Abstract
Quality management in the construction industry includes quality control, quality planning and quality assurance to improve the quality of buildings. However, there have been challenges related to cost variations, timeliness and delays in maintenance which affect quality management of buildings. The study assessed quality management practices of building construction firms in Uganda with the purpose of developing a framework that can be used by construction firms to improve on the quality of buildings. In this study, descriptive design was employed in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a sample size of 54 respondents purposively selected from employees of construction firms and Kamwenge local government using a survey questionnaire and documentary reviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate analysis in SPSS version 25. The contribution of each of the factors on the quality of construction firms was determined by use of Relative Importance Index (RII) and the ranking of these attributes in terms of their criticality as perceived by the respondents. The findings indicated that procurement systems, third party certification and on site supervision greatly influenced the cost, timeliness and delivery of buildings hence affecting the quality management practices. The developed framework shall be used to engage stakeholders in the phases of the construction projects mainly buildings to improve on cost estimation and timely completion hence improving on quality management of buildings and service delivery.
Highlights
Construction industry has been widely criticized for its low quality of delivery of construction projects [1]
This shows that quality assurance in construction firms is greatly affected by third party certification and budget allocation
The research revealed there is moderate effect on the quality management practices of construction building projects were since implementers paying attention to needs of clients was ranked 3rd with Relative Importance Index (RII) of 0.72, employees are motivated in every firm (RII=0.67) ranked 4th and quality appraisals in the firm (RII=0.62) ranked 5th
Summary
Construction industry has been widely criticized for its low quality of delivery of construction projects [1]. Construction firms need to adopt quality management in order to solve quality problems in order to meet the demands of the clients [2]. Total quality management is defined as a management viewpoint that encompasses all functions of an entity like human resources, operations and marketing in order to focus on meeting customer needs and firm’s objectives [3]. Building construction sector is considered to be a basic sector on which the development of a country depends [4]. Quality of global firms in building projects is driven by practices adopted [5]. It is asserted that the majority of the construction companies in all over the world face a lot of many challenges and problems such as workmanship defects, delay and cost overrun in complementing their construction projects for the past three decades [6]
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