ISO 9000 quality management system is already in place in the construction industry for some time now. As part of kaizen or continuous improvement, there is a need for organisations with existing ISO 9000 certification to upgrade their systems. For this purpose, QS 9000 quality system requirements, which were developed from the automobile industry in the United States, are already examined for application in the construction industry as part of the upgrading exercise. This paper traces the background to both ISO 9000 and QS 9000 and examines how relevant QS 9000 requirements may be interpreted for application in construction based on the existing ISO 9000 framework. Like ISO 9000, the application of QS 9000 in the construction industry is also likely to raise legal/contractual issues which this paper addresses.

Keywords: ISO 9000, QS 9000, Quality, Construction, Automobile, Legal/ contractual issues

ISO 9000 was developed in 1987 drawing upon the British Standard BS 5750 which was later “harmonised” with ISO 9000 (Johnson, 1993). ISO 9000 emphasised the drafting of formal work procedures and instructions to guide employees (Low and Peh, 1997). A recent study of UK construction firms showed that ISO 9000 systems have benefited most firms (Keivani, Ghanbari-Parsa and Kagaya, 1999). After ISO 9000, Total Quality Management (TQM) emerged and is today, one of the most heralded management concepts. TQM and ISO 9000 are complementary rather then mutually exclusive (Taher and Sharad, 1998). TQM integrates the technical system (ISO 9000) and the social system (people’s interactions) in an organisation (Low and Peh, 1997). Thus ISO 9000 is directed towards improving a firm’s production process whereas TQM is concerned with customer satisfaction and all activities conducted by the firm (Arditi and Gunaydin, 1997). Many

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