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The proper organization and planning of building processes plays an increasingly important role in building projects, and appropriate management is becoming a more frequent problem. Tools of quality management are very often used in other areas of business, such as automotive, aerospace and production, unfortunately, rarely in the field of construction. The main goal of this article is to show that individual quality management tools and Lean Construction tools can be used in construction, and their use brings significant and visible benefits. Authors present their work as an example of implementing these tools in building processes at the construction of Pixel office buildings in Poznań. Authors present the basic concepts related to quality management and the tools used in the field of Lean Construction as well as assumptions of Lean Management. This aims to introduce the reader to the main concept, assumptions and allows to learn the principles of lean management. The reader needs to be aware, that all company employees and suppliers must be involved in introducing Lean Management to the enterprise, starting with the owner and ending with the employee. It is not possible to implement a lean philosophy into a company, without understanding the basics and purpose for which they were introduced. Practical part of the article is devoted to a detailed analysis construction process using the well-known Six Sigma cycle DMAIC - an abbreviation of the words: Define - Measure - Analyze - Improve - Control. The analysis was carried out on the basis of own knowledge and interviews with the construction management and employees of subcontracting companies present at the construction site. Results are presented in the form of conclusions. It can be said that using quality management tools (mainly Lean Management principles) it is possible to visibly improve building processes and it is likely to achieve better financial and time results during execution of works.

The key benefits from Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) are good quality, lower Life cycle cost, the speed of work and friendliness of environment more than the site mixed concrete, but when the quality of RMC is below threat of several causes resulting poor quality or useless concrete. We will lose all advantages of RMC that we mention before. Therefore, this study investigate the using of Quality management to improve the process of company to produc (RMC) in batching plant and study the impacts of Quality Control (QC), Quality Assurance (QA) on the company by introduce them to the process in order to make improvements on current Quality system to make it continuous improvements. The idea of the work depends on finding the relationship between the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide and the quality management by combining them together in process to achieve the best results as soon as possible, higher productivity, less rework, increased customers satisfaction, increased profitability and sustainability by finding company’s problems and achieving it through guidelines and instructions of PMBOK Guide also the principles, the tools and the techniques of Quality Management. In order to achieve that, we have investigated three main points: the first one is gathering information to identify the current quality system, the second is identifying and analyzing of these problems and the third is finding solutions based on the principles of management. With a view to manage the process of production, the author used many techniques and tools for management such as Flow Chart for a process, Ishikawa diagrams to define seven main group of problems, Check Sheet to the number of problems occurrence, the FMEA Analysis for thirty-five problems, 5 Whys Analysis to find sources of the problems, Solution effect Analysis to propose the possible solutions. The most important results from this study are the main reasons for the absence of management methodology in the company which is a defect in the Quality system (structure of company, procedure, and resources), lack of management experience and communication and lack interest of Total Quality Management in management methodology. The researcher found lacks in the thoughtful scientific methodology for the management in process of production, therefore the developing of the system of production in the RMC plant is to build a methodology based on a guide of Project Management Body of Knowledge 5th edition because of the maturity level of the project management knowledge areas.

The foundations are important part of every building's structure. It can be distinguished square foundations and deep foundations. The process of creating foundations during building construction can be in some cases very complicated and, similar to other construction processes, very costly when errors and problems occurs. Lean construction is a management strategy to eliminate possible errors and wastes during execution of the processes, which is why it is nowadays more widely used for prevention, as well as in the situation of emergency, when solutions already prepared are executed according to the plan. One of the methods that can help in successful implementation of good practices in construction from the quality management perspective is DMAIC, which means Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control. Authors decided to use it for the purpose of this publication. Article presents the use of the DMAIC concept on the example of foundation preparation in the construction site in the city of Kolo. The paper presents methods of quality management in the construction process based on foundation works. The quality analysis was based on the DMAIC method, in which the following quality analysis methods were used: Ishikawa diagram, FMEA analysis, Pareto chart. The proposed methods and solutions can be implemented on other construction sites conducting similar processes. Attention is drawn to the need for further research to be carried out to confirm the estimated values of solving problems ratio in groundworks processes, which authors are planning to execute on similar construction site in Poznan.

Ground works are one of the first processes connected with erecting structures. Based on ground conditions like the type of soil or level of underground water different types and solutions for foundations are designed. Foundations are the base for the buildings, and their proper design and execution is the key for the long and faultless use of the whole construction and might influence on the future costs of the eventual repairs (especially when ground water level is high, and there is no proper water insulation made). Article presents the introduction of chosen Lean Management tools for quality improvement of the process of ground works based on the analysis made on the construction site of vehicle control station located in Poznan, Poland. Processes assessment is made from different perspectives taking into account that 3 main groups of workers were directly involved in the process: blue collar-workers, site manager and site engineers. What is more comparison is made on the 3 points of view to the problems that might occur during this type of works, with details analysis on the causes of such situation? Authors presents also the change of approach of workers directly involved in the mentioned processes regarding introduction of Lean Management methodology, which illustrates the problem of scepticism for new ideas of the people used to perform works and actions in traditional way. Using Lean Management philosophy in construction is a good idea to streamline processes in company, get rid of constantly recurring problems, and in this way improve the productivity and quality of executed activities. Performed analysis showed that different groups of people have very different idea and opinion on the problems connected with executing the same process – ground works and only having full picture of the situation (especially in construction processes) management can take proper problems-preventing actions that consequently can influence on the amount of waste generated on the construction cite which positively influence on the external environment.

The article presents a general idea of Industry 4.0 concept with the introduction presenting descriptions of the most important aspects in terms of production and construction industry development. The importance of the SME sector is stressed showing that this group of companies plays significant role in the European economy. The main objective of the article is to define and show possible research areas connected with the introduction of Industry 4.0 concept into SMEs with the main focus on the construction sector. For this purpose, an analysis was made, based on the most recent literature, to point out actual needs in the SMEs sector in terms of its evolution into 4.0 level. What is more, the analysis was performed based on the most popular articles published in journals available in Thomson Reuters Web of Science Core Collection database regarding Industry 4.0 concept in the last decade showing the actual change of interest in this filed, taking into account possibility of usage of this concept in the construction and production sector. Authors tried to describe current knowledge regarding Industry 4.0 introduction for SMEs. Performed analysis showed that there is a wide spectrum of disciplines that are affected by the Industry 4.0 that needs to be examined considering introduction into SMEs. Study also showed that multidiscipline approach was not investigated so far to create special rules, procedures and methods and know-how designed for introduction of main principles of Industry 4.0 in the SME sector. Authors came to the conclusions that there should be more stress put into research in this field especially taking into account the huge potential which lies in SME sector in terms of global economic strength.

Formal and legal aspects of buying flats and their reception is very current topic and touches wide group of buyers. Annually in Poland great amount of flats is being sold and put to use. However, the case of housing purchase requires knowledge of both the construction and the legal aspects each buyer has to encounter. The paper faces the subject of formal and legal aspects, and analyses accompanying procedure of purchase and reception of housing in Poland. The article presents principles associated with the acquisition of a dwelling, process of works reception, removal of detected faults, fault-free reception, transfer of ownership, warranties, guarantees and possibilities of their enforcement. Contracting parties of the developer agreement were revealed. In addition, the entities present in the course of works such as general contractor were mentioned, due to the fact of his direct influence on the results of a contract terms between developer and buyer. Logical connection between three parties (buyer-developer-general contractor) were shown and direct and indirect dependencies were revealed. Existing laws and regulations that govern the relationship between the developer and the buyer of a dwelling were determined showing basic rights and responsibilities of each. The article also presents problems resulting from delaying the completion of works by developer's fault and indicates possible legal paths to follow in order claim their rights. Due to the fact, that many of discussed formal and legal aspects in this subject have their origin connected to construction works and design issues, author suggests increased quality control and efficient work organization in order to solve problems before appearance.

The article presents the general idea of Air-Coupled Impact-Echo (ACIE) method which is one of the non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques used in the construction industry. One of the main advantages of the general Impact Echo (IE) method is that it is sufficient to access from one side to that of the structure which greatly facilitate research in the road facilities or places which are difficult to access and diagnose. The main purpose of the article is to present state-of-the-art related to ACIE method based on the publications available at Thomson Reuters Web of Science Core Collection database (WOS) with the further analysis of the mentioned methods. Deeper analysis was also performed for the newest publications published within last 3 years related to ACIE for investigation on the subject of main focus of the researchers and scientists to try to define possible regions where additional examination and work is necessary. One of the main conclusions that comes from the performed analysis is that ACIE methods can be widely used for performing NDT of concrete structures and can be performed faster than standard IE method thanks to the Air-coupled sensors. What is more, 92.3% of the analysed recent research described in publications connected with ACIE was performed in laboratories, and only 23.1% in-situ on real structures. This indicates that method requires further research to prepare test stand ready to perform analysis on real objects outside laboratory conditions. Moreover, algorithms that are used for data processing and later presentation in ACIE method are still being developed and there is no universal solution available for all kinds of the existing and possible to find defects, which indicates possible research area for further works. Authors are of the opinion that emerging ACIE method could be good opportunity for ND testing especially for concrete structures. Development and refinement of test stands that will allow to perform in-situ tests could shorten the overall time of the research and with the connection of implementation of higher accuracy algorithms for data analysis better precision of defects localization can be achieved.