Research On Construction Quality Assessment: Model, Methodology And Mechanism

The construction industry has become one of the fastest expanding industries in China since the reform and opening up. Along with the development of the industry and the expansion of investment, construction quality has become a hot issue to the society as well as a management emphasis of the government. At present, much attention of related parties is paid to the safety or reliability aspect in the context of construction quality. Quality data are mainly collected through the assessment of accomplished works. Domestic researchers are mainly interested in the mathematic model and methodology of quality assessement, while the study on quality assessment mechanism is relatively ignored.Because of the lack of a systematic assessing method and an integrated assessing mechanism, current institutional framework cannot provide sufficient information for the government's policy making process, which has further hindered the government from taking actions to improve the situation. In order to improve the situation of construction quality management in China,the primary and principal task is to establish a sound system for assessing the construction quality. Besides, according to some foreign researchers, performance measurement is the key step of continuous improvement. Study on quality performance measurement should go beyond the method and investigate its function and mechanism in the perspective of TQM. In that case, establishing a successful quality assessing mechanism of the China characteristics may lie in enhancing the social quality consciousness, building a market-regulating quality assurance system and discriminating the quality responsibility, and thus strengthening the control and management of construction quality. All of the above give rise to this research on the model, methodology and mechanism of construction quality assessment. The research proceeds as follows: First, an in-depth analysis of the concept of construction quality is conducted to build a three-dimension space model named Space of Construction Quality Assessement. The space model is comprised of the works type axis, the quality phase axis and the quality attribute axis, which represents the rich content and multi-level structure of the construction quality concept. According to the space model, the needs, goals and principles of construction quality are analysed from the perspective of governmental management, which forms the basis of construction quality assessment theory. And then, based on the space model and the assessment theory, current quality indices are studied and their insufficiencies are summarized. Afterwards, Construction Quality Assessment System (CQAS), a structured, quantificational and practical index system for assessing construction quality in China, is established. CQAS includes a comprehensive index, the Construction Quality Index (CQI), to scale the construction quality status, and a series of methods, such as the Sampling Method and the Project AHP Model, to evaluate the project quality and to get the data for calculating the CQI. Finally, based on the summary and comparison of existing quality assessment system (CONQUAS and PASS), and the further study on the current construction management system in China, suggestions are made for implementing the CQAS and discussion is presented on the mechanism as of how the CQAS can help the government control and improve construction quality in China.