26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Chennai, India - 2018

https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0532

Behavior-Based Quality, Case Study of Closing the Knowing-Doing Gap

Rodney Spencley1, George Pfeffer2, Elizabeth Gordon3, Fritz Hain4, Dean Reed5 & Marton Marosszeky6

1Director for Quality, DPR Construction, 1450 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA, [email protected]
2President, DPR Construction, 1450 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA, [email protected]
3Quality Leader, DPR Construction, 1450 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA, [email protected]
4RISQ Group Leader, DPR Construction, 2000 Aerial Center Parkway, Suite 118, Morrisville, NC 27560, USA, [email protected]
5Lean/Integration Advocate, DPR Construction, 1450 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA, [email protected]
6Managing Director, Marosszeky Associates P.L., 40 Maligan Lane, Mandalong NSW 2264, Australia, [email protected]

Abstract

This is a case study of a large US general contractor’s efforts to rethink and implement a new behavior-based approach to quality to achieve zero errors, zero defects, zero rework, and zero surprises. This GC has a long history of building a culture of Behavior-Based Safety and has approached quality the same way. Recognition of upstream behaviors that resulted in quality issues and unpredictable results during construction led to a focus on changing the mindset and behaviors of all project stakeholders to enable the team to achieve the intended results. While owners and designers have an indirect connection to safety results, their behavior and actions directly affect quality outcomes. Although developed independently of Quality Function Deployment (QFD), this GC’s approach is similar. Its approach focuses on understanding the customer’s expectations and what is required technically in detail from suppliers to achieve them. It focuses on understanding and describing in technical terms what are the ‘distinguishing’ features of the work from each stakeholder’s perspective, and on aligning its teams on measurable acceptance criteria to achieve customer expectations. This process for making knowledge explicit in order to agree on what quality means to the customer allows the team to fabricate and install its products correctly in such a way as to close the ‘knowing-doing’ gap that plagues most companies and projects.

Keywords

Quality, workflow, indicators, Behavior-Based Safety (BBS), Behavior-Based Quality (BBQ), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Rework

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Reference

Spencley, R. , Pfeffer, G. , Gordon, E. , Hain, F. , Reed, D. & Marosszeky, M. 2018. Behavior-Based Quality, Case Study of Closing the Knowing-Doing Gap, 26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 1170-1181. doi.org/10.24928/2018/0532

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