22nd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Oslo, Norway - 2014

Analysis of Supplier Quality Surveillance in EPC Projects

Yoshua Neuman1, Thaís da C. L. Alves2, Kenneth D. Walsh3, Kim LaScola Needy4 & Rufaidah Y. Almaian5

1Graduate student, J. R. Filanc Construction Eng. and Mgmt. Program, Dept. of Civil, Constr., and Env. Eng., San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, [email protected]
2Assistant Professor, J.R. Filanc Construction Eng. and Mgmt. Program, Dept. of Civil, Constr., and Env. Eng., San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, [email protected]
3Professor and chair, J. R. Filanc Construction Eng. and Mgmt. Program, Dept. of Civil, Constr., and Env. Eng., San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, [email protected]
4Department Head and 21st Century Professor, Dept. of Industrial Eng., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA, [email protected]
5Ph.D. candidate, Dept. of Industrial Eng., University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA, [email protected]

Abstract

This paper reports on research conducted by a team of academics and practitioners supported by the Construction Industry Institute that investigated the relationship between rework and effective supplier quality surveillance practices (RT 308). Data confirmed findings from previous studies about project-based systems and the fact that the Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) industry and its suppliers share little to no lessons learned from one project to the next. A number of reasons for this behavior are discussed in the paper, including but not limited to lack of time to review past projects, fear of claims and litigation, and lack of structured methods to process and make lessons learned available to others. This becomes a systemic problem for the industry, which does not learn from past experiences accumulated from multiple contracts and continues to rely on lengthy specifications and hours of surveillance to assure that products conform to the design intent. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways Lean concepts could be used to improve the current status of surveillance practices used in the EPC industry while addressing its peculiarities and the risk associated with different products and services acquired.

Keywords

Supplier quality surveillance, inspection, lessons learned, criticality, engineer-procure-construct.

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Reference

Neuman, Y. , Alves, T. C. L. , Walsh, K. D. , Needy, K. L. & Almaian, R. Y. 2014. Analysis of Supplier Quality Surveillance in EPC Projects, 22nd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 1083-1094. doi.org/

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