HKSQ Seminar on Evolving Construction Quality Management in Practice

A seminar named “Evolving Construction Quality Management in Practice” was co-organized Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) and SEEM Dept., CityU on 26^th April 2019.  The construction industry has been criticized for poor quality in the recent incidents and scandals in railway projects. Defective works, poor workmanship, mistakes and human errors are critical construction quality problems that can definitely lead to a project failure. This seminar aimed to explain the principles and practices of construction quality management and to discuss the hints on evolving construction quality in projects. Some applications for using inspection tracking processes and digital checklist inspections for improving work quality & productivity would be demonstrated.  In the beginning, I introduced two speakers to participants.  Dr. Sammy Wan is also HKSQ members who supported and joined ANQ with us for many years.  Mr. Stephen Au brought IT into traditional construction industry for enhancing quality practice.

Dr. Sammy Wan (Head of Quality, Safety and Environment of ATAL Engineering Group; Past President, IISE-HK Chapter) was the first speaker and his topic entitled “Evolving Construction Quality Management in Practice”.  In the beginning, he reviewed construction industry with low efficiency compared to other industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, etc. (The Economist) Financial returns for contractors are often relatively low and volatile.

In Dr. Wan’s research (Wan, 2010), he revealed that ‘poor coordination of processes/trades’ and ‘design changes/error’ were critical causes. Then he introduced Quality Thinking in Construction.  He explained conventional project fails because of schedule to push for work, change in design frequently, miscommunication between main contractor and sub-contractor, etc.  

And then Dr. Wan explained the dynamic analysis on project failure that come from schedule pressure, hidden upstream problem and poor downstream work quality.  ‘Fire-fighting’ attitude increased workloads by employing incompetent and inexperience multi-layered workers with less familiarity with project to maintain milestones.  Moreover, management may try to avoid rework on problematic tasks by modifying design and specification.  

Visit to Enshi Qingjiang (恩施大清江)

After the conference and academic exchanging and sharing, we went to the city named Enshi (恩施) from 22^nd to 24^th April 2019. On 24^th April, we visited Enshi Grand Qingjiang (恩施大清江).  We arrived on the pier.

The map of Qingjiang was showed.

We were queuing to go to small cruise ship. 

We were lucky that the previous cruise ship was full and we went to another small but traditional boat. 

Scenery in the Qingjiang

Visit to Enshi Grand Canyon (恩施大峽谷)

After the conference and academic exchanging and sharing, we went to the city named Enshi (恩施) from 22^nd to 24^th April 2019. On 23^rd April, we visited Enshi Grand Canyon (恩施大峽谷).  We arrived on the Tourist Center.  Our tour leader brought tickets.

A building under the hill

This area was the AAA National Travel Area.

The Grand Canyon marked the most famous areas for people to took photo for social media.  

A cloud and hill

Visit to Enshi (恩施) - Daughter City (女兒城) and Local King City (土司城)

After the conference and academic exchanging and sharing, we went to the city named Enshi (恩施) from 22^nd to 24^th April 2019. I took a photo in front of Enshi Railway Station.

Since we arrived early, we went into the Ramada Hotel which was located near the station.

The lobby was very big and the whole Enshi scene was drawn in the picture.

We joined the local tour and the travel bus arrived.

The first location was Enshi Daughter City (恩施土家女兒城) and we saw the Gatehouse named “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Chu State” (最楚非遺文化街).

I saw a tree in the middle of the house.

Visit to Wuhan University for promoting Extenics

Dr. KS Chin and I visited the Economics and Management School of Wuhan University on 21^st April 2019.  Prof. Xianjia Wang (王先甲) (Deput Dean – Economics and Management School and Director – Institute of Systems Engineering of Wuhan University) led us to visit the campus of Wuhan University.  Prof. Wang had gave seminar to HKSQ on 2010 (See reference). I had briefed Extenics and gave leaflet for Prof. Wang reference.  Then we took a group photo in from of the school.

We took a train CRH to go to Wuhan.

Prof. Xianjia Wang (王先甲) and Prof. Zhen-Song Chen (陈振颂) (Associate Professor in School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University) met us in the Hankou station (漢口).

Firstly, we visited the construction site of new academic building.

It was near the river with good view.

And then we went to the school and campus.

During visit of Prof. Wang office, we saw the vision, mission and value of the Economic and Management School.  

CityU International Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science – Day 2

The seventh International Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science (IRC-SEMS2019) took place in Nanjing, China, 19-20 April 2019. IRC-SEMS aims to provide a research platform for academics and researchers, particularly young faculty and graduate students, to share and exchange experience and research findings in various disciplines of Systems Engineering and Management Science. Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) is organizer.  School of Data Science, CityU and School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University are co-organizer.  Before the 2^nd day of conference, Dr. KS Chin and I took a photo in front of the Nanjing University International Conference Center (NUICC).

I attended the day 2 of the conference for the session named “Quality and Reliability Engineering”.

The first speaker was Ms. Mei Han (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and her topic entitled “Integrated Parameter and Tolerance Optimization of a Centrifugal Compressor based on a Complex Simulator”. She compared the obtained optimal design with the existing design.  

The second speaker was Ms. Lisha Song (Tianjin University) and her presentation named “Change-point Detection in phase I for Autocorrelated Poisson Profiles”. She proposed a method used the generalized estimating equation (GEE) approach to model the within-profile correlation and then integrates the change-point algorithm with the modified Score test.  

The third speaker was Mr. Xiaolin Wang (CityU) and his topic presentation was “IoT-enabled Innovations in Product Warranty Management”.  He overviewed the IoT-enabled innovations including Customized extended warranty contract design, Predictive maintenance optimization, Claim processing-Fraud detection and Early warning of quality & reliability problems.  

CityU International Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science – Day 1

The seventh International Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science (IRC-SEMS2019) took place in Nanjing, China, 19-20 April 2019. IRC-SEMS aims to provide a research platform for academics and researchers, particularly young faculty and graduate students, to share and exchange experience and research findings in various disciplines of Systems Engineering and Management Science. Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) is organizer.  School of Data Science, CityU and School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University are co-organizer.  We took a group photo in front of the Xingyun Building (星雲樓) for memory.

I arrived the conference hall and took a photo in front of the banner.

I took a photo with Prof. Shen Houcai (沈厚才) (Professor, School of Mgt & Eng, Nanjing University).

We took a photo with guest speakers and academic friends.

(Left: Prof. Shen Houcai, I, Prof. Wang YingMing (Fuzhou University), Prof. Kwok L Tsui (Chair Professor, CityU), Dr. KS Chin (SEEM, CityU), Prof. Jian-Bo Yang (The University of Manchester, UK) and Prof. Xianjia Wang (王先甲) (Wuhan University))

Then CityU representatives took a photo.

(Left: Dr. Mo huadong (Australian National University), Prof. Min XIE, Prof. Chuangyin Dang, Prof. Kwok L Tsui, Dr. KS Chin and I)

In the beginning, Prof. Shen Houcai (Professor, School of Mgt & Eng, Nanjing University) chair the morning section. 

Prof. Jing Zhou (Dean and Professor, School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University) gave welcome speech and she introduced the history of Nanjing city and also their school which was one of youngest schools at Nanjing University.  

Prof. Kwok L Tsui (Chair Professor, School of Data Science, CityU) gave welcome speech and he brief IRC-SEMS background and introduced three keynote speakers.

Prof. Chuangyin Dang (Acting Head and Professor, SEEM Dept., CityU) gave welcome speech and he welcome all participants and believed that the young faculty and students could develop their skills and build a strong international network through this significant conference.

The first keynote speaker was Prof. Jim Dai (Presidential Chair Professor, Institute for Data and Decision Analytics (iDDA), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Leon C. Welch Professor of Engineering, School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University) and his presentation topic entitled “Hospital Inpatient Operations: Modeling, Analysis and Optimizations”.  He introduced fidelity modeling to capture time-of-day patient waiting time (descriptive analysis): service-time models and trading off waiting & overflow (prescriptive analysis) through bed overflow decisions.  

Academic Exchanging with the School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University

Before the seventh International Research Conference on Systems Engineering and Management Science (IRC-SEMS2019), Dr. KS Chin (Associate Professor, SEEM Dept., CityU) and Prof. Shen Houcai (沈厚才) (Professor, School of Mgt & Eng, Nanjing University) arranged an academic exchanging seminar for both research students.  

Firstly, CityU research student introduced themselves and one of them from Africa.  

Then Prof. Shen led his PhD students to introduce themselves too.

Visit to Zhongshan Mausoleum (中山陵)

On 18^th April 2019, we planned to visit the Zhongshan Mausoleum (中山陵) before exchanging meeting in Nanjing University.  Actually, we had arrived Zhongshan Mausoleum on 16^th April but we cannot entry without online booking!

Following the road, I saw a food shop named “Huiwei” it is only one character different from “Huawei”!

The special snack was sold.  We brought some because of child memory.

The map was Zhongshan Mountain National Park.

A large entry building and we had long road to arrive the mausoleum.

Many trees planted in both side of the road.

I arrived the first building with the brand “天下為公” (the world community is equally shared by all).