Development of a Quantification Proposal for Hidden Quality Costs: Applied to the Construction Sector
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 134, Issue 10
Abstract
This study develops a quantification proposal for those quality costs that construction companies cannot estimate through objective criteria, known as hidden quality costs. This proposal will later be the object of validation through a real case: the quantification of the cost of loss of image that a construction company experiences as a consequence of a delay in the completion of a certain building. This proposal is of relevance to researchers in that it demonstrates how hidden cost quantification based on a fuzzy logic model can be developed and tested, and it provides the basis for future investigations. It is of relevance to professionals as it describes how fuzzy logic and quality costs can be used to effectively model industrial construction quality management.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Abdel-Razek, R. H. (1998a). “Factors affecting construction quality in Egypt: Identification and relative importance.” Eng., Constr., Archit. Manage., 5(3), 220–227.
Abdel-Razek, R. H. (1998b). “Quality improvement methodology and implementation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 124(5), 354–360.
Abdul-Rahman, H. (1995). “The cost of non-conformance during a highway project: A case study.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 13(1), 23–32.
Albright, T., and Roth, H. (1992). “The measurement of quality costs: An alternative paradigm.” Account. Horiz., 6(6), 15–27.
Amat, O. (1992). Costes de calidad y de no calidad, Gestión 2000, Barcelona, Spain.
Aoieong, R. T., Tang, S. L., and Ahmed, S. M. (2002). “A process approach in measuring quality costs of construction projects: Model development.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 20(2), 179–192.
Asociación Española de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (AECA). (1998). “Principios de contabilidad de gestión: Costes de calidad.” Documento No. 11, AECA, Madrid, Spain.
Barber, P., Graves, A., Hall, M., Sheath, D., and Tomkins, C. (2000). “Quality failure costs in civil engineering projects.” Int. J. Qual. Reliab. Manage., 17(4), 479–492.
Brown, F., and Kane, R. (1987). “Quality cost and profit performance.” Quality costs: Ideas & applications, A. Grimm, ed., Vol. 1, ASQC Quality Costs Committee, ASQC Quality Press, Milwaukee.
Bryson, N. (1996). “Group decision-making and the analytic hierarchy process: Exploring the consensus-relevant information content.” Comput. Oper. Res., 23(23), 27–35.
Campanella, J. (1999). Principles of quality costs: Principle, implementation, and use, Quality Press, Milwaukee, American Society for Quality, Milwaukee.
Carr, L. P. (1992). “Applying cost of quality to a service business.” Sloan Manage. Rev., 33(4), 72–77.
Chiadamrong, N. (2003). “The development of an economic quality cost model.” Total Qual. Manage. and Business Excellence, 14(9), 999–1014.
Crosby, P. (1979). Quality is free: The art of making quality certain, Penguin Books, New York.
Dahlgaard, J., Kanji, G. K., and Kristensen, K. (1992). “Quality and economic development project.” Total Qual. Manage., 3(1), 115–118.
Dale, B., and Plunkett, J. (1999). Quality costing, Gower, Brookfield, U.K.
Dale, B., and Wan, G. (2002). “Setting up a quality costing system, an evaluation of the key issues.” Bus. Process Manag. J., 8(2), 100–104.
Davis, K. (1987). “Measuring design and construction quality costs.” Source Document No. 30, Construction Industry Institute, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Tex.
De las Heras, S. (2003). “Retraso en la entrega de viviendas: Una espera que desespera.” El Mundo, ⟨http://.el-mundo.es/suvivienda⟩ (Jul. 17, 2007) (in Spanish).
European Construction News. (1998). “European Union update: Improving construction competitiveness.”
Feigenbaum, A. (1961). Total quality control, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Freiesleben, J. (2004). “On the limited value of cost of quality models.” Total Qual. Manage., 15(7), 959–969.
Giakatis, G., Enkawa, T., and Washitani, K. (2001). “Hidden quality costs and the distinction between quality cost and quality loss.” Total Qual. Manage., 12(2), 179–190.
Hall, M., and Tomkins, C. (2001). “A cost of quality analysis of a building project: Towards a complete methodology for design and build.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 19(7), 727–740.
Harrington, H. J. (1987). Poor-quality cost, ASQC Quality Press, Milwaukee.
International Accounting Standard Board (IASB). (2007). International financial reporting standards, IASB, London.
Josephson, P. E., and Hammarlund, Y. (1999). “The causes and costs of defects in construction: A study of seven building projects.” Autom. Construc., 8(6), 681–687.
Juran, J. (1951). Quality control handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Juran, J., and Godfrey, A. (1998). Juran’s quality control handbook, 5th Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York.
Kaufmann, A. (1987). Les expertons, Hermès, París.
Kauffmann, A., and Gil, J. (1987). Técnicas operativas para el tratamiento de la incertidumbre, Editorial Hispano Europea, Barcelona, Spain (in Spanish).
Kauffmann, A., and Gil, J. (1993). Técnicas especiales para la gestión de expertos, Editorial Milladoiro, Barcelona, Spain (in Spanish).
Kazaz, A., and Birgonul, M. (2005). “The evidence of poor quality in high rise and medium rise housing units: A case study of mass housing projects in Turkey.” Build. Environ., 40(11), 1548–1556.
Kazaz, A., Birgonul, M., and Ulubeyli, S. (2005). “Cost-based analysis of quality in developing countries: A case study of building projects.” Build. Environ., 40(10), 1356–1365.
Kim, M. W., and Liao, W. (1994). “Estimating hidden quality costs with quality loss functions.” Account. Horiz., 18(1), 8–18.
Kotler, P. (1991). “Strategies for marketing service excellence.” The 1st Global Conf., Management Centre Europe, Brussels.
Krishnan, S. K. (2006). “Increasing the visibility of hidden failure cost.” Measuring Busi. Excellence, 4(4), 77–101.
Lam, S. W. (1994). ISO 9000 in construction, McGraw-Hill, Singapore.
Love, P. (2002). “Auditing the indirect consequences of rework in construction: A case based approach.” Manage. Audit. J., 17(3), 138–146.
Love, P., and Edwards, D. (2004). “Determinants of rework in building construction projects.” Eng., Constr., Archit. Manage., 11(4), 259–274.
Love, P., and Irani, Z. (2003). “A project management quality cost information system for the construction industry.” Information and Management, 40(7), 649–661.
Love, P., and Li, H. (1999). “Knocking down walls and building bridges—Overcoming the problems associated with quality certification.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 18(3), 321–332.
Love, P., and Li, H. (2000). “Quantifying the causes and costs of rework in construction.” Construction Management and Economics, 18(4), 479–490.
Love, P., Li, H., and Mandal, P. (1999). “Rework: A symptom of a dysfunctional supply-chain.” Eur. J. Purchas. Supply Manag., 5(1), 1–11.
Low, S. P., and Yeo, K. C. (1998). “A construction quality costs quantifying system for the building industry.” Int. J. Qual. Reliab. Manage., 15(34), 329–349.
Mani, T. P., Murugan, N., and Rajendran, C. (2003). “TQM is a must for success, but not sufficient for survival: A conceptual framework as contemplated in ancient Tamil literature in India.” Total Qual. Manage., 14(4), 395–405.
MAPFRE. (2007). “Ingeniería y construcción.” ⟨http://www.mapfre.com/seguroses/⟩ (Jul. 17, 2007).
Park, S. H. (2003). Six sigma for quality and productivity promotion, Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo.
Robison, J. (1997). “Integrate quality costs concepts into team’s problem-solving efforts.” Qual. Prog., 30(3), 25–30.
Saaty, T. (1980). The analytic hierarchy process, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Saaty, T. (1988). Decision making for leaders, RWS, Pittsburgh.
Saaty, T. (1990). “An exposition of the AHP in reply to the paper ‘Remarks on the analytic hierarchy process.’” Manage. Sci., 36(3), 259–268.
Saaty, T. (1994). “The analytic hierarchy process: Some observations on the paper by Apostolou and Hassell.” J. Account. Lit., 13(1), 212–219.
Sandoval-Chavez, D. A., and Beruvides, M. G. (1998). “Using opportunity costs to determine the cost of quality: A case study in a continuous-process industry.” Eng. Econ., 43(2), 103–107.
Schiffauerova, A., and Thomson, V. (2006). “A review of research on cost of quality models and best practices.” Int. J. Qual. Reliab. Manage., 23(6), 647–669.
Schniederjans, M. J., and Garvin, T. (1997). “Using the analytic hierarchy process and multi-objective programming for the selection of cost drivers in activity-based-costing.” Eur. J. Oper. Res., 100(1), 72–80.
Sedatole, K. L. (2003). “The effect of measurement alternatives on a nonfinancial quality measure’s forward-looking properties.” Account. Rev., 78(2), 555–580.
Tanaka, H., and Guo, P. (1999). “Possibilistic data analysis for operations research.” Studies in fuzzyness and soft computing, Vol. 29, Physica, Berlin.
Tang, S. L., Aoieong, R. T., and Ahmed, S. M. (2004). “The use of process cost model (PCM) for measuring quality costs of construction projects: Model testing.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 22(3), 263–275.
Tsai, W. H. (1998). “Quality cost measurement under activity based costing.” Int. J. Qual. Reliab. Manage., 15(7), 719–752.
Zahedi, F. (1986). “The analytic hierarchy process—A survey of the method and its applications.” Interfaces, 16(4), 96–108.
Zonnensahin, A., Naveh, E., and Halevy, A. (1998). “A survey of the cost of nonquality to a nation’s economy: The Israeli experience.” Qual. Prog., 31(10), 93–97.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 134 • Issue 10 • October 2008
Pages: 749 - 757
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 13, 2007
Accepted: Apr 15, 2008
Published online: Oct 1, 2008
Published in print: Oct 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.