and controlling is a

way towards meeting the project objective and achieving project success. This is because,

establish a project objective is like establishing a target for achievement (i.e. Vision 2020);

what’s more important is the approached, process and flows towards meeting the

objective.

1,400 words



Reference

Ahuja, V., Yang, J. and Shankar, R. [2008], Benefits of collaborative ICT adoption

for building project management. ; Construction Innovation, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 323 – 340.

Alaghbari, W., Kadir, M. R. A., Salim, A. And Ernawati [2007], The significant

factors causing delay of building construction projects in Malaysia. ; Engineering,

Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 192-206.

Gill, A. [2008], An effect-cause-effect analysis of a project objective and trade-off

assumptions. ; International Journal of Managing Project in Business, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.

535 – 551.

Low, S. P. and Teo, H. F. [2005], Modern-day lean construction principles : some

questions on their origin and similarities with Sun Tzu’s Art of War. ; Management

Decision, Vo. 43, No. 4, pp. 523 – 541.

Segerstedt, A. and Olofsson, T. [2010], Supply Chain in the construction industry. ;

Supply Chain Management : An International Journal, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 347 – 353.



Question 2

A project life cycle is a collection of generally sequential project phases whose name and

number are determined by the control needs of the organization or organizations

involved in the project.

Discuss the characteristic of the project life cycle in this context and indicate the phases

that need to be taken to ensure it is used in the realization of a client’s aspirations.

[20 marks]

Project life cycle consist of a sequence of project phases that indicate the start until

the end of a project. However the sequencing of phases may varies depending on the type

of project and from which level we are looking at. For example :

(A) A housing development project will look at (1) feasibility study to (2)

conceptual design to (4) construction to (5) testing and commissioning to (6)

hand over purchaser;

(B) A housing construction project (or main contractor) will look at (1)

mobilisation to (2) construction to (3) testing and commissioning to (4) hand

over to developer.

(C) In the electronic industry however the product project covers, (1) conceptual to

(2) research and development to (3) design refinement to (4) testing to

production to (5) market introduction to (6) maintaining growth such as

improvement in design when it starts to deteriorate (i.e. Honda City cars when

through a number of design improvement over a period of time before a total

new design comes out) to (7) product death or closure.



From the above it is clear that there are no one sequence of phases that applies to

all industries and all levels and it is determine by the organization and project needs. For

example (A) and (B) above may be for same project but different level of organization and

project requirements.

In this discussion on the phases that need to be taken to ensure realization of a

client’s aspiration, we will be looking at the project life cycle of a housing development

project and the sequence of phases shall be (1) Conceptual; (2) Planning; (3) Construction

/ Implementation; (4) Testing; and lastly (5) Closure. The land purchase phase which

includes feasibility study are not included in this discussion as it can be considered an

early stage phase where there may be many rounds and activities done comparing to the

successful closure of land purchase. Hence the start of a housing development project shall

be the conceptual phase after the successful acquiring of empty land. Network scheduling

techniques such as Gant Chart, Milestone Chart, Critical Path Method and Program

Evaluation and Review Technique are commonly used here. Control is another critical

factor and the control of any construction process requires the knowledge about its main

sub-processes and their main outputs, hence a better understanding of the process could

help to identify the root causes [Haponava and Al-Jibouri, 2009]. Therefore for every

phases to be effective and efficient there must be certain controlling factors embedded into

these phases. A checklist at the end of each phase and before commencement of the next

phase is one way to ensure that task and requirements at that particular phase is completed

before moving to the next phase and any major problems or constrains are highlighted to

identify the root cause and find a solution to address it.



PHASES FOR A HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Conceptual Phase

To kick off the project, we need to establish the overall project schedule with detail

schedules for each phase and incorporating major milestones into each phase. Some of the

major milestones in different phases are :

(1) Finalisation of conceptual design (30% design completion);

(2) Application of developer’s licence and advertising permits

(3) Finalization of design and Drawings (minimum 90% of design completion);

(4) Start of Tendering Process;

(5) Start and completion of construction;

(6) Obtaining the Certificate of Compliance and Completion (C.C.C).

Upon establishing the overall project schedule, a few shortlisted architects will be

called to submit their concept design for selection. The selection of concept design process

varies from organization to organization; some involve key personnel from various

Conceptual Phase

Planning Phase

Implementation Phase

Testing & Comissioning

Phase

Handover Phase

Defect Liability Period



department (i.e. Sales and Marketing Department, Project Development Department,

Planning Department etc.), while there also some where all employees of that organization

voted for their preferred concept and a brain storming session is carried to discuss further

before the top management make their decision on which concept to select. Sometime if

the project is not of high end or complex the conceptual design is done after the

appointment of an architect without going through the various process highlighted above.

Hence simplicity or complexity is determined by the organization and project needs.

Care must be taken to ensure the concept selected will not be out dated when it is

open for sale or this phase must not take too long until a situation where the concept is

outdated or not preferred by the market when it is finalized. Here it all boils down to the

right timing and selection to ensure the project have a competitive edge that partly

contributes to the success or failure of the project. Risk assessment will also be conducted

in phase to have a feel on the risk exposure of this project on the selected concept. For

example if the piece of land is under the hill land category then to build many high rise

buildings on that piece of land may be considered a high risk project due to possible

difficulty in obtaining approval from the local authorities as there have been numerous

incidents (i.e. Highland Tower incidents) and . Therefore the selection of concepts needs to

be according to the organization’s main policy in risk taking.

Planning Phase

This is an important phase as it is of high importance in determining the project

success contributes a main portion to the success of this project [Zwikael, 2009]. This



phase shall covers the schedule, budget, specification and design refinement from

conceptual phase, development of details, major milestone identification, budget

development that is within the parameter of feasibility study, manpower requirement

schedule and project administration. The span of this phase will very much be depending

on the complexity and objective of the project and also the size of the organization.

Normally the design team consists of the architect (i.e. building architect &

landscape architect), engineers (i.e. structural, civil and mechanical & electrical), surveyor

(i.e. quantity surveyor and land surveyor) and interior designer. The size to the design

teams will depends on the size, complexity, location and type of project. For example in

certain states in Malaysia, the local authority do not require a landscape architect to do the

landscape submission, while interior designer may not be required for medium or low end

development.

The schedule in this phase will also need to be established and needs to tie in with

the overall project schedule. However the situation in this phase is very subjective and a

lot of uncertainty until it reaches implementation phase. This is because of the

uncontrolled factors such as the external environment (i.e. sudden economy down turn,

change of government policies, shift of market demand, and intensive competition from

rivalry in nearby projects). Therefore the right timing is very important for this phase and

it is best to keep it as short a possible until implementation phase if the sales achieve the

required target. Reliable inputs from respective parties on the required duration for their

own task is also crucial as if everyone allows too much allowance for their task it may

ended with unrealistic schedule for this phase and may affect the entire project schedule.

In some organizations, the information flow and approval process are shorter while some



are longer depending on the organization span, fragmentation of organization policies and

degree of empowerment to respective department or managers. All the above factors will

determine if there is a massive shift in the overall project schedule or not. Another

important aspect to look at is the financial commitments for the project such as the interest

from loan for acquiring of land and overhead as it increases accordingly with the delay.

With the schedule of this phase in place, the designers will come out with a

preliminary design (normally 30% design completed) for further analysis and fine tuning

until it reaches 60% of the overall design. Sometimes at 60% design completion the tender

is call and award due to constrain in schedule instead of using 90% or 100% design

completion to tender and award. The above approach (award using 60% design

completion) do have its risk such as high variation order that may need to be forecast as

contingency and possible of rework which will involve cost.

Among the activities in this phase includes refining the cost plan to be within

reasonable parameter of the feasibility study in consideration of the selling price or

adjusted selling price. Brainstorming session may also be carried out at the stage to extract

the inputs from Sales and Marketing Department on product improvement and society’s

requirement. It is a norm that their requirement and demand would be high and exceed the

provided budget and reduced the profit margin. Here Value Management [see Haji Che

Mat, 2002] can be use to determine and justify their demand as one of the tools used

(Function Analysis) do helps in eliminating unnecessary cost and function while

maintaining or increases its value. However Function Analysis are not only limited to

improving value, it can also be used to accelerate schedule as reported by the Port

Authority of New York [1995]. All the mentioned activities (brainstorming, value



management and function analysis) are also subjective and depending to the organization

needs as it may not be required if there is limitation of time and resources and within

budget or simple project.

There is also a need to stay focus on the design base on facts and project

requirement rather that emotional influences that can easily take over to control the

situation. This situation is critical if the top management are easily influence by emotion

and temptation. Such situation is a factor that contributes to the failure of a project. For

example if the objective of the project is to build a three star hotel as there demand in

concentrated here, we must stick to the objective, as building a five star hotel may be

luxury but does not meet the market demand and project objective.

The quality and performance monitoring tools establish must also be accordingly

with objective and level (i.e. High end condominium or medium range apartments) of the

project and must also be realistic, reasonable and according to the awarded specifications.

Implementation Phase / Construction Phase

The details and workings of this phase will be more crucial to the contractor

comparing to the developer. This is because for the developer they need to award

according to the established schedule and monitor the progress of the contractor towards

achieving the required milestone. As for the contractor they need to do the work

breakdown structure, award the respective trade packages to their sub contractors in timely

manner, establish the critical path, resources and material planning and etc. A large and



complex project with many procedures will need more resources comparing to a small

scale project. Time factor will also have impact to the increased of resources however it

also depends on the technology used. For example using pre-cast components will reduce

time, increase quality and reduce resources comparing to conventional in-situ concrete

casting [Alaghbari et. al., 2007].

In this phase, the developer needs to monitor and manage the budget, cash flow,

milestone and quality matters. The main role is to ensure the right focus and direction of

the project objective within the required schedule. Another important role for the

developer is to manage and control the change request during implementation or

construction phase as it does not only affect the cost but also time. Hence different

organization plays a different role in different platform with different contribution towards

a successful project.

To monitor and manage the budget, milestone and quality matters, a base line

needs to be established and it must be clearly specified and measurable. Therefore a

quality plan must be established with monitoring tools such as checklist and measurable

specification such as thickness of coating in microns.

Testing and Commissioning Phase

There are basically two stages in this phase, that is the testing and commissioning

to the designers’ requirements and performance while the other is for approval of the

respective authorities and to obtain the Certificate of Compliance & Completion. For the



testing and commissioning to designers’ requirements the extent of such activities varies

among project needs although there are some minimum requirement such as testing of

concrete strength which is carried during implementation stage. External paint may not be

always require testing and it depends on the developer or architect requirements as some

may consider product warranty to be sufficient.

All these testing and commissioning procedures and requirement must be spelled

out clearly during tendering and before award as some may have high cost impact. Hence

the more testing and commissioning activities, it will play a part to ensure a better end

product but will have more impact to additional cost if it goes beyond the parameter of the

market norm or project objective. With these testing and commission activities being

carried out to the development prior to hand over, it will ensure that the purchaser obtained

a quality end product.

Hand Over or Project Closure Phase

For a housing development project, the hand over of units to purchaser does not

means the project is closed unlike some products without warranty period which closes

upon the death of the product. Here in housing development project there is a final account

settlement to make and there are also defects liability period ranging from 12 months to 24

months. Hence for a housing development project to be successful its must also hand over

the units with minimum defects and attend and resolve defects in timely manner to ensure

customer satisfaction. In short a project success means that all the followings must be



within the require parameter (budget, performance, duration, safety and customer

satisfaction).

2050 words

References

Alaghbari, W., Kadir, M. R. A., Salim, A. And Ernawati [2007], The significant factors

causing delay of building construction projects in Malaysia. ; Engineering,

Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 192-206.

Haji Che Mat, M. M., [2002], Value Management : Principles and Applications. ; 1st

Edition, Pearson Malaysia, pp. 43-50.

Haponava T. and Al-Jibouri, S. [2009], Identifying key performance indicators for use in

control of pre-project stage process in construction. ; International Journal of

Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 160 – 173.

The Port Authority of New York [1995], Recovering the World Trade Centre from

Terrorist Bombing. ; Cost Engineer, 1st January, pp. 10 – 17.

Zwikael, O. [2009], Critical planning processes in the construction projects. ;

Construction Innovation, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 372 – 387.



Question 3

The word “Planning” is often used as a yardstick of the difference between the good

project manager and the poor project manager.

Discuss how project managers manage planning of the project.

[20 marks]

The usage of ‘Planning’ as a yardstick to judge a good or poor project manager

may not be an entirely accurate tool for judgement as abilities of project manager does not

relies on planning alone. There are factors that may contribute towards a good project

manager such as leadership qualities, interpersonal skills, usage of right tools at right time,

change control and management skills, implementation skills and abilities to handle

external environment effectively. There may be an occasion where plans set by a project

manager is very good but the project still fails due to other reason such as top management

interference and extreme external environment. However when people make their

judgement, it will mostly be base on the success of a project.

To have a good management on planning, a project manager must possess also the

management and leadership skills such as technical skills, human skills and interpersonal

skills. This is because a project manager also requires the input, feedback, support and

commitments from other parties and sub-ordination to produce a realistic, good and

reliable plan. These skills are required especially to manage the unforeseeable factors such

as external environment and the differences human factors.



For a project to be successful, it involves not only project planning but also project

objectives and project execution. The project objectives need to be firm, reasonable and

realistic while the project execution needs to be controlled, monitored and managed.

Project planning involves around planning for schedule development, budget

development, project administration, organization and recourses and conflict management.

All these have to be according to the project objectives and also taken into consideration of

external environment factors such as forecast of market, competitive situation and

foreseeable change of government policies. Baselines are required to be established for

schedule and budget monitoring purposes. Forecasting in schedule, budget and resources

plan will see and predict how far we can go on the plans. It can also serve as an early

warning devise to see if the plans are within the projected parameter and helps to improve

planning. Testing of assumptions behind the forecast with alternative data available can

reduce the tendency of under estimate or inaccurate assumptions. Normally forecasting are

done in budgeting and cash flow to prepare for funds if the available are not sufficient such

as loans or factoring. All this involve cost and therefore forecasting must be as accurate as

possible to avoid losses in cost due to interest or opportunity lost.

It is important for a project charter needs to be in place as it will provide the details

of a project such as project scope, project summary, project description, project risk and a

clear statement on the authority, limitation and boundary of the project. All the above

information are the starters towards planning as it will serve as a direction for

advancement. Therefore the project organization span and structure together with a clear

roles, responsibilities and authority distribution and resources planning must be in place.

When the boundary, scope of work, responsibilities, authorities etc. are clear, the team



members will not be confused and disagreement or grey area will be reduced. Once these

are clear to an acceptable level, action plan and action program can be establish to identify

and delegate who is doing what and how it is done in the specified duration. Resources

planning can further be fine tuned with the action plan and action program in place.

It is best that an environmental analysis is done together with the setting of the

project objectives in early stage. Early identification of external factor will help to

improves planning. Here there is a need to identify and list down all the possible threats

together with a list of strategies to encounter the threats. A brainstorming session will help

to obtain inputs from the project team. This will also address the conflicts among project

manager, functional manager and program manager. Team work, co-operation and

commitments among team members (i.e. project manager, respective functional manager

etc.) are essential for plan development because without these, their inputs in timely

manner for the development of plans will affect its progress and accuracy. The schedule

must also take into consideration of the Work Breakdown Structure and organization

structure as these will contribute to the organization span and height, cost and time factor.

The more components of each, will results to the increase of complexity and

fragmentation, hence the right combination and size to suite the project is important here.

However it does not mean that simple Work Breakdown Structure and organization

structure is not applicable to a complex project, it is the degree of ability to manage and

control that we are looking at here, together with the risk that arises from this arrangement.

These have to be according to the overall organization policies. SWOT analysis can be

applied here to determine the required organization structure as it is an analysis tool for

looking into the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The details of this four



components may also be listed down to see any possible strategies to turn the opportunities

into contributions towards the project success.

A project manager normally relies on the scheduler to develop the project schedule.

Major milestone is normally being provided by the project manager and the scheduler will

developed the details from there. The input of information and assumptions made by the

scheduler must be realistic and reasonable. The extend of detailing in the project schedule

will depends on the work breakdown structure. Normally a reasonable duration is provided

for the scheduler to come out with the baseline schedule. Then forecast schedule and

regular updates is done to monitor its progress. Any delays can be highlighted and

attended to with alternatives and solutions.

A project manager should behave as a manager and must not involve too

detail in task of others such as resources allocation and planning should be left to the

functional managers’ responsibility and discretions. For example, a project manager needs

to be more concern of the resources allocation and planning by the functional managers

that comply to the project needs instead of being involve in how the allocation or plans

comes about. Project manager must set goals for the supporting planners and the goals

must also be established before a plan to avoid rework. In short leave the assigned task to

those who are good at that area and concentrate on management and drive the team

towards achieving the project objective and success.

Planning can be considered one of that important factors that contribute towards

project success. Some of the tools and guideline highlighted above can be used by a

project manager to manage planning. However these alone may not be very effective and it



requires the interpersonal skills and leadership skills of the project manager to drive this

process forward toward a reliable, effective and efficient plans.

1,140 words



PART B

Question 1

Quality management is increasingly been seen as a primary project management

objective. There are six quality management concepts that should exist to support every

project. Encik Ismail Ibrahim is a project manager for XYZ consultants. He has been

asked by his management to submit a report of the Project Quality Management Plan

(PQMP) for a proposed 40-storey Grade “A” Office building located at Jalan Sidek,

Kuala Lumpur.

Define and elaborate the “six quality management concepts” in the PQPM of the above

chosen project.

[40 marks]

In today’s competitive business world, the competitions among each other are very

intense and more challenging to secure and capture the market share. Clients or purchasers

are often demanding better quality because in many construction projects, clients often

find themselves paying high prices for defective works that do not satisfy their needs

[Low, 2005]. The habit, begin with the end in mind by Covey [1989] can be adopted as

one of the mindset towards quality commitment. Quality can contribute partly to customer

satisfaction as if a customer receive quality product with no defects and satisfy their needs

they would be happy. Therefore quality can be considered a cornerstone of competitive

strategies for organization to widen and secure their clients [Low, 2005]. It is also good

that these six concepts are embedded in the corporate culture. Major listed development

companies in Malaysia such as IJM, Sunrise, Sunway City, Gamuda and Hunza views



quality seriously and each have their commitments towards quality by having the six

quality concepts in place.

The proposed project is a 40 storey Grade ‘A’ office building located at Jalan

Sidek, Kuala Lumpur. This prestigious project is in a strategic commercial location and the

shall be targeting reputable organization to be their major tenants. The uniqueness modern

design is the main attraction for this project and therefore quality plays an important role to

ensure its attractiveness. It would be a waste for such a potential project to be affected

because of the quality provided. Therefore the below six quality management concepts that

is (1) Quality Policy; (2) Quality Objectives; (3) Quality Assurance; (4) Quality Control;

(5) Quality Audit and (6) Quality Program Plan needs to be establish to ensure success for

this project.

Quality Policy

This is document is a statements of principles of the organization’s commitment

towards quality that include a statement from the top management pledging full support for

this policy. With this policy it will embrace the organization’s reputation and quality

image to the public. Here this can be used as one of the selling point to potential purchaser.

Here the top management must be committed and be responsible to see that this policy is

carried down to the bottom level of the organization. Ensuring commitments right down to

the main contractor, sub- contractors and suppliers for this project will help further in

strengthening enforcement of the policy with promotion of consistency throughout the

organization and across the project. It will also help to reduce the chances of top



management shifting towards profit instead of quality during the project implementation

stage.

A quality policy normally states quality objective, the level of quality acceptable to

the organization and the responsibility of the organization’s members to execute the policy

and ensure quality. Specific guidelines such as independent department looking into the

quality matters (such as quality control, complains and response in timely manner) with

direct reporting to the top management may also be stated in this policy show the

seriousness of organization towards quality monitoring. This will enhance the confident

level of the potential purchaser and public towards this organization and can be used as

marketing tool.

The quality policy must also be reasonable and achievable, any over commitment

in the policies or unrealistic policies will contribute to disaster of the organziation’s

corporate image in the eyes of the public. Reference to certain requirement from reputable

agencies (such as compliance to FM Global fire safety requirements and committed to

Quality Assessment System in Construction – QLASSIC by Construction Industry

Development Board) will also help to express the commitment.

Quality Objectives

As a guide, quality objectives must be obtainable, clearly define with specific

goals, simple and understandable and with specific deadlines in place. Obtainable means

that it can be achieve within the specific period mention such as setting up a task force to



within a specific time look into prevention of water leakages defects and to provide them

with full authority to instruct the design team to incorporate their requirements in the

design. Water leakages is a very common but most hassle and costly problem in nearly all

most highrise building in Malaysia even though many steps have been taken for

prevention.

Clearly define mean that the objective are specific and stayed focus such as to

implement the quality control personnel ratio by a specific time (i.e. by end of the year or

before the start of construction) towards quality control such as one QAQC personnel for

every to 20 units of office can also be set an objective. These are measurable objective

which is clearly define and is easily understandable.

Specific and right timing also plays an important role for the objective. This is

because right timing contributes to results and performance. For example the purpose of

having the QAQC personal ration is to monitor and control the quality at site, therefore the

objective must be achieve before the construction starts as if it is set to be achieved during

handover period it does not serve much purpose since the intention is to do it right first

time.

Quality Assurance

This part is basically administrative processes and procedures to assure that the end

user or purchaser the product they bought, in this case is the office units are fit for its

purpose and within the specified guideline for its required performance. This function will



attempt to ensure that all the project scope, cost and time are fully integrated to achieve the

required performance. The basic here is the compliance to local authority requirement and

this is assured by the appointment of professionals for the design and submission for

approval to the local authorities. The quality assurance shall be subjected to the level of the

specific product, say if you purchase a fan you cannot aspect it to perform the duties of an

air conditioning units where both purpose it to blow air and reduce temperature but the

level of coolness in different due to the performance requirement.

Here independent laboratory testing and certification such as SIRIM will provide

certain level of quality assurance but it is also subject to frequency of samples send to

testing. Raw material like sand are very subjective on the quality as it is a natural product

where there are uncertainty on the quality even though it is from the same location. Sand

related materials such as cement and sand brick therefore may have uncertainty of quality

as the one of the main ingredient that is sand have variable in quality. Therefore constant

testing with reasonable samples are required to assure its quality.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is also a tool for quality

assurance, as the ISO 9000 series is a quality system standard. The ISO 9001 defines the

model for quality system in design, produce and installation of product or services whereas

ISO 9002 is a quality system model for assurance in production and installation. All these

tools will generally for the purpose of maintaining the performance measures, hence data

collected can be used to for the cycle of continuous improvement as higher baseline could

be set to enhance quality.



It is the duties of the project manager to work with his team members to determine

the process that is required to provide assurance to the end user or unit purchaser. His team

support is required to determine the process because it do requires technical skills input

from the respective professionals in the design team. Input from sales and marketing will

also be helpful as it would help to synergise the type of required assurance with the end

user’s perspective point of view. Technical people will have their perspective point of

view which many not be the same or align from the purchasers or end user.

Quality Control

The purpose of quality control is to ensure that the specified organization’s quality

objectives are met and the output conforms to the overall quality standard and quality plan.

Among the activities here are monitoring, identifies the root cause and reduce or

eliminated the problems, reduce variability and increase efficiency. The level and degree

of control are very much depending to the level of quality we are looking at as it is very

wide. There is a need to identify the types of control and the coverage required for control

as control coverage for all not feasible and involves time and cost.

There must be a guideline set for the coverage of control and shall be to the

required areas. These will provide a basis for decision regarding any possible corrective

action. Care must be taken as too less of control coverage will affects the quality. To

derive at the basis for decision, the guideline set must be measurable so that any corrective

action or redo can be compared to the quality standard and being monitored.



To measure we need tools such as measuring tape, leveller, total station, rulers etc.

These tools needs to produce accurate readings, there needs to be calibrated and approved.

The frequency of calibration and inspection must also be monitored so the at anytime the

tools is in good condition to produce accurate reading. Using the right tools also is an

important factor, for example using a normal leveller to measurement flatness of a flat slab

is of no benefits as the results produced by the leveller is not précised enough to judge its

flatness.

Upon identification of the non conformance of quality, the project team must act to

restore back to the required quality standard. Hence everyone must be committed to these

and must not be influence by the additional time and cost. One of the way to ensure that

corrective action of non conformance is taken in timely manner is to establish a system

with automatic escalation to upper level until the top management if it fails to be corrected

within the specific period of time. This is an effective way of handling non conformance of

quality. Quality control must not be seen and treated as barrier but instead it should be

looked at as a continuous improving tool with the intention of upgrading ones capabilities.

Detail documentation of all process are important so that it can be traceable and

monitored. Establish a checklist system for inspection is a way to track and monitor it.

The checklist system should not only cater for the technical perspective point of view but

must also focus what customer is looking for in quality. For example hair line crack in wall

plastering may not be a serious matter for technical people but purchaser may view this as

a serious matter due to the aesthetic appearance. Therefore if a building is using pre-

engineering design for steel structural works, then the intersection areas such as between



steel column and brick walls must be carefully design and treated so that there are not

continuous crack over a period of time. Here the design quality must also cater for

reducing cracks and not only to structural and loading requirement.

As an encouragement towards better quality, rewards can be a motivation tool for

achievement of quality objective. Rewards do not comes alone as it needs to be paired

together with penalty to be effective. Rewards and penalty may be in many forms such as

monetary, recognition or gift. Adoption of Six Sigma, Lean Construction and Kaizen will

help to improve quality by improving the process. These are related to the quality control

of a product.

Quality Audit

Quality audit is a quality evaluation to an organization and is being carried by

independent qualified parties appointed by the organization. Quality audit generally

ensure that the planned quality for the project are met with its product fit for its purpose

and safe to use. It will also ensure that the data collection and distribution systems such as

checklist used are accurate and adequate. That means the criteria set are generally

measureable. Hence it serves as a checker for the quality procedures and policies set by the

organization. Quality audit will also ensure that in the event of non conformance is

detected, proper corrective actions are taken to restore it. For example in this project, wall

claddings are used and gap in between each cladding panel must be consistent to the

requirement as it will affect the aesthetic appearance.



If an organization is committed towards quality, publishing the quality audit report

by the independent auditor to the respective purchaser will further enhance their trust

towards the organization. This can be used as a marketing tool to promote the product and

in this case is the office units. However this strategy must not be used if the organization

are not committed toward quality as it will do more damage to the organization.

Quality Plan

A quality plan is normally done by breaking down the project objectives in work

breakdown structure to a stage that specific quality actions can be identified. These quality

actions must then be documented and implemented in a sequence that it will meet the

customer’s requirements and expectations. This can be done by identifying the project’s

internal and external customer and then extract their expectation on the project and

establish a process to produce the features expected and desired by the customer. A survey

have been carried out to potential customer or purchaser and the result show that a high

percentage of the potential purchaser have high expectation of environment friendly or

green building then designing to achieve the Leadership in Energy & Environmental

Design (LEED) certification will enhance the attractiveness of the building. Most

reputable corporate organizations are committed towards environment hence this can be

one of the selling point for this project.

Bringing in supplier or specialist in at early stage may be one of the process to

ensure quality. If this office building is going for FM Global approval, then it is good to

have the FM approved supplier on board as their participation at early stage will contribute



further towards quality. Hence a quality plan serve as a road map to delivering a quality

product, in this case is a quality building for its customers or purchasers.

.

2,320 words

References

Construction Industry Development Board website – www.cidb.gov.my

Covey, S.R. [1989], The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. ; Free Press.

FM Global website – www.fmglobal.com

Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) by U.S. Green Building Council –

www.usgbc.org/LEED

Low, S. P. [2005], Strategic quality management for the construction industry. ; TQM

Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 35 – 53.

EMPM5103 (Sept10 Intake) CGS00528817 Assignment Part a&B

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