Date of Graduation

7-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (MSIE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Industrial Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Kim LaScola Needy

Committee Member

Robert Ries

Second Committee Member

Shengfan Zhang

Keywords

Applied sciences, Capital facilities delivery industry, Quality metrics, Quality pyramid

Abstract

A standard for industry-wide quality metrics, similar to safety metrics, for the capital facilities delivery industry is investigated and developed with the goal to motivate industry-wide adoption of this new quality metric program. A survey of the literature found key differences between capital facilities and other industries, mainly that other industries focus on the quality of the product while capital facilities focus on maintaining the cost and schedule of a project. Creating a framework that can be used across the industry can potentially lead to uniform improvement of quality for the entire industry. Quality is defined for the capital facilities delivery industry and a quality pyramid that categorizes both leading and lagging indicators and can be used across the project lifecycle is presented. Lagging indicators are developed as set of quality events that were used to create a quality metric. A group of subject matter experts (SME), from various sectors of the industry, were assembled to aid in the research effort and validate results. Pilot data was collected via SME companies to test hypotheses and to better understand the industries’ quality performance. Data is normalized and a quality performance rate (QPR) metric is developed. Statistical analysis of this pilot data shows differences amongst respondents. Future work is described towards the goal of creating an industry-wide quality metric.

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