Quality and learning in construction production

The project has resultet in a software and components for a quality management system based on collaborative planning and that makes information flow to support the safe and effecient production of a building that will meet functional and regulatory requirements. The number of quality deviations both during a building process and after delivery to the customer shows that current quality management systems for building and construction inadequately contribute to the desired predictability, documentation and quality of the product. There is increasing recognition that complexity in the building and construction sector is high and that this is a key challenge in all building activities. To ensure the desired predictability, documentation and quality of the product, management systems must be established that manage this inherent complexity. In the project Quality and Learning in Construction Production (QLCP), Veidekke Entreprenør has confronted quality management from several perspectives at once. This is being done with several partners from both academia and the building and construction industry. The project focuses on the following research fronts: - A process based and innovative proactive quality management system, based on the concepts of Collaborative Planning is developed. - Innovative IT tools are developed, based on a combination of existing and newly-developed software. - Researchers are analyzing what the complexity in building activities constitutes of, and which needs the various participants in a building process have. Altogether, QLCP gives Veidekke Entreprenør the opportunity to develop a well-functioning quality system where the use of new tools is combined with the implementation of new work processes. By QLCP combining the expertise of academic researchers, software developers and expert practitioners from multiple sides of in the industry, we are creating a conceptual new proactive quality system that will move the R&D frontier in the construction industry. Construction will still be a physical transformation process, where people - based on skills and craftsmanship, will find the suitable and favorable solutions together. These principles will be kept intact as we exploit the possibilities within digital information flow and connected mobile communication platforms. Two software applications are expected to be included in a commercial software portfolio in near future.

1. Identified the drivers for changing thinking from reactive to proactive 2. Improved the processes in construction relating to quality 3. Improved understanding and knowledge 4. Innovated a Product: Site Software 5. Improved the organization/coordination across the value-chain

The project Quality and learning in construction production has been established in order to develop an innovative quality management system for construction projects. The project owner is Veidekke Entreprenør. This leading Norwegian contractor intends to develop and implement a quality system that creates more value than existing systems. This is to be done in collaboration amongst others with software experts, whose aim it is to create a commercial software offering that provides a technological infrastructure for the new quality management system. The project is based on the idea that complexity is a key challenge in building, and that a modern quality management system has to take this complexity and the way it is managed in practice, into consideration. The project, therefore, incorporates research into building practices designed to throw new light on the nature of complexity, and how complexity is dealt with in work operations on-site. Insights from this research form a fundament for the development of quality management practices and related technologies and software products. In this way, possible drivers for changing thinking from reactive to proactive and strategies for improving organization and coordination across the value-chains can be identified. The basic purpose of the innovation in processes on-site is to add value through the reduction in defects and waste, and to secure a higher and more predictable level of quality in what is built. The approach to the research and development in the project is to combine organizational learning, social science research and digital technology development. The resulting innovation will be both a methodology and a software package. The latter is to be commercialized and sold to contractors in the construction industry in Norway and abroad.