Evaluating the attainment of quality management principles in construction companies certified by ISO 9001:2000

Abstract

Since the nineties, housing construction companies began to incorporate the quality management and have developed quality management systems (QMS), using the directives given by the ISO 9000 standards. Construction companies have invested a big amount of resources -especially economic and human resources - in the development of their QMSs; this has been done in order to increase the level of satisfaction of their customers through the improvement of the quality of their constructive processes and the quality of the houses they build. Then, it is very important to construction companies to know if this investment has been as profitable as they hoped. A study was performed to determine the impact of QMSs on the performance of ISO 9001:2000 certified housing construction companies regarding the level of application of quality management’s principles without considering the impact that can generate the implementation of other standards such as environmental management and risk prevention. The measuring instrument consisted of a survey applied as a personal interview, which was answered by 118 individuals from 11 Chilean housing construction companies; out of a total universe of 34 ISO 9001:2000 certified housing construction companies. These people gave their perceptions over the accomplishment of quality management’s principles in their companies. The main conclusion of this study indicates that people perceive that quality management’s principles are applied in an unsatisfactory way.