Swedish Constructing Excellence: A Tool for Quality Management within Construction Projects

The Swedish construction sector has been criticized in media for being corrupted, unproductive and conservative. Several incidents, e.g. cartels, work on the side without paying tax and moisture problems, have had a great deal of attention. Of that reason has the government initiated a number of investigations in order to identify the major problems in the construction industry. Further, they have initiated a development of a tool aimed for (a) to identify risks, (b) to avoid poor quality costs, and (c) to direct towards increased quality and effectiveness in building and civil engineering projects, from a client perspective. The UK Constructing Excellence has often been held up as a model during the debate. However, the Swedish general culture differs from the British, as well as the Swedish system differs from the British. The purpose of this paper is to describe the program for developing the system, including the purposes with the system, identified starting points and demands and the approach/method for the development.