Every business or contractor in the construction industry needs to realise how important it is to deliver quality projects that meet the requirements of customers as well as ensure the safety of residents or the public. Quality is a critical and non-negotiable issue in the construction industry. Therefore, meeting the high-regulatory construction industry quality standards is crucial for them to stay relevant or enter their competitive industry. There are several standards that are considered crucial for construction businesses to achieve to demonstrate their quality such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001. Without having any of these standards, your construction business may fail to take a position in the industry and gain success in the long run.
In this blog, we tried to point out the key benefits of achieving these standards and explained some useful tips to make your business compliant with them.
The construction enterprises are a huge part of the economy on which most sectors rely. The governmental agencies or authorities thus layout several regulatory requirements to make sure they are reliable to the other businesses. Apart from quality regulations, the authorities also set up specific regulations for construction companies to manage energy use and ensure sustainability. This was mainly done due to the increasing concern towards environmental protection and greener practices. When your construction business achieves the ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 standards, it demonstrates your compliance to those existing regulations. Therefore, the standards enable your business to meet the mandatory compliance requirements and provide credentials that help to avoid litigations or penalties.
Achieving quality standards would also help your construction business to work with greater efficiency and cut costs in its day-to-day operations. This enables you to deliver projects quickly to the customers no matter how small, large or complex they are while sticking to the estimated budget. The implementation of a Quality Management System (QMS) is a key step required to achieve compliance with any quality standard. A QMS helps to systemically coordinate the business processes, maintain their performance and ensure they are achieving the intended outcomes. Thus, when you have it implemented, it results in enhanced visibility, predictability, and communication across all construction operations which help at delivering the tasks in time without compromising quality. Thus, you can operate efficiently, quickly, identify mistakes and reduce reworks, save costs, and deliver projects with higher accuracy.
Workers in the construction sector are most prone to occupational accidents, injuries and even fatalities. Thus, ISO 45001, which addresses occupational health and safety is also considered a crucial standard for the construction industry. It is a certification framework that ensures the proactive implementation of best practices for preventing work-related risks or incidents. Hence, achieving it would demonstrate that your construction company is committed to delivering quality projects while taking full care of the safety and health of your workers.
While these are the inevitable benefits of accrediting your construction business with essential standards, how can you make sure your business gets accredited? Here are some useful tips.
Inform and train your workers – When it comes to achieving and maintaining compliance with internationally recognised standards, it is necessary to involve your workers. Make them aware of the benefits of the standards to their work and educate them about the necessity of standards for business growth. You need to hold training programs regularly to ensure they are skilled enough to follow the requirements of the standards and keep your business compliant.
Ensure overall accountability – Compliance is never the responsibility of one person/manager/team but a collective responsibility of everyone in a business. Therefore, make everyone accountable in your construction company to follow the quality processes and implement best practices of the standards by establishing a quality policy.
Select suppliers/partners carefully – The quality of construction projects depends hugely on the materials, inputs, and equipment used. Thus, to make your business eligible for the quality standards, make sure to only partner with reliable subcontractors and suppliers. It is your responsibility to procure high-quality inputs and materials so that projects are developed accurately as per the expectations of the customers.
Meeting the highest quality levels in every project is a prerequisite for businesses to thrive and succeed in the competitive construction industry. In fact, the estimated costs of poor-quality projects to the industry are more than the profits. Also, major construction issues such as unfinished fittings, lack of utilities etc. affect the usability of the development project and may even make it non-saleable. Thus, businesses need to place priority on the construction industry quality standards and make every necessary adjustment or strategy in their operations to meet them.
Do you own a construction business and are thinking about achieving quality standards? Get in touch with Compliancehelp today. We have a team of compliance experts who can thoroughly evaluate your construction operations and the type of projects you work on to determine the relevant standards required by your business. We would eventually guide you to achieve compliance with the standards through our consultation and assurance services.
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