【正文】
failures in a civil engineering project originate in stages such as: ? project appraisal: failure to recognize the project needs and requirements, and to minimize factors associated with risk, client39。s requirements。Capturing the Cost of Quality Failures in Civil Engineering Hamzah AbdulRahman (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) INTRODUCTION One reason which relates quality (conformance to requirements) to a firm39。 this is especially true in the present petitive market. These costs, known as quality costs, are known to be capable of reduction in repetitive processes and in the controlled environment of manufacturing industries. The usefulness and importance of knowing the cost of quality in manufacturing is well known. This is not so in the construction industry. Since there are differences in the nature and haracteristics of the processes and environments of the two industries, it is difficult to assess whether similar quality cost concepts can be used in construction. One can only speculate that if the manufacturing and service industries can benefit from quantifying quality costs then there should also be benefit to construction. Theoretically it seems easy to apply the quality costs concepts into the design and construction phases of a civil engineering project. In practice, it is quite plex and can be difficult. This article attempts to address the concept of quality cost, especially as an aid to identifying and reducing failures during construction of civil engineering projects. The aims of this article are to: (1) generate an awareness of the designandconstruction caused failures。s influence, munication problems。s influence, munication problems and poor planning. During the appraisal stage, the functional needs of the project are investigated and identified. In order for these needs to be accurately translated into information for decision making, the promoter has to consider all variables which relate to the project requirements. Only when the appraisal stage is thoroughly explored can the needs be decoded in design. Measuring quality in the design phase is perceived to be difficult because all too often the designer is not the final user assessing the quality performance of the product[l]. During the construction phase problems a