Evaluating the effectiveness of viewpoint on quality assurance

Some fairly recent high-profile safety-related failings have left a damaging mark on the construction industry’s image. Two commonly referenced failings in the UK are the Oxgangs Primary School masonry wall collapse in Edinburgh, and the Grenfell Tower fire. Both incidents were the results of systemic failures in delivering quality and safety on projects. The role of the Principal Contractor includes taking ownership and responsibility of delivering safe and high-quality projects. This necessitates the Principal contractor to implement safe methods of quality management that improves quality and safety culture. This paper evaluates the adoption of ‘Viewpoint’ - a construction technology package which is effective for quality assurance, with particular focus on ‘Field View’ and ‘Viewpoint For Projects’. The study used existing projects as case study and engaged seven industry practitioners working for a UK based Principal Contractors through semi-structured interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the adoption of Viewpoint for quality assurance. The findings demonstrate the benefits of the adoption of Viewpoint in terms of quality management, inspection check sheets and reporting non-conformance. Also, having a common data environment for sharing submissions and drawings significantly increased the quality of the Information Management and managing design for safety.