Quality or Conformity of Construction Products: What is What?
“Scientific Problems of Engineering Economics of Construction and Real Estate Management, Regions and Territories Development (ICEREE’2019)” organized within 60th International Scientific Conference of Riga Technical University: Book of Abstracts 2019
Jānis Vanags, Ineta Geipele, Iveta Stāmure

The concept of quality has become increasingly popular in the past decade. The results of the study demonstrate that only a few quality users are aware of its content. The construction industry is not an exception. No one should have any objection if the concept “quality” is used by the customer or user of the construction product, who has brief contact with construction and does not have the necessary knowledge in the manufacture of construction products. However, the use of the concept of quality by manufacturers of construction products is not correct and does not correspond to the content of the concept. Being aware of the quality content and knowing that the construction industry agrees with the regulated sphere one can come to the conclusion that construction companies do not produce quality products and do not produce poor quality products. Conforming and/or nonconforming products are produced in construction. In practice, cases of analysis and evaluation of construction products and the results of scientific research prove that the precision of the concepts used in communication drastically reduces the potential risk of inappropriate decision making and contributes to the increase in resource efficiency. This applies in full to companies operating in the construction industry, associations involved in the development of the construction industry, as well as to civil servants involved in the development of regulatory enactments in construction. Taking into account the observations and research results outlined above, the study focuses on the content of the concepts of quality and conformity, their relationship and transformation. Quality is a set of attributes defined by an individual in the society, a particular subject, which is used to evaluate a particular object. An important element is included in this definition – the attributes defined by the subject. It means that the subject has an idea of quality and each has its own quality, there are no two identical ideas of quality. Therefore, the discussion about the existence or non-existence of quality is fruitless. The concept of conformity is needed in order to reach a compromise between the buyer and the seller and between the manufacturer and the consumer. What is conformity? Conformity is a set of attributes of parties involved in the transaction or a set of attributes defined by law, which is known to the parties involved in the transaction. It means that in every situation when the buyer or the customer of the construction product is not satisfied with the quality of the manufactured product, the manufacturer first checks the conformity of the product characteristics with the laws and regulations before deciding on further action. In the construction sector, the production of new products mainly begins only after the project in question is completed. It is the project that contains the customer’s quality requirements. After the project is designed, the quality requirements are transformed into conformity requirements. When a construction project arrives at a construction company and the construction process begins, the conformity requirements included in the project are supplemented with the requirements defined in the building regulations, standards and other regulatory enactments. As a result, in the construction product manufactured one can identify the customer-defined quality requirements, as well as the conformity requirements that are stipulated in the relevant regulatory enactments. Thus, the situation becomes sufficiently clear and unambiguous – if construction companies and their stakeholders are willing to achieve a higher level of conformity of construction products, they first need to know and understand the content of the concepts of quality and conformity and their role in managing the production of a conforming construction product, as well as use these concepts according to the content.


Atslēgas vārdi
Quality; Conformity; Construction; Construction product.
Hipersaite
http://buni.rtu.lv/wp-content/uploads/sites/68/2019/09/ICEREE-2019-Abstracts.pdf

Vanags, J., Geipele, I., Stāmure, I. Quality or Conformity of Construction Products: What is What?. No: “Scientific Problems of Engineering Economics of Construction and Real Estate Management, Regions and Territories Development (ICEREE’2019)” organized within 60th International Scientific Conference of Riga Technical University: Book of Abstracts, Latvija, Riga, 27.-28. septembris, 2019. Riga: RTU Press, 2019, 57.-58.lpp. ISBN 978-9934-22-369-3.

Publikācijas valoda
English (en)
RTU Zinātniskā bibliotēka.
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