A Process Based Quality Management Information System

www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon

Automation in Construction 13 (2004) 241–259

A process-based quality management information system

Sangyoon China,*, Kyungrai Kimb,1, Yea-Sang Kima,2

aDepartment of Architectural Engineering, SungKyunKwan University, Jang-An Gu, Chun-Chun Dong 300, Suwon 440-746, South KoreabDepartment of Architectural Engineering, Ajou University, Pal-Dal Gu, One-Chun Dong, Suwon 442-749, South Korea

Accepted 15 August 2003

Abstract

This paper presents a process-based quality management information framework to improve the productivity of the quality

system (QS) process based on the new version of ISO 9000 approved in 2000. To apply the new standard into construction

projects, this research built a group of information models and developed a process-based quality management information

system, called ISO 9000 quality management information system (QMIS). The system integrates scheduling with the QS

process covering inspection and testing, nonconformance reporting, and corrective action during the construction phase. ISO

9000 QMIS was validated successfully through a pilot test, and the results and feedback are discussed.

D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: ISO 9000; Quality management; Quality control; Management information system; Information model

1. Introduction structure and implement the elements of QS with.

1.1. Background and objective of research

Since the introduction of the ISO 9000 standards in

1987, more than 510,000 organizations in 161

countries have adopted and implemented the quality

system (QS) embodied in the standards [15]. The

ISO 9000 series standard approved in 1994 (ISO

9000:1994) has provided conceptual guidelines to

0926-5805/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2003.08.010

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-31-290-7568; fax: +82-31-

290-7570.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Chin),

[email protected] (K. Kim), [email protected] (Y.-S. Kim).1 Tel.: +82-31-219-2492; fax: +82-31-219-2945.2 Tel.: +82-31-290-7561; fax: +82-31-219-7570.

Construction companies have been certified for ISO

9000 to meet needs for efficient QS that can comply

with customers’ requirements.

In Korea, construction is the largest industry for

ISO 9000 registrations, occupying over 30% of total

certificates as of September, 2002 [24]. A lot of

companies have adopted ISO 9000 not only to im-

prove the quality of their products but also to enhance

their images in the construction industry [9,12]. In

addition, the survey results in Hong Kong [6], Korea

[17], Saudi Arabia [5], Singapore [8,10], and the UK

[19] show that ISO 9000 has provided the basis for

efficient quality system and it is ultimately beneficial

to construction companies for better management and

practice.

However, ISO 9000 QS has not been quite as

effective as expected when it was introduced in the

Fig. 1. Research methodology.

S. Chin et al. / Automation in Construction 13 (2004) 241–259242

construction industry. The implementation of ISO

9000 standards has been difficult due to various

barriers, such as perceived incompatibility with the

construction industry; misunderstanding of the ISO

9000 concepts and methods of implementation; lack

of a standard business process; heavy loads of paper-

work for management and extra documentations;

possibility of over bureaucratic; unnecessary checking

and documenting procedures; communication require-

ments among project participants [5,6,8,9,10,12,17].

In particular, more paperwork and more time spent on

quality management were seen to be one of major

negative outcomes/drawbacks of ISO 9000-certified

quality systems [6].

The advances in information technology could

improve documentation and communication in the

QS process through various technologies such as

the Internet, databases and web-based collaboration

tools. Despite various applications [19,20,25] and

research [4,11] for quality management, there has

been lack of research on how the QS process based

on ISO 9000 can be supported in the computerized

and collaborative environment for better productiv-

ity of quality management in the construction

industry.

The objective of this research is to develop a

process-based quality management information

framework to improve the productivity of the QS

process. This research built a group of information

process and data models based on ISO 9000. Then,

this research developed a process-based quality man-

agement information system, called ISO 9000 quality

management information system (QMIS), by integrat-

ing scheduling with the QS process covering inspec-

tion and testing, nonconformance reporting, and

corrective action during the construction phase. ISO

9000 QMIS was validated through a pilot test, and the

results and feedback are discussed.

1.2. Research methodology

Fig. 1 shows the major steps taken in this research.

Literature review and interviews involve analyzing

ISO 9000 documents and their procedures. ISO 9000

documents from three major general contractors in

Korea were analyzed to identify the QS process and

relevant information, and quality managers from the

contractors were interviewed to identify the needs and

requirements for the implementation of ISO 9000.

Also the characteristics of the new ISO 9000 standard

approved in 2000 (ISO 9000:2000) were reviewed to

apply the concept in this research. Although the

concept of ISO 9000 is comprehensive enough to

include all the phases of a project life-cycle [2], this

research confines itself to the QS process during the

construction phase on the basis of a general contrac-

tor’s point of view.

The QS process was modeled by using the Inte-

grated Definition for Function 0 (IDEF0) modeling

method [24,29], which is one of the widely used

process modeling methods, particularly for the de-

scription of the business process system. A pilot test

and a survey conducted by Lo et al. [9] also show that

a quality manual written in the IDEF0 format is easier

for workers to understand than one written in a

conventional language.

Through the development of the process model,

relevant information that needs to be managed was

identified. Then, the data model was developed based

on various types of information and their mutual

S. Chin et al. / Automation in Construction 13 (2004) 241–259 243

relationships by using the Unified Modeling Lan-

guage (UML) methods [3].

Based on the process and data models, ISO 9000

QMIS was developed by using Active Server Page,

Microsoft Visual C++, and various technologies under

the Windows environment, and it is a three-tier system

which consists of graphic user-interfaces, application

functions, and databases. The models and the system

developed in this research were validated through a

pilot test.

2. Literature review

2.1. ISO 9000:2000

The emergence of a new ISO 9000 standard

approved in 2000 (ISO 9000:2000) with a process-

oriented structure gives another opportunity for ISO

9000 QS to become more compatible with the con-

struction business process. To reduce problems and

improve ISO 9000:1994 standards, the ISO

9000:2000 standard has the following characteristics:

(1) the ISO 9001, 9002, and 9003 is unified into ISO

9001; (2) the new standard can be easily applied to all

industries because of the process approach; (3) the

concept of quality management (QM) is added to the

function of quality assurance (QA); (4) ISO 9001

(QA) and ISO 9004 (QM) is unified [2,14].

The ISO 9000:2000 standard emphasizes the pro-

cess approach of QS, which means that all processes,

their management, and their mutual interactions are

inter-related. The process approach enables interlinks

of processes within QS, where each process runs

based on ‘‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’’ (PDCA). That is,

the key processes of QS include management respon-

sibility; resource management; process management;

and measurement, analysis, and improvement. Top

management defines requirements according to the

management responsibility, required resources are

decided and applied by resource management, pro-

cesses are defined and implemented by process man-

agement, and the results are measured, analyzed, and

improved [2,14].

In this research, the process-based quality manage-

ment means that quality management is based on the

project process, keeping the subsequent processes

interrelated, and that it should support collaboration

and communication among project participants

throughout the process.

2.2. Computer-based quality management informa-

tion systems

Despite various problems encountered in the im-

plementation of ISO 9000, only a few research and

developments have been reported for quality manage-

ment information systems in the construction domain.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers have utilized CAD and

multimedia technology for quality assurance [11,16].

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration developed

a quality assurance software package for highway

construction projects [22]. BuildEurope [20] and

MH2 [26] are commercialized systems that support

quality inspection in the web-based collaboration

environment.

More overall aspects on ISO 9000 were covered by

Battika’s research [4], where a set of quality informa-

tion based on ISO 9001 standard has been identified

and classified in various aspects such as disciplines,

safety, process stage, roles, and impacting factors on

activities for potential computerized support.

ProjectPointk [19], Citadon CWk [21], and Proj-

ectTalkk [25] are among the web-based collaboration

systems that can give opportunities to improve com-

munications between various project participants. Al-

though they support information management

focusing on the document sharing and exchange over

the Internet, the process-based QS information man-

agement has not been included yet. There has been

still lack of research on how the QS process based on

ISO 9000:2000 can be supported more effectively in

the computerized and collaborative environment to

improve the productivity of quality management in

the construction industry.

3. A process model for ISO 9000 QS

A QS process is modeled by using the Integrated

Definition for Function 0 (IDEF0) modeling method

in order to identify the workflow and relevant infor-

mation of QS. From three general contractors at the

top class in Korea, ISO 9000 documents were col-

lected and analyzed to build the process model,

accompanied by interviews with practitioners. User


requirements for ISO 9000 QS derived from the

interviews were reflected in the model development.

3.1. Overall process of quality management

Fig. 2 shows the overall process of quality man-

agement in construction projects. The first activity,

‘Customize for a Specific Project’, develops a project-

specific quality plan on the basis of company-wide

(i.e. project-independent) standards such as work

plans, inspection and testing plans (ITPs), and check-

list items as well as the project characteristics. The

second activity, ‘Activity-Based Quality Manage-

Fig. 2. Overall quality m

ment’, represents quality management based on the

project-specific quality plans and collaboration among

project participants during the construction phase. The

third activity, ‘Update Company-Wide Quality Plan’,

contains the process for updating standard quality

information based on the feedback and as-built quality

information collected during the construction phase.

Through this process, QS should support not only

easy incorporation of company standards in quality

management into project-specific quality management

but also feedback from as-built quality information

captured from on-going projects, to keep improving

company-wide quality plans.

anagement process.

Fig.3.Activity-based

qualitymanagem

entandcollaboration.



3.2. Activity-based quality management

Fig. 3 shows the detailed model for ‘Activity-

Based Quality Management’ mentioned above,

which focuses on the inspection and testing process

during construction. Based on the project schedule

and work progress, contractor inquires which activ-

ities need inspections and then issues an inspection

request to relevant architect/engineers (A/E). Since

each activity contains such information as work-

spaces, components, and work items, project partic-

ipants can refer to relevant work plans and ITPs

before inspection. After confirmation of the inspec-

tion request, the contractor and A/E are ready to

inspect the corresponding activities, and the result of

inspection can be shared among the owner, A/Es,

and contractors. This research assumes that the

Fig. 4. Quality inspe

contractor initiates and performs quality inspection,

the A/E reviews the result, and the owner approves

the process, although these roles can be varied

depending on the project delivery method. In gener-

al, since the QS process starts from initiation and

goes through review and approval, contractor, A/E,

and owner in the process model can be replaced by

initiator, reviewer, and approver, respectively.

3.3. Quality inspection process

Fig. 4 depicts the detailed process of the inspection

activity in Fig. 3, which consists of inspection and its

successive activities, such as review and approval of

the inspection and testing result, and issue of noncon-

formance reports (NCRs) for nonconforming work

results. Since this process in the current practice

ction process.

Fig.5.Threestages

ofinspectionandtesting.


Fig.6.Nonconform

ance

reportingprocess.



includes heavy paperwork and communications

among participants, an efficient information manage-

ment system could improve the productivity of the

process, especially in the case where an inspection

requires a third party witness, such as A/Es or owner’s

representatives.

Quality inspection can be conducted at three dif-

ferent stages for each activity [1,13], as shown in Fig.

5. The first stage is inspection and testing of material

received or work prepared before the activity starts;

the second stage is inspection and testing of work-in-

process; and the third is for the final product or work

result after the activity is finished. If nonconformance

Fig. 7. Inspection req

is detected, it should be reported along with a plan for

corrective action. Then, the result of the corrective

action is reviewed and approval is given to proceed

with successive activities. In this process, the infor-

mation on nonconformances and their corrective

actions needs to be shared among participants

throughout the company in a timely and accurate

manner to prevent their recurrence. Fig. 6 represents

a detailed process for nonconformance reporting.

As shown in Figs. 3–6, all the relevant informa-

tion, such as activity, ITP, work plan, checklist result,

and NCR should be managed so that practitioners can

easily keep track of quality inspection results and their

uest package.


causes. This is why quality management needs to be

process-oriented. Furthermore, quality management

should collect as-built quality records and provide

feedback to refine company-wide standard quality

information and corporate knowledge.

4. A data model for ISO 9000 QS

Through the development of the QS process mod-

el, various types of information and their mutual

relationships are identified and modeled as classes

and their relationships by using the UML method.

While the process model provides the basis for the

workflow of ISO 9000 QMIS developed in this

research, the data model becomes the basis for data-

base structures of the system.

Since a data model consists of many classes and

relationships, they need to be grouped into packages

for ease of use, maintainability, and reusability. The

same class can be presented in several packages

Fig. 8. Quality inspe

because packages are logical views of the data model.

In this paper, four packages are presented with focus-

ing on the process for quality management and

collaboration among project participants during the

construction phase, and they are (1) inspection re-

quest, (2) inspection, (3) nonconformance reporting,

and (4) status of inspection process. More details of

each package are discussed below.

4.1. Inspection request package

Fig. 7 presents the logical view of initiation and

confirmation of quality inspection. For quality inspec-

tion, the initiator determines what activity and which

component are to be inspected and tested, and where.

This is represented by the Activity class associated

with Component, Space, and WorkItem Classifica-

tion classes to contain information on relevant com-

ponent, activity location, and work type of the

corresponding activity, respectively. How the activity

should be prepared, processed, and completed is

ction package.


represented through the associations with Work Plan

and ITP.

The InspectionRequestStatus class supports the

workflow of initiation and confirmation of an inspec-

tion request for a specific activity. This class is also

presented in Fig. 8 because of its relationships with

CheckListSet and CheckListSetResult classes.

4.2. Quality inspection package

Fig. 8 presents the logical view of inspection and

testing. While activity information that needs inspec-

tion and testing is handled by the relationship between

the InspectionRequestStatus and Activity classes

shown in Fig. 7, a CheckListSet instance contains a

group of check items for that activity through associ-

ation with the Inspection and Testing CheckItem

class and the InspectionRequestStatus class. Also,

Fig. 9. NCR p

the CheckListSet instance is classified by the Work-

Item Classification and Component instances, which

means that the same type of works for the same type

of components can have identical checklist items

regardless of location.

In addition, the Inspection and Testing Check-

Item class, which contains checklist items, is special-

ized into Receiving CheckItem, In-Process

CheckItem, and Final CheckItem classes depending

on the checkpoints that are specified in ISO 9000.

While the CheckListSet instances have a group of

check items according to the work and component

types, the CheckResultSet instances contain only the

results of check items along with the work type,

relevant component types, and its location to represent

a specific activity jointly. This is possible since the

InspectionRequestStatus has a relationship with the

Activity class, which in turn has associations with

ackage.


Space, Component, and WorkItem Classification

classes as shown in Fig. 7.

Furthermore, the CheckResultSet class has the

aggregation relationship with CheckResultMultime-

dia, CheckItemResult, and CheckResultStatus clas-

ses. The CheckResultMultimedia class enables

attachment of construction photos and scanned images

to the inspection result so that practitioners can easily

understand the state at the time of inspection and

testing, while the CheckItemResult class contains the

result of each check item. The CheckResultStatus

class represents the state of review and approval by

other project participants for the quality inspection

result.

4.3. NCR package

Fig. 9 shows the class diagram to support the NCR

process. The CheckResultSet class has a relationship

with the NCR class to keep track of which activity

and check items caused the current nonconformance,

and the NCR class can be classified by the NCRTy-

peofCause class, which describes types of cause of

nonconformances.

The NCR class represents three aspects of non-

conformances, such as NCRMultimedia that contains

the images of the current state; CorrectiveActionMe-

thod that represents the corrective action plan; and

FinalResultDescription that represents the final re-

Fig. 10. Status

sult of the corrective action. The last class also

contains images of the final result through NCRFi-

nalMultimedia so that users can compare the state

before corrective action with the state after corrective

action for a specific nonconformance.

4.4. Status package

Fig. 10 shows the status package which represents

the status of inspection request, inspection, and NCR

processes. The roles of initiator, reviewer, and

approver can be assigned to participants in one

organization or three different organizations such as

general contractor, architect/engineer, and owner. The

Status class has attributes to represent relevant par-

ticipants and their roles, and it is specialized (through

the inheritance relationship) into InspectionRequest-

Status, CheckResultStatus, NCRRequestStatus,

and FinalResultStatus to represent various QS pro-

cess status.

5. A quality management information system for

ISO 9000

Based on the process analysis and the data model

described previously, Internet-based ISO 9000 QMIS

was developed to keep the subsequent processes

interrelated in the inspection process and to support

package.

Fig. 11. System architecture.


collaboration and communication among project par-

ticipants throughout the process.

The system architecture of ISO 9000 QMIS is

based on the three-tier design, which consists of three

separate components, such as user-interfaces, appli-

cation functions, and databases as shown in Fig. 11.

This three-tier design enables more efficient system

development by modularizing tiers and separating the

application from the database, since this makes it

easier to modify one tier without affecting the other

tiers [27].

5.1. User-interfaces and application functions

The tier 1 is user-interfaces that are designed by

using Active Server Page (ASP) on the basis of the

process model and various document forms of ISO

9000. The tier 2 is application functions, which

consists of components to support the workflow of

QS among various participants and communication

between user-interfaces and databases. The applica-

tion functions support (1) management and custom-

ization of standard information, (2) management of

quality records, and (3) feedback and analysis of

quality information, where each of them has separate

databases.

Table 1 shows the functional framework at the

current version of ISO 9000 QMIS. The functions

were developed by using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0

with ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) 3.0, and Object

Linking and Embedding Database (OLE DB). Ap-

plication functions run under the Windows 2000

server and Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0

environment.

Table 1

Functional framework of ISO 9000 QMIS

Application

functions

Functions Descriptions

Manage

standard

quality

Management of

work item

classifications

Create, delete, and update

classification for work

items

information Management of

work plans


HTML files sorted by

work items

Management of

inspection and

testing plans


HTML files sorted by

work items

Management of

checklist items


checklist items sorted by

work items

Management of

NCR types


types of nonconformances

Management of

action type


types of corrective actions

for nonconformances

Manage

project

quality

Management

of project

information

Manage project general,

site personnel information,

company information

information Quality Search activity

management Fill out inspection request

form

Inquire inspection request

Fill out quality inspection

checklist

Fill out nonconformance

report

Quality manuals Inquire quality manual

Management of

quality plans

Update quality plans

Board Read and write on

discussion board

Feedback Send nonconformance

information to quality

feedback database

Quality Analysis of Statistics by disciplines

feedback nonconformances Statistics by NCR types

Statistics by projects

Statistics by work items


5.2. Databases

Based on the class diagrams shown from Figs. 7–

10, the databases, which are the tier 3, were developed

by using Microsoft SQL Server 2000. ISO 9000

QMIS includes three types of databases, such as

standard database, project database, and feedback

database. The standard database, managed at the

company level, includes standard quality information,

such as work plans, ITPs, checklist items, and work

type classifications. These kinds of information are to

be reused or customized to fit to the characteristics of

the current project. The project database, which is

generated project by project, contains all the informa-

tion represented in Figs. 7–10. The quality feedback

database gets feedback on nonconformance reports

from the project database to be shared company-wide.

The project schedule and work progress are main-

tained by using Microsoft Project, which enables

direct management of activity information in the

project database via Open Database Connectivity

(ODBC). Through this, users can initiate quality

management according to the project schedule and

progress, and subsequent inspection processes and

their results represent the status of each activity. More

details are described in the pilot test.

6. Pilot test

To validate the information models and the system

developed in this research, a pilot test was conducted

in a condominium project in Seoul, Korea. This project

has two 25-story buildings of reinforced concrete

structure with 304 condominium units. The project

organization at the site consists of the owner’s repre-

sentative, an A/E firm, and three general contractors.

ISO 9000:2000 is compatible with the local stan-

dard, which is KSA 9001:2001. By the law on

Construction Technology Management in Korea, the

quality plans, ITPs, checklists should be prepared

based on KSA 9001:2001. Therefore, ISO 9000

QMIS was implemented in this project to verify

whether the system can support the process-based

quality management that links various management

processes such as inspection requests for appropriate

activities, inspection and testing, nonconformance

recording, corrective action, and the final result. This

implementation also tested whether the system could

support communication and collaboration among

project participants at the site.

6.1. Implementation of ISO 9000 QMIS

In this project, the contract requires that the general

contractor should submit requests for inspection to A/

Es, and should acquire review and approval of the

Fig.12.Inspectioninitiationprocess.


Fig.13.Qualityinspectionusingchecklist.



inspection result from A/Es and the owner’s repre-

sentatives. ISO 9000 QMIS starts from inquiring

activities as shown in Fig. 12. It shows the inspection

request process initiated by the general contractor and

presents the concepts of inspection request shown in

Fig. 7.

After the A/E confirms the inspection schedule,

the contractor and A/E can inspect in-process work

for ‘Cast wall and slab at Bldg 101, F17’ to verify

whether each checklist item complies with the criteria

shown in Fig. 13, which presents the concepts of

quality inspection described in Fig. 8. The left

window in Fig. 13 presents the inspection result for

the activity (the CheckResultSet class) which

includes the results of checklist items (CheckItem-

Result), relevant multimedia (CheckResultMultime-

dia), and the process status (CheckResultStatus).

Following the quality management policy in the

project, the results of checklist items are classified

Fig. 14. Nonconform

into ‘pass’, ‘minor fail’, and ‘fail’, among which

‘minor fail’ was introduced to resolve the noncon-

formances through work order rather than issue of a

NCR. Along with the inspection results, a number of

as-built photos can be imported to the ISO 9000

QMIS along with photo titles and descriptions for

record management purposes. This feature integrates

the site photo management and the quality manage-

ment into one operation. Not only the imported

photos but also scanned document images such as

statistical analysis of test results can be associated

with the inspection results, and can be shared among

the participants through the Internet.

If there were any items declared as failures, a NCR

should be issued to ensure corrective action along

with proper documentation and to prevent recurrences

[2,14]. Fig. 14 shows an NCR report (the NCR class

shown in Fig. 9) that contains the relevant photo

images (NCRMultimedia) for the current state of

ance recording.


the nonconformance. The user (the general contractor

in this project) fills out the failure type and causes

(NCRTypeofCause), description, corrective action

plan and expected quality conformance cost (Correc-

tiveActionMethod). After approval by the A/E and

owner (NCRRequestStatus), the corrective action

can be taken and the result is reported and approved.

Since the result (FinalResultDescription) can also

contain as-built photos (NCRFinalMultimedia) as

shown in Fig. 14, users can easily keep track of

nonconformance, corrective action, and its result as

well as the original inspection result in a consistent

and accurate manner.

6.2. Results and lessons learned

The test implementation at the condominium proj-

ect validated the ISO 9000 QMIS and information

models developed in this research, and provided the

following results and lessons.

First, the construction practitioners agreed that the

concept and models developed in this research are

feasible for application to construction projects such

as housing and office projects in Korea. Second, they

were assured that the processes in ISO 9000 QMIS

such as the selection of an activity based on the

project progress, the inspection process, and the

nonconformance reporting process are linked so that

users can keep track of quality results and their causes

easily. The primary focus of ISO 9000 QMIS is on the

QS process of the general contractors; however, other

project participants such as the owner and A/Es are

able to share and communicate quality information

effectively through the system. Third, the integration

of as-built information including photos and scanned

images with quality records can reduce workloads and

improve the productivity of the as-built documenta-

tion. Finally, keeping track of quality inspection,

NCRs, corrective action, and final result along with

project progress can greatly improve the quality and

progress control at a construction site with efficient

reusability of as-built information.

7. Conclusions

With focusing on quality management during the

construction phase of a building project, including

requests for quality inspection, inspection and test-

ing, nonconformance reporting, and its corrective

action, this research aims at meeting the new stan-

dard of ISO 9000:2000 by pursuing process-based

quality management, and enhancing collaboration

and communication among project participants. To

meet these aims, information models and system,

ISO 9000 QMIS, were developed. ISO 9000 QMIS

has a three-tier architecture that consists of Internet-

based user interfaces, application functions for qual-

ity management processing, and quality information

databases.

Through the test of ISO 9000 QMIS at a condo-

minium project, it is shown that the information

model and management system are valid and helpful

in facilitating collaboration and communication

among participants, efficient documentation and re-

cording of quality information along with photo and

scanned images, tracing of the whole quality control

process, and the accumulation of as-built information.

ISO 9000 QMIS is under development for possi-

ble commercialization, and the authors believe that

the information model or management system devel-

oped in this research can easily be incorporated into

the existing commercial web-based project manage-

ment systems [19,21,25] as a component for quality

management.

In addition, further research is ongoing for the

development of an intelligent system to support the

automatic customization process of company-wide

quality standards such as work plans, ITPs, and

checklists for reuse in a specific project; and to

support the feedback of as-built information into a

quality knowledgebase at the corporate level, using

concepts that have been briefly shown in the system

architecture of the ISO 9000 QMIS.

Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported jointly by

the Ministry of Construction and Transportation of

the Korean government, the Korea Institute of

Construction Technology, and Yoo IL Architects

and Engineering. The authors gratefully acknowl-

edge the construction practitioners at the KIT

condominium project for their interviews, participa-

tion in system operations, and feedback despite their


heavy workloads. The programming works con-

ducted by Mr. Tae-Hong Shin are also gratefully

acknowledged.

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[3] T. Quatrani, Visual Modeling with Rational Rose 2000 and

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Documents

A Process Based Quality Management Information System