Quality Management and Design‐Build: The Opportunities for this Method of Procurement

The UK construction industry has approached the application of quality assurance with some confusion. This is due in part to the traditional methods of procurement which have tended to separate the responsibility for design from that of production, quite unlike manufacturing industries for which the quality systems standard BS 5750/ISO 9000 was developed. This article describes why the design and build method of procurement ‐ which offers a single point of responsibility for both design and production ‐ supports the successful application of quality management to a building. It is based on Reading University research into quality systems, and experience gained from the SERC‐funded Teaching Company Scheme at Kyle Stewart Ltd.