Assessment of the expected cost of quality (COQ) in construction projects in Egypt using artificial neural network model

Many definitions for quality were provided by experts. Among these definitions are: quality is the fitness for use [14], conformance to requirements [4], quality is a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability, at low cost and suited to the market [6].Cost of quality is an essential element of the total cost of any construction project. Consequently, the accurate assessment of such cost of quality can materially affect the reliability of the estimated cost of any construction project. Stated differently, the accurate and reliable cost estimating for any construction projects is not really possible without the deep investigation for the expected cost of quality of this project. Cost of quality is generally affected by many factors. Any attempt to assess the cost of quality of any project should take the different cost of quality factors into consideration.The main objective of this paper is to establish a neural network model that will enable the construction firms to assess cost of quality for any future building project. This will improve the company’s performance and its ability to compete with other companies through the improvement of bids accuracy. The “Neural Connection 2.0 Professional” was chosen to generate the proposed model. The main factors affecting the expected cost of quality were clearly identified. The different sequences of the model development will be deeply investigated. Moreover, the validity of the proposed model will be evaluated using a number of case study applications.