Quality Matters Q1 2015

Quality dOES Matter Find out everything you need to know on Depa Standards and what makes us different

Insta–Quality A picture says more than a thousand words.

What does this picture tell you about Quality?

Quali–tweet Quality has always been an important topic – read what famous people have to say

First Issue

Quality Matters

Depa United Group Inhouse Magazine Q1-2015

New Horizons

Image: M/Y Eclipse

Group CEO Message

Quality Does Matter Dear Colleagues, I am very proud to present you the first edition of Quality Matters, the new magazine of the QA/QC Department, which will keep you informed about all the different quality topics that concern Depa and its entire staff, from the workforce in the factories and on–site up to the executive management level.

As we have been celebrating the annual World Quality Day together and more events and activities revolving around this important issue are in the pipeline, I would like to remind you why we all need to integrate the aspiration for quality into our everyday routines.

You all are aware, Depa and quality are inseparably linked. In times of tough competition and choices, we can only sustain our organization if we demonstrate on a daily basis what makes the Depa brand so different – and worth its premium proposition. If we take the Depa Standards as a systematic guideline across all functions and projects, across all sectors and activities, we ensure that we deliver not only to the client’s satisfaction but also establish a benchmark in the industry.

You, our people, are Depa’s most important asset because it is you who implement our vision and our strategy day by day. Please don’t take this matter lightly; Quality Does Matter, above and beyond QA/QC. Wishing you an enjoyable and informative reading.

Nadim Akhras Group CEO, Depa United Group

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Image: PPM Conrad

Table of ContentS • • • • • • •

Letter of the Editor Lead Article Lessons Learned Milestones Quality in Numbers Quali–Tweet Insta–Quality

Letter of the Editor

Welcome to the 1st issue of Quality Matters A warm welcome to all of you to our very first issue of Quality Matters magazine, another source of information, knowledge and updates of all QA/QC and Management System topics, published by the QA/QC department on a quarterly basis.

The idea of the magazine started out as a conversation our Group CEO and I had last year, during the discussion of promoting the ‘Thinking Quality’ culture and Quality practices throughout the Group.

The Mission for Quality Matters is to share information that will help everyone. Although, our duties within our different departments and functions are often different, but at the core, when thinking Quality, substandard work is not acceptable and we are all concerned to deliver unparalleled Quality, as each line a Cad operator will draw or each number a Quantity Surveyor will calculate counts. Quality is the responsibility of all of us, and unfortunately, we realize its value only when it fails.

New Horizons Much has been accomplished last few years in maintaining and implementing a solid Quality Management System [QMS], building a strong Quality team and achieving certification of ISO 9001 for all operating business units, as well as the recent review of the QMS to incorporate the production activities within the manufacturing subsidiaries.

In line with Depa’s aim to remain on the top in matters concerning QA/QC, the company has promoted a centralized QA/QC function covering contracting and manufacturing, in order to identify the main elements of the Quality approach the company has to adopt to meet the competitive challenges in pursuing Customer Satisfaction, maintain the uniform Depa Standards, empower employees and utilize the modern technologies and systems.

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Image: Mumbai International Airport

... COntinued Yet, spreading the Quality culture throughout the Group, improving the QMS, taking QA/QC to a higher level and support the operation to improve efficiency are targets to meet.

In this issue Please take some time to get to know the layout of our magazine. The tour into our magazine starts with our Group CEO Message. It answers the question “Why does Quality matter to Depa?”, reflects the commitment of our Top Management towards Quality and emphasizes the link between Quality and Depa brand. This tour goes through the Lead Article which covers the company celebration of the annual World Quality Day under the theme “Depa Standards”. We make a stop at Lessons Learned which highlights the company’s approach of building on the experience earned by each completed project and sharing the analyzed information with future project teams to avoid difficulties. Then continue to QA/QC related Milestones achieved during that quarter. In our way, we highlight some interesting statistics that introduces a different Quality related topic each issue in Quality in Numbers. Then, in Quali–Tweet, we share a collection of inspirational and famous quotes by professionals who contributed in Quality and Management. The tour ends up with Insta–Quality, a picture that reflects the Quality of what our employees usually do in our projects, factories and offices.

Much more to read in the coming issues.

Thank you Many thanks to Eva Sieburg and Hervie E. Mascarenhas who built our new magazine and IT department for their invaluable technical help. Special thanks to our Top Management for the unlimited support.

We are glad to introduce our new magazine to you. Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments and feedback.

Welcome to Quality Matters magazine!

Saad Yenam Group Executive Manager – QA/QC & HSE

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Lead Article

Happy World Quality Day! QA/QC Department in Depa has celebrated World Quality Day – 2014.

The event was an opportunity to highlight that Quality is an essential part of our operation [not a barrier], maintain our commitment to improve “the degree of the Excellence”, and emphasize the importance of Quality for Depa brand and reputation.

Reputed Quality associations in USA, Europe & Japan celebrate the World Quality Day on the 2nd Thursday of November every year since 1989, and in Depa, the same started in 2011.

This year, the event was themed “Depa Standards”, as it concurred with the issuance of the revised Depa’s Quality Management System [QMS]. It included an introduction about the World Quality Day and two video clips presented in the event. The first was “Depa Standards”, an in–house developed video clip in corporation with Business Development Department, covering Depa’s Quality Management System, with a message of the Group CEO, Mr. Nadim Akhras. The second was “Making Collaboration Counts”, which emphasized the importance of Quality.

As part of the event, a Quality Quiz has published on company’s Portal. 244 answers received where 224 of them were correct. A draw was done by Mr. Nazerane Soris, Area Finance Director on 30 Nov 2014 at DUG Head Office, and the Winner of AED 500 prize was Mr. Wasim Newrekar – Depa Saudi.

The “Depa Standards” event has toured the projects and subsidiaries, as follows: ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

DUG Head Office – Opening DIG Depa Dubai – DIP Carrara ME Depa Qatar – Head Office Depa Albarakah Depa Abu Dhabi – Fairmont Project Depa Abu Dhabi –Al Forsan Project Eldiar Depa Abu Dhabi – Head Office Depa Abu Dhabi – NBAD Project Depa Abu Dhabi – Presidential Palace Dragoni Depa Saudi – KAPSARC Project Deco Depa Dubai – Novotel Project

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– 30 Nov 14 – 01 Dec 14 – 01 Dec 14 – 11 Dec 14 – 11 Dec 14 – 14 Dec 14 – 21 Dec 14 – 21 Dec 14 – 22 Dec 14 – 24 Dec 14 – 24 Dec 14 – 29 Dec 14 – 19 Jan 15 – 22 Jan 15 – 27 Jan 15 – 29 Jan 15

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... COntinued...

Depa Standards The Depa Standards are integral to Depa’s aspiration for quality leadership and build the foundation for the Group’s proposition to deliver excellence. The Depa Standards help every employee to contribute their share to making Depa a better company every day and service our clients in a more effective and efficient manner.

The heart and soul of the Depa Standards, Depa’s Quality Management System [QMS], is documented in three levels:

1 ■■ Defines the Company policy statement ■■ Defines the key processes within the Company and identifies its inter–relationship

Quality Manual

■■ Defines how the Company processes meet the requirements of the ISO 9001:2008 standard

2

■■ Procedures and detailed work flow of individual.

Departments and Processes

Quality System Procedures

■■ Supporting documentation / forms ■■ Procedures and detailed work flow of individual.

Departments and Processes

Production Manual

■■ Supporting documentation / forms

3

■■ Defines how the client’s requirements are met

Project Quality Plan Project Handbook

■■ D efines any procedural variation from the Depa Quality System on the project level ■■ Supporting documentation/forms on project level

Operation Handbook

■■ Supporting documentation/forms in manufacturing

■■ The Quality Manual is the starting point of our QMS, which describes the processes and details the interaction among them, in accordance with the requirements of the International Quality Standard ISO 9001.

■■ The Quality Policy Statement is the framework of our operation and represents the high–level guidelines of our QMS. ■■ The Quality System Processes are what we, in Depa, used to call Company Procedures.

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Image: Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange

... COntinued They consist of Core Processes: Tendering, Project Management, Project Close–out and related processes: Control of documents and records, Logistics, Control of non–confirming product, Product ID and traceability, Control of client supplied product, in addition to the production processes of the Manufacturing Business Units.

Then, Support Processes: Commercial and contractual, Planning, Design and development, Material, Procurement, and the support Management Systems: Human resources and administration, IT, Accounting and Occupational health safety and environment.

Finally, the Continual Improvement Processes: Management review, Audits, Customer complaints, Corrective and preventive action.

At the project level, there is the Project Quality Plan supported by the Project Handbook, which covers the forms and checklists, filing systems, guidelines of CAD drawings, project close–out guidelines, master method statement and many others.

The Depa Standards facilitate the work of employees at all levels and lead them plus the entire supply chain to increase the level of excellence delivered to Depa’s customers and business partners, as they provide One Guideline for One Depa United Group.

The QA/QC Department would like to thank everyone who made the “Depa Standards” event succeed.

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Image: Business Park Al Khobar

Lessons Learned

Better Understanding of Construction Durations In the company’s approach of seeking Continual Improvement and increasing effectiveness and efficiency, the Lessons Learned Knowledge Base has been established in the purpose of building on the experience earned by each completed project. Such learning gained shall be analyzed, categorized, made accessible, well–communicated and archived on the company Portal as a part of Depa’s Assets.

Among the puzzles that a project team has at the beginning of any project, is to reasonably estimate the project activity durations which refers to a given time to execute and complete specific work using the available project information and resources within the estimated cost under “normal work conditions”. Thus, the idea to building up some guidelines for project team to utilize was established. The Project Management literatures direct us in to surveying the Hands on Caliber through typical questionnaire. Nevertheless, In Depa, since we have massive detailed and accurate record of our previous project, with the utilization of simple analysis, we can easily get “How Depa did this activity before” and avoid discrepancies between individual opinions.

Originally, the concept of analyzing activities is selecting our scope typical activities and to determine when it starts and when it finishes. But if we factor in elements such as partial or limited access, it normally takes a bit longer time to attain progress and reach the 20% mark because of delays brought about by clearances and other site conditions at the onset of the construction. Progress after the 80% completion likewise slows down due to related preceding activities by other parties.

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Image: Fairmont Baku Flame Towers

... COntinued In our quest to avoid this problem, we have adopted a realistic and experience–based method to analyze activity duration. Consider planning a typical activity, say painting work.

We forecast it in two scenarios, either to finish it in ten days by two Painters or five days by four Painters. Are these scenarios accurate and reasonable? Which of these scenarios is better? To unravel this problem, we consider studying the trajectory of the same activity in our previous projects which is often recorded in the weekly reports. We look at the update week by week and note the percentage of the progress completed in each week. We give particular emphasis to the dates when the progress crosses the 20% and 80% mark. It is therefore the dates between the 20% – 80% mark that considerable works happen and are done in a normal pace. Determining both dates will enable us to make a realistic calculation of the duration needed to finish the activity. For purposes of shedding light to the aforementioned question, we, say for example, determined that the 60% core happened between week 2 to week 5 [21 days] in the reports. Putting this into an equation, 100% progress divided by the 60% core and multiplied by the 21 days, it will give us the duration of 35 days. Considering all factors, the progress during this duration will be evenly distributed and the chance for incurring delay is very remote.

Such method of analysis will help the planning engineer not only to plot a more accurate and realistic activity duration but also to make a blueprint for analyzing future projects.

Seif Abu Wafia Sr. Planning Manager

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Milestones

All operating companies are ISO 9001 certified now!

Depa Albarakah and Depa Qatar have joined the ISO 9001:2008 club after the successful Certification Audits carried out by LRQA in Sep and Oct 2014.

Original certificates were delivered to Mr. Ahmad Taklah, Operations Manager of Depa Albarakah and Mr. Ibrahim Moosa, Operations Director of Depa Qatar, in two separate ceremonies.

Congratulations to Depa Albarakah and Depa Qatar teams for this great achievement.

By hitting this remarkable milestone, the chapter of ISO 9001 certification came to an end, as all operating companies are ISO 9001 certified now!

Revised Quality Management System After a long series of workshops, meetings and brainstorming sessions since the beginning of 2014, the revised Quality Management System [QMS] of Depa group was issued on 30 October 2014.

The revised uniform QMS included: Quality Policy Statement, Quality Manual and the Quality System Processes [Procedures – QSP]. They were made available on the Company’s Portal on 1 December 2014 and put into effect for all the group companies [where applicable] on 1 January 2015; that date when the old procedures were considered superseded.

For the information and compliance of all group companies, the revised QMS was introduced during the celebration of the World Quality Day event which was themed “Depa Standards”.

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Quality in NumBers

DOQS – Material Inspection DOQS [Depa Online Quality Ssytem] is a database platform designed and developed by our IT Department in collaboration with QA/QC department to assist the QA/ QC Team in managing material inspections, factory visits and others under a centralized system that has an in-built report generation capabilities, approval cycles, email distribution lists, collaboration between Depa subsidiaries and many others.

DOQS serves as a valuable tool for use within the company utilizing modern technology [tablets], with nice features to ensure that accurate and up-to-date information is always available and accessible.

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Projects

Engineers

166

Suppliers

461,245 Items Inspected

Baku Flame Towers 22 May 2013

1st

Inspection

DOQS

2014

1,079

453,746

7,499

Items Approved

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Report

Items Rejected

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Quali-Tweet

William Edwards Deming [1900 – 1993] Father of Total Quality Management.

An American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant.

“Quality is everyone’s responsibility and we never have to stop getting better.”

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Insta-QualIty

The White Team

Depa_QAQC Depa’s White Team member performing snagging work Quality Matters | Q1-2015

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Quality Matters

A QA/QC Publication of Depa United Group