Page 188 - DMGT501_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Operations Management

Notes The appointment of professionals may also be classified as ‘competitive’ as the consultant team
should be able to produce a product meeting standard levels of acceptability, manage the process
and motivate the contractor to achieve the highest levels of quality.
Taking the foregoing into account, the generation of quality products in construction is influenced
by the following determinants:

1. Budgets
2. Development cost plans
3. Design and design management
4. Specification

5. Documentation
6. Communication systems
7. Total cost management and control
8. Time scheduling and time management.

Quality is inherent in each of these processes, which should not be reactive, but rather inherent
in dynamic and proactive management of quality-achievement. At the risk of subordinating the
purposes and interests of those who use and live in buildings, professionals, consultants,
developers and contractors must realize the needs of the market, the people and the community
they serve. The danger is that through “conceptual frameworks we risk isolating fragments of
social reality, decontextualising, then recontextualising and, in so doing, creating a different
kind of world”. In the final analysis, quality can only be achieved in a specific context, within a
specific environment, for a real community.
The determinants of quality are of importance to operations academics and managers, and they
provide the identification of the determinants of service quality. There are some quality
determinants that are predominantly satisfiers and others that are predominantly dissatisfiers.
It is found that the predominantly satisfying determinants are attentiveness, responsiveness,
care and friendliness; and the dissatisfiers are integrity, reliability, responsiveness, availability
and functionality. Responsiveness is identified as a crucial determinant of quality as it is a
frequent source of satisfaction, and the lack of it is a major source of dissatisfaction. Contrary to
the existing literature, shows that the causes of dissatisfaction are not necessarily the obverse of
the causes of satisfaction and, furthermore, that reliability is predominantly a source of
dissatisfaction not satisfaction.
Further, determinants of quality include the management activities of “control”, “improvement”
and “the rest”. Using various examples, the use of people and data are explained in the
management of control and improvement. It is concluded that if companies are to improve their
service/ product’s quality, they must review the needs for improvement of data collection and
presentation and the quality skills needed at all managerial levels.
With the recent growing interest in service relationships in the industrial sector, a need exists to
investigate the underlying determinants for service quality for business-to-business service
encounters.

Example: Here is an example of the determinants of quality needs in the case of childcare:
There is consensus around the world that young children must experience high quality services,
not only to ensure the best possible future outcomes, but because children have the right to the
best possible present. All children are found to benefit from high quality early childhood
programs, but those from disadvantaged backgrounds demonstrate stronger advantages. The

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