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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

ISO 9001 Certification for construction and Real estate development companies

how to implement ISO 9001, benefits of ISO certification and cost of implementation of ISO 9001 QMS

This article gives indepth insight on what is ISO 9001 and what benefits a construction or real estate development company can get by implementing ISO 9001 Quality Management System. This article is an outcome of expertise aquired over a decade by the team of Lakshy Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd. in the field of ISO 9001 certification & consulting across the world.

Website of ISO 9001 Certification Consultants & Trainers:- Lakshy Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd.‘ISO 9001 Certification - A Strategic Growth tool for construction industry ‘

ISO 9001 Quality Management System is the most successful tool for improving business process of an organization. Known for it's process approach and customer centric requirement, ISO 9001:2000 has become the most sought after standard by the organizations across industry verticals.



Today, when customer is the king, economy is rapidly moving forward, construction industry is showing 20% CAGR and business environment dynamic, any organization in the field of construction needs to have a well defined, robust and results oriented management system to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the market place.

Traditionally manufacturing and in recent times service industries have achieved remarkable benefits in business processes and performance by adopting a well defined quality management system. The same benefits can be achieved by the construction & real estate development industry if they implement an ISO 9001:2000 quality management system.



Thus, ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System is the best tool available to increase productivity, streamline operations, increase customer satisfaction and improve profit margins through superior quality of product, process and service.



Importance of ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System for Construction Industry?


When Indian economy is being opened up and with government of India deciding to allow foreign direct investment in the real estate development sector, importance of an international system certification like ISO 9001:2000 increases manifold for the Indian construction companies.



ISO 9001:2000 offers a variety of benefits to the construction industry. These benefits range from better resource planning to effective monitoring, and control of the project--from improved employee efficiency to reduced customer complaints, and from increased productivity to enhanced market image.



The ISO 9001: 2000 standard places greater emphasis on customer needs expectations and improving business performance through delighting the customers.


A well established ISO 9001:2000 quality management system delivers the following benefits to construction industry.

  • Consistent and effective control of key processes and project management.

  • Promotion and standardization of good working practices.

  • Provision of a vehicle for training new employees.

  • Effective management of risk and improved crisis management.

  • More effective data analysis, generation of key performance metrics and continual improvement objectives.

  • Greater emphasis on communication, leadership, change management and adequacy of training.

  • A planning and review process which ensures the system in place remains suitable, effective and capable of identifying new opportunities.

  • Effective remote site management, accountability and contractual control.

  • Promoting control of suppliers and subcontractors and the development of effective supply chain management.

  • World-wide recognition and improved market image.













Tangible of ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System

In a survey conducted on ISO 9001 certified companies in construction industry, the following interesting results were observed.

  • 30% Reduction in customer complaints
  • 95% improvement in delivery time
  • Reduced defects from 3% to 0.5%
  • 40% reduction in product cycle time.
  • 20% increase in on-time delivery



Methodology to implement ISO 9001:2000 in Construction Industry

  1. Start with a well defined awareness training programme. You need to have separate awareness training programmes for top management, middle management and lower management. You need to discuss about quality management, ISO 9001 requirements and how quality management will make a difference to your organization. You can hire an external consultant/trainer for doing the awareness in a professional manner.

  1. Next step is to conduct a gap analysis. Gap analysis is a detailed and complete study of the current business processes of your organization vs. requirement of ISO 9001 standard. This is the most important and crucial stage during entire ISO 9001 implementation process. Whether you a manufacturing company or an service organization, you need to benchmark your current business processes with ISO 9001 requirements. Outcome of gap analysis study should be generation of a gap analysis report that you need to circulate with all the process owners and departmental heads. It is always advisable that you appoint a well renowned and experienced consultant for carrying out gap analysis of your organization as external consultant like Lakshy Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd. comes with a lot of functional and domain specific experience and expertise.

  1. After gap analysis, you need to carry out work shop for deriving quality policy and process wise quality objectives. These objectives will be the driving force in the organization for performance improvement and measurement.

  1. On the basis of gap analysis and process wise quality objectives, you need to develop various documents like quality manual, functional procedures (SOP), Formats, work instructions, system procedures and check lists.

  1. After documentation is developed should be approved by respective process owner and issued formally by a Management Representative. You need to provide training to the employees of your organization about documentation and it’s effective implementation.


  1. Process owners along with departmental heads and management representatives are required to monitor effective implementation of the ISO 9001 system in the organization and their respective processes / departments. Provide help/assistance to users about the new system and ISO 9001 requirement if required to facilitate proper implementation of ISO 9001 in the organization.

  1. Select a team of employees to be trained as internal auditors. Consult your consultant or trainer to carry out an exhaustive quality internal auditor training. This training will enable your employees learn auditing skills understand process approach to carry out audit as per ISO 9001 clauses and it’s requirements.

  1. Schedule an internal audit and ensure that ISO 9001 internal audit is conducted as per schedule. If required, you can rope in an external consultant to facilitate you first round of internal audit. MR and auditor should co-ordinate with the auditee to ensure that the Non-Conformities observed during the audit are closed and the corrective actions taken are effective in nature.

  1. Organize management review meeting to discuss various points like quality policy and objectives, results of audit, supplier performance, customer complaints and their redressal, customer feedback and it’s analysis, customer enquiries and their status, training and it’s effectiveness, change in process or QMS etc. Agenda and minutes of MRM is to be prepared with an action plan.

  1. Select a certification body depending on your budget and your specific requirements. You an use experience of your consultant in selection of the most suitable certification agency.

  1. It is advisable to get one pre-assessment audit done before the final certification audit. After taking care of the findings of the pre-assessment audit, schedule the final audit and communicate to everybody in the organization.

  1. Get the final certification audit done and ensure that you close all the non-conformities (if any) within the stipulated time. You get recommendation for ISO 9001 quality management system and you receive a certificate as ISO 9001 certified organization.


Time required for ISO 9001 certification and cost implication:-

Time required for ISO 9001 quality management consultancy and certification for construction companies varies from 2 months to 6 months depending on size and nature of complexity of an organization. Ideally speaking, money spent on ISO 9001 quality management system implementation and certification is an investment that pays back very heavily in time to come. Total investment in ISO 9001 consultancy and certification varies from US $ 2,500 to US $ 8,000 as per size and nature of an organization.



Lakshy Management Consultant Pvt. Ltd. can help you implement ISO 9001 in your organization in the most effective, economical and result oriented manner. With Lakshy, your ISO 9001 certification is 100% assured with resultant improvements in your business processes and performance.

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