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Procedia Engineering 153 (2016) 228 231

XXV Polish Russian Slovak Seminar Theoretical Foundation of Civil Engineering

A study on optimization of nonconformities management cost in the

quality management system (QMS) of small-sized enterprise of the
construction industry
Ivanov Nikolaya *
a
Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (National Research University), 26 Yaroslavskoye Shosse, Moscow, 129337, Russia

Abstract

The article discusses problems of forming an effective corrective action plan to address identified nonconformities. The author
proposes to consider two types of costs; the costs of the correction of nonconforming product which appeared as a result of
nonconformity, and the costs of corrective actions aimed at addressing the causes of the nonconformities. In this study the
original ranking algorithm of corrective actions is described. The purpose of the algorithm is to minimize the potential costs of
elimination of the potential nonconforming products, specifically when there are limitations on the funds for corrective actions.

2016
2016TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published Ltd.Ltd.
by Elsevier This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the XXV Polish Russian Slovak Seminar Theoretical
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the XXV Polish Russian Slovak Seminar Theoretical Foundation
Foundation of Civil Engineering.
of Civil Engineering.
Keywords: risk-based thinking, knowledge management, quality management system, nonconformity.

1. Introduction

In the history of any enterprise, there is a moment when its management faces a question: What actions have to be
implemented to increase its performance? This question is relevant for both: for a successful enterprise with a large
market share and for a small company that struggling for survival. ISO 9001: 2015 answers the question this way: a
company is more successful when its products and its enterprise management system better meets requirements of
all stakeholders. The process approach used in the standard, which includes the cycle "Plan - Do - Check - Act"

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: IvanovNA@mgsu.ru

1877-7058 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the XXV Polish Russian Slovak Seminar Theoretical Foundation of Civil Engineering.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.08.107
 Ivanov Nikolay / Procedia Engineering 153 (2016) 228 231 229

(PDCA) and risk-based thinking, allows the organization to plan its processes and their interactions. Implementation
of PDCA cycle allows the organization to guarantee that its processes will receive the necessary resources, manage
the resources, identify and implement opportunities for improvement. Risk-based thinking enables an organization to
identify the factors that may lead to a deviation from the planned results and the processes of the quality
management system of the organization. Also, this type of thinking allows for the use of preventive controls in order
to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the use of emerging opportunities.
Deviations in desired quality or specific client requirements in a construction process are referred as
nonconformities [1]. The organization is required to fix the detected nonconformities, identify their causes, plan and
implement corrective action to eliminate the causes of nonconformities.
In times of an economic crisis, the construction industry, as well as the majority of sectors of the Russian
economy, are experiencing a shortage of funds to eliminate the risks of inconsistencies of actual construction
products to consumers' expectations. This situation is more common for small enterprises, which are constantly
experiencing problems with financing. In this situation, the classic models of nonconformity management, based on
the CAPA, become ineffective [2]. There is a need for approaches in nonconformity management, which possess
both low cost and economic efficiency.
The most important tasks of nonconformities management are identification of possible causes of non-
conformities and development of necessary corrective actions to prevent errors.
Data collection and data processing of discrepancies and the reasons for their occurrence/ causes are explored
widely in the literature [3-7]. The two previous articles by the author addressed these issues [8, 9]. However, the
scientific literature has no practically examples, which considered problems during development of a corrective
action plan. The separate research studies provide only some general information about the purpose of this plan as
part of CAPA [10]. Hence, this study, which is aimed at the development of practical recommendations for the
formation of the corrective action plan, is very important.
As a rule during the construction of buildings or structures, any appearance of nonconformity leads to non-
conforming products. These products need to be either altered or destroyed, resulting in additional costs of time and
resources for the organization. Therefore, activities related to the elimination of nonconforming products (correction)
and with the elimination of the causes of non-conformities (corrective action) should be considered as sources of
additional costs. In some cases, the additional costs of the elimination of nonconforming products could be 28-33%
of the cost of construction. Any enterprise will try to minimize these costs. An effective corrective action plan can be
one of the ways to reduce the additional costs. We will consider it as an effective plan when the cost of
implementation is significantly lower than the potential costs of the removal of nonconforming products due to
existing nonconformities.
Ideally, the construction organization must address the causes of all identified nonconformities, which resulted in
non-conforming products. In common practice, this is not a case. As previously mentioned, the problem lies in the
lack of funds to implement the necessary corrective actions. Analysis of the practice of construction organizations in
Russia, specifically in the area of the management of non-conformities, revealed two options that are most often
implemented. The first way is when the least expensive measures are chosen from the list of corrective actions. The
second one is when the selected measures are aimed at eliminating the causes of the most resonant nonconformities,
which cannot be ignored. In both cases, the efficiency of the use of funds in the corrective actions is not defined and
is not considered.
In the course of research aimed at studying the efficiency of construction companies before and after the
introduction of the QMS, an algorithm of building an effective corrective action plan was developed.
Please do not change the margins of the template as this can result in the footnote falling outside printing range.

2. Formulation of the problem

2.1. The verbal description of the problem

Let there be a set of non-conformities with a corresponded list of reasons that led to the emergence of that
particular non-conformity. Suppose that a fixed cost for the elimination of non-conforming products for each of the
identified discrepancies was calculated. Assume that chains of nonconformities were built and the frequencies of
230 Ivanov Nikolay / Procedia Engineering 153 (2016) 228 231

different reasons for existence of non-conformities were identified. We can use the mentioned chains in order to
identify the root causes (prime root causes) of all reported nonconformities. Also assume that there is a set of
corrective actions, determined from expertise, which will address each of the causes of the identified
nonconformities. The final assumption is that potential costs associated with the implementation of each of the
corrective actions were determined also.
It is necessary to determine the procedure to eliminate the causes of nonconformities, leading to a decrease in the
risk of inconsistencies and minimize the costs of the removal of nonconforming product potential nonconformities.

2.2. A formal statement of the problem

We need to create a set of , where the following conditions, (1)-(3), are satisfied:

S min

(1)
at limitations:
1) N<M; (2)

z 6 plan
2)
(3)
where
M the number of nonconformities identified in the previous period;
N the number of possible nonconformities of the planning period (the number of unresolved
nonconformities for the last period);
the costs of elimination of the causes of k, which led to the nonconformity j;
S plan the amount of funds allocated for corrective measures. It is calculated by following the results of
the past period;

the projected costs for the elimination of defective products due to newly identified nonconformities
in the planning period.
3) All corrective actions to address identified nonconformities of the past period are carried out before the
start of the planning period.

3. Description of the algorithm

1. Identify all types of nonconformities that were detected for a certain period of time, and establish the
causes.
2. For each of the causes of the nonconformities define a corrective action (CA) aimed at its elimination, the
costs for the implementation of this action, as well as the total cost of the elimination of nonconforming
product, that appeared as a result of the considered reason.
3. If the cost of eliminating the causes of any type of nonconformity is greater than the cost of removing
defective products due to it , we limit the actions by only the removal of defective products (correction);
otherwise, in addition to correction, plan to carry out corrective action to address the causes of the
nonconformity.
4. Determine the effectiveness for each scheduled corrective action. The efficiency of corrective action is the
ratio of the cost of defective products, where the particular cause is the reason of defects, to the sum of the
all the costs for the elimination of that particular cause. The higher the value of this index, the better
corrective action.
5. Determine the amount of funds needed for the least costly of all the corrective action included in the plan.
Assign the value found for the indicator "Minimum Cost".
6. Sort the planned corrective action in order of decreasing effectiveness.
 Ivanov Nikolay / Procedia Engineering 153 (2016) 228 231 231

7. Set the value of the index "Corrective action Priority" to 1.

8. Choose the most effective corrective action out of the possible effective corrective that dont has
implementation priority.
9. If the costs of the corrective action are more than the remaining amount of funds allocated for the
elimination of the known causes of the nonconformities, the corrective action are removed from the plan
and the process proceeds to step 8.
10. Keep the corrective action in the plan. Set its "Corrective action Priority" index equal to the current value
of "Corrective action Priority" index.
11. Reduce the remaining amount of funds allocated for the elimination of the known causes of
nonconformities for the cost amount of conducted corrective action.
12. If the remaining amount of funds allocated for the elimination of the known causes of nonconformities is
less than the indicator of "Minimum Cost", go to step 14.
13. Increase the value of the "Corrective action Priority" index by 1 and go to step 8.
14. All corrective action with no sequence of their execution are excluded from the plan.

4. Summary and conclusions

Nonconformity management is one of the main problems in the construction as it can escalate the construction
time and cost. An important part of nonconformity management process is a step of forming a corrective action plan
to address the causes of nonconformity. The approach described in this article can be used for making the corrective
action plan in preparation time for the certification for compliance with ISO 9001: 2015. It also can be used to
assess the adequacy of the amount of funds allocated for corrective action. Using statistical methods to model the
chance of occurrence of disparities would be desirable as a way to improve the efficiency of research.

References

[1] ISO 9001:2015 "Quality management systems. Fundamentals and vocabulary"

[2] S. Rallabandi, R.G. Satyanarayana, R. Srikanth Reddy Rikkula Utility of quality control tools and statistical process control to improve the
productivity and quality in an industry - International Journal of Reviews in Computing - Volume 5, January, 2011
[3] D. Okes Root Cause Analysis: The Core of Problem Solving and Corrective Action. ASQ Quality Press, 2009, 200 pages.
[4] R. Smith, B. Keeter, FRACAS; Failure Reporting, Analysis, Corrective Action System. Reliabilityweb.com Press, 123 pages.
[5] M. Donauer, P. Peas, A. Azevedo Identifying nonconformity root causes using applied knowledge discovery - Robotics and Computer-
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