The importance of quality management in construction projects

Quality management for construction works and projects is essential, firstly, to comply with the parameters and requirements demanded by regulations, and also to produce high-quality products that guarantee total customer satisfaction. 

Why is quality management important and how can we optimize it?

Quality management in building and construction projects is an essential factor to avoid defects in the end product, which could lead to the need for replacements, faults, accidents or any kind of anomalies that will end up having a negative impact on the final result and the customer's experience.

The main tools that companies use to carry out effective quality management are quality and verification protocols. 

Quality management also offers other very helpful benefits for all companies, such as eliminating waste related to replacements or returns of defective products, saving on unnecessary costs or improving technical performance of products and efficiency of processes. 

Primary benchmark standards for effective manufacture

It is important to underline that, although quality is reflected in the end product, for it to be effective it must be applied in each different phase of manufacturing as well, which is what the following standards are used for:

ISO 9001: 2015

These are international standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and they are applied to Quality Management Systems, which are made up of a set of guidelines that a company implements voluntarily during the manufacturing process. 

They are general standards that can be focused and personalized for each company, and they demonstrate the company’s will to achieve optimum quality and continual improvement through actions and processes based on well-defined strategies that are focused on achieving established and specific goals.

Technical Suitability Document (DIT) 

This is a document that companies may request to demonstrate a favorable technical assessment regarding the suitability of works, whether for a building or for civil works, in terms of the materials, methods or construction systems.

This document is issued upon a company's request by the Eduardo Torroja Institute for Construction Science (IETcc), the only body in Spain with the power to grant it. 

European Technical Assessment (ETA) 

The European Technical Assessment (ETA), formally the European Technical Approval, is a harmonized European standard, making it valid for all EU countries. Its objectives are as follows: 

• Providing performance assessment information regarding the essential properties of a construction product.
• Supplying necessary technical details for implementing the Assessment and Verification of Constancy of Performance (AVCP) system.

The main benefits of the ETA are that it gives customers more confidence in the product and promotes its sale throughout the entire European Economic Area and Switzerland.

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ULMA’s commitment to quality certifications

At ULMA we work with strict quality protocols on all our manufacturing lines, for facade cladding and all our other products. As such, we have established control plans that outline all the aspects to analyze, including the methods used, the professionals that should carry out each control operation, if they exist or are not recorded, etc. These operations apply to the raw materials used, the process implemented and the end product delivered. 

Our quality plan is based on certifications and we are proud of what we have achieved, including the ISO 9001:2015 quality standard and the ISO 15504 SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination) standard for assessing processes. 

For our special projects, which are not subject to classic standards, we use specific controls. This enables us to ensure that each and every one of our products and working methods meet the highest quality standards, with as few errors as possible, while always maintaining our focus on the goals of continual improvement and excellence.

The use of certifications and quality controls and protocols not only guarantees that the customer will always receive a product of the highest quality in the agreed time period and with an optimum service before and after the purchase, but it can also be used as a solid sales argument.