"Concom" - a construction quality control management system
Dec 30, 2020
Article by: Mickey Yogev, CEO
Research and background
In 2014, a study by Prof. Yechiel Rosenfeld and Hanan Ben-Oz, from the National Institute for Construction Research at the Technion in Haifa, was published, commissioned by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, and titled "Characterization of Construction Defects According to Root Causes: Identifying Their Causes, Timing of Their Creation and Exposure, Development of Their Costs, and Remedies for Reducing Them."
This study determined, among other things, the following:
• 100% of new apartments in Israel have construction defects.
• The costs associated with construction defects are in the order of 10-15% of the project cost.
• 67% of the defects discovered during the apartment handover stage damaged the reputation of the executing company.
• The inspector on behalf of the developer discovered only 3% of the defects, while the tenants discovered 20% of the defects.
• In only 57% of cases did the quality system function properly.
• Construction companies need to pay for another year of work for an engineer, thus saving twice the cost of damages from construction defects.
Identifying the root causes of the deficiencies and their distribution into main groups showed that they are:
• 45% - Work methods
• 35% - Human resources
• 19% - Management
• 1% - Mechanization
• 1% - raw materials.
Article by: Mickey Yogev, CEO
Research and background
In 2014, a study by Prof. Yechiel Rosenfeld and Hanan Ben-Oz, from the National Institute for Construction Research at the Technion in Haifa, was published, commissioned by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, and titled "Characterization of Construction Defects According to Root Causes: Identifying Their Causes, Timing of Their Creation and Exposure, Development of Their Costs, and Remedies for Reducing Them."
This study determined, among other things, the following:
• 100% of new apartments in Israel have construction defects.
• The costs associated with construction defects are in the order of 10-15% of the project cost.
• 67% of the defects discovered during the apartment handover stage damaged the reputation of the executing company.
• The inspector on behalf of the developer discovered only 3% of the defects, while the tenants discovered 20% of the defects.
• In only 57% of cases did the quality system function properly.
• Construction companies need to pay for another year of work for an engineer, thus saving twice the cost of damages from construction defects.
Identifying the root causes of the deficiencies and their distribution into main groups showed that they are:
• 45% - Work methods
• 35% - Human resources
• 19% - Management
• 1% - Mechanization
• 1% - raw materials.
introduction
In recent years, due to population growth and the increasing demand for residential apartments, as well as the fundamental changes that have occurred in urban construction in the country, the construction industry has expanded significantly. The scope of construction projects is changing and growing day by day in terms of size, height, design, environment, finished products, and environmental development. This significant growth, spanning the past two decades, has many significant implications not only for construction management as a whole but also for construction quality management.
From time to time, we are exposed to failures and fundamental deficiencies in the construction industry, which are not appropriate for a developed Western country. In fact, construction deficiencies are now an integral part of every construction project, and their results are usually lawsuits, arbitrations, mediation proceedings, and more. As a result, construction companies have been forced to establish special departments to permanently handle complaints and claims from home buyers.
Some construction companies, especially the larger ones, have already internalized the need for increased management and can now be found in them with project management systems of one kind or another. Today, quality management is carried out independently, in contracting and entrepreneurial companies, starting from the personal memory of the project manager/supervisor, through registration in one form or another, email correspondence that is not disclosed and is integrated with all the parties in the project, partial documentation or audit reports in one form or another ISO system. Most of the process also takes place through files in which the material is stored according to certain definitions and at the end of the process is combed, shelved, or even partially disappeared. There is also no full unification of processes and procedures and some of the processes are not carried out at all due to the burdens placed on the project manager/supervisor, coordination, subcontractors, suppliers, foremen, shortage of manpower, late schedules, and more.
In recent years, due to population growth and the increasing demand for residential apartments, as well as the fundamental changes that have occurred in urban construction in the country, the construction industry has expanded significantly. The scope of construction projects is changing and growing day by day in terms of size, height, design, environment, finished products, and environmental development. This significant growth, spanning the past two decades, has many significant implications not only for construction management as a whole but also for construction quality management.
From time to time, we are exposed to failures and fundamental deficiencies in the construction industry, which are not appropriate for a developed Western country. In fact, construction deficiencies are now an integral part of every construction project, and their results are usually lawsuits, arbitrations, mediation proceedings, and more. As a result, construction companies have been forced to establish special departments to permanently handle complaints and claims from home buyers.
Some construction companies, especially the larger ones, have already internalized the need for increased management and can now be found in them with project management systems of one kind or another. Today, quality management is carried out independently, in contracting and entrepreneurial companies, starting from the personal memory of the project manager/supervisor, through registration in one form or another, email correspondence that is not disclosed and is integrated with all the parties in the project, partial documentation or audit reports in one form or another ISO system. Most of the process also takes place through files in which the material is stored according to certain definitions and at the end of the process is combed, shelved, or even partially disappeared. There is also no full unification of processes and procedures and some of the processes are not carried out at all due to the burdens placed on the project manager/supervisor, coordination, subcontractors, suppliers, foremen, shortage of manpower, late schedules, and more.
The need for a quality management system in construction stems from the scale of failures and the low efficiency of the workforce and its scope on site. As a matter of fact, the knowledge of those involved in the field in all sections of the execution is partial and not up-to-date. Project managers and supervisors are not updated with the new standards that are published very frequently.
On-site supervision cannot accommodate all the required inspections, partly because of the burden placed on the project manager/supervisor dealing with dozens of housing units at the same time, making his job impossible. In light of this, a construction quality management system saves valuable time and increases the efficiency of on-site supervision and suppliers.
A quality management system in construction is designed to reduce and minimize construction defects and deviations from design, while controlling a schedule in a consistent manner. The system does not replace relevant knowledge, experience, or education in the field, but rather supports the process.
In recent years, we have developed a construction quality management system that allows us to dramatically improve construction quality. This is done through unique technology that implements continuous control over all stages of execution. This technology is currently being implemented in hundreds of projects across the country and significantly reduces construction failures and defects.
The need for a quality management system
The capabilities of the "Concam" system
Simple operation.
Involving all project stakeholders and the client in the quality system.
Collaborate in the cloud accessible from any laptop, tablet, and smartphone.
Advanced quality system. The data uploaded to the system is collected on the site through extensive documentation according to a list
General topics at each stage and compliance with the appropriate standards. A schedule is determined for each project in a very short process and a Gantt chart is obtained that describes all stages of the project. Each apartment/house/project has a structured schedule, which can be changed according to the actual pace of execution. Each apartment/house has dozens of identical testing stages and at each stage the quality indicators are coordinated with the standard. The report is issued in a very short time by the project manager/supervisor in each private apartment/house.
The test set is divided into two:
Quality indicators - indicators established to ensure a proper process during the construction phase.
Standard metrics - metrics embedded within the system during the construction phase.
The reports are sent immediately from the site to all quality factors in the project by definition, with dozens of reports in a uniform format being generated for each apartment/house. Test results that do not meet the general requirements and the standard requirements are transferred to a separate concentration – “Risk/Non-conformance Concentration Report”. At each testing stage, there is the option of issuing an audit report documenting a consultant/planner visit, or additional work that was discovered or completed.
This construction quality management system is intended for project management and supervision companies in the construction industry, for developers and main contractors. The system is located on a server that allows all management elements to see in real time all projects in the company, each project in unit detail and individually. For each apartment/house there is an advanced correspondence management center that provides the ability to see who read the correspondence, when it was sent, by whom and when it was read. Permission can be granted to each tenant/consultant/entity to see all inspections that were carried out on their property.
However, there are several barriers to operating the system: the project manager or supervisor's fear of having to perform all control actions in chronological order, as well as the company's superiors' understanding of its activities and how it functions. Naturally, there is also the fear of any technological improvement. It is a mistake to think that operating the system consumes additional time, when in fact it saves real-time work hours, reporting, documentation, filing, and more.
Simple operation.
Involving all project stakeholders and the client in the quality system.
Collaborate in the cloud accessible from any laptop, tablet, and smartphone.
Advanced quality system. The data uploaded to the system is collected on the site through extensive documentation according to a list
General topics at each stage and compliance with the appropriate standards. A schedule is determined for each project in a very short process and a Gantt chart is obtained that describes all stages of the project. Each apartment/house/project has a structured schedule, which can be changed according to the actual pace of execution. Each apartment/house has dozens of identical testing stages and at each stage the quality indicators are coordinated with the standard. The report is issued in a very short time by the project manager/supervisor in each private apartment/house.
The test set is divided into two:
Quality indicators - indicators established to ensure a proper process during the construction phase.
Standard metrics - metrics embedded within the system during the construction phase.
The reports are sent immediately from the site to all quality factors in the project by definition, with dozens of reports in a uniform format being generated for each apartment/house. Test results that do not meet the general requirements and the standard requirements are transferred to a separate concentration – “Risk/Non-conformance Concentration Report”. At each testing stage, there is the option of issuing an audit report documenting a consultant/planner visit, or additional work that was discovered or completed.
This construction quality management system is intended for project management and supervision companies in the construction industry, for developers and main contractors. The system is located on a server that allows all management elements to see in real time all projects in the company, each project in unit detail and individually. For each apartment/house there is an advanced correspondence management center that provides the ability to see who read the correspondence, when it was sent, by whom and when it was read. Permission can be granted to each tenant/consultant/entity to see all inspections that were carried out on their property.
However, there are several barriers to operating the system: the project manager or supervisor's fear of having to perform all control actions in chronological order, as well as the company's superiors' understanding of its activities and how it functions. Naturally, there is also the fear of any technological improvement. It is a mistake to think that operating the system consumes additional time, when in fact it saves real-time work hours, reporting, documentation, filing, and more.
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