a technical committee comprised of various
industry players and stakeholders to undertake
the development of the quality assessment
system to regulate the practice as well as to
deliver a product of good value to the end-user.
The end result was the Quality Assessment
System for Building Construction Works or
QLASSIC (pronounced as Q-lasik), which is an
independent method to assess and evaluate
primarily on the quality of building projects that
is based on a standard called CIS 7:2006. The
standard was further improved and enhanced to
suit current industrial practices, resulting in the
publication of CIS 7:2014.
SCOPE OF QLASSIC
The standard sets out the quality of workmanship
for various aspects of construction for the
general building works. QLASSIC covers four
main components: Structural works, Architectural
works, M&E works and External works.
Assessment of workmanship is carried out based
on this standard and marks are awarded if the
workmanship complies with the standards. These
marks are summed up to give a total quality score
(%) for the building project.
IS QLASSIC REALLY NECESSARY OR EVEN
IMPORTANT?
From industry input, it was found that QLASSIC
has benefitted the industry in many ways.
Construction industry players who have started
using QLASSIC find that they can’t do without it.
The initial assessment is usually quite low, ranging
between 50% and 60% (the ideal score is above
70%). After the first assessment, they challenge
themselves to do better and better. The good
news is, they have!!
When put into practice, the benefits are farranging such as:Motto – “Doing things right the first time and
every time” is a motto that encourages developers
and contractors to carry out actual works right
from the beginning. The result? Less money is
spent on rectification and correction works.
Yardstick – QLASSIC enables developers/
contractors to measure their performance.
Example of one prominent developer; in its first
project it scored poorly at 58%. Equipped with
knowledge and further understanding of QLASSIC,
the developer scored 65% in the subsequent
project, and improved further to 76% in another
development. This demonstrates continuous
improvement with subsequent projects, and the
Allocation of weightage for components of building construction work
according to building category
Residential Building
Non Residential Building
Category C
Category D
Commercial
/ Industrial
building)
(Public, Commercial
/ Industrial building)
Category A
Category B
(Landed
housing)
(Stratified
housing)
(%)
(%)
Structural works
Architectural works
M&E works
External works
15
70
5
10
20
60
10
10
20
55
15
10
20
50
20
10
Total score
100
100
100
100
Component
(%)
(%)
Note: Category C is without centralised cooling system, Category D is with centralised cooling system
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