Abstract
Poor quality issues in the construction industry are a growing concern, with some of
the quality issues emanating from poor professional engineering services, such as
impractical designs and design errors, resulting in rework, cost and time overrun. Poor
professional engineering services are provided by organisations such as consulting
engineering and architecture organisations, which provide professionals’ knowledge
and skills as services to clients who are not sufficiently equipped to undertake the
services independently. These organisations are referred to as Knowledge Intensive
Business Services (KIBS), characterised by sharing specialised knowledge internal
and external of the organisation, unique and complex problems that often require
customised solutions, intangible solutions and close interactions with clients for a coproduction
process. As a requirement by many client bodies in the construction
industry to be able to participate in the market, these organisations have some form
of QMS in place, which is often ISO 9001. This creates the expectation of producing
deliverables and services of quality that are satisfactory to their clients. However, the
issues of poor quality indicate that organisations are implementing QMS in a manner
that is not effective. The study focused on identifying critical success factors to
implementing ISO 9001 in KIBS organisations by addressing the barriers prohibiting
successful implementation of the standards in these organisations, looking at it from
both the organisational and project levels.
The study used semi-structured interviews conducted with Quality Managers, Quality
Administrators and Project Managers in three consulting engineering organisations
that are ISO 9001 certified and participate in the construction industry. The interviews
aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of how ISO 9001 is implemented in KIBS
organisations. The content analysis method was used to analyse the responses
provided by the participants.
The study found that the bureaucracy of ISO 9001 standard is not a barrier to the
successful implementation of the standard but rather that the barriers are caused by
poor communication and lack of training with regard to ISO 9001 implementation.
Secondly, the study found that six of the key principles of ISO 9001 are considered
critical success factors in implementing the standard, with leadership and process
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approach principles found to be the most critical key principles in KIBS organisations.
Although having financial resources to implement ISO 9001 in the organisation is not
a direct critical success factor to develop QMS of the organisation, it is critical to
ensuring continuous improvement in ISO 9001 implementation, which is necessary for
the effectiveness of the standard in KIBS organisations.