Assessing the corporate service quality performance of design-build contractors using quality function deployment

The design-build (D/B) project delivery system has gained increased market share in the last few years. It is superior to traditional systems in some respects but some claim that it does not lend itself to effective quality assurance and control. D/B construction owners who are in the process of selecting a D/B firm for a project should therefore be well informed about the quality performance of potential D/B firms in their bidding list. Total quality consists of the corporate quality culture, the quality of the project service, and the quality of the constructed facility. This paper describes a tool that was developed to measure the corporate service quality of a D/B firm using quality function deployment (QFD). The service quality factors are ranked relative to construction owners' needs and expectations by means of a survey administered to construction owners. The components of quality management systems in place in D/B firms are ranked by D/B executives in a survey administered to senior D/B firms. The relationships between service quality factors and quality system requirements are established by a professional quality system assessor and all these attributes are integrated into one system called the Corporate Service a'House of Quality.' The tool developed can be used by construction owners to rank D/B firms relative to corporate service quality as well as by D/B firms to benchmark themselves against their competitors.