According to an analysis by GIRI and Heathrow, over 50% of delivery defects in construction infrastructure projects can be traced back to design issues.
Numerous approaches are employed to measure the quality of a construction project during the delivery phase, but few, if any, quality metrics are deployed during the design stages. A new free tool developed by a team led by David Myers, Senior Associate for Shirley Parsons and previously Head of Quality for Heathrow, has addressed this need. The Quality in Construction Design Best Practice Tool has been approved by global quality groups, including the CQI and is an important development in improving design quality.
The impact of design issue defects
GIRI and Heathrow identified several key impacts caused by poor quality during the design phase. These included:
• Increased cost of delivery.
• Reduced productivity of the construction team.
• Increased risk of health and safety issues.
• Risk of client/end-user dissatisfaction in the delivered product (quality)
• Increased negative impact on Sustainability (carbon)
The Quality in Construction Design Best Practice Tool can be introduced quickly and with minimal resources to ensure these defects are drastically reduced without dictating the process but enabling risks to be understood and appropriately mitigated within the client’s risk tolerance.
Tool origins & creators
The original project evaluation tool was commissioned by David Myers whilst at Heathrow. A cross-industry team led by David and Helen Soulou (Heathrow), with consultants Arup, Atkins, and Jacobs, developed the tool during 2015/16. In the first quarter of 2021, a team from around the world refined, generalised, and aligned the tool with the RIBA stages. It has now been approved through the CQI (Chartered Quality Institute) in the UK and comparable bodies in Australia and North America.