Quality in South African construction: a construction manager’s perspective.

Abstract

Construction projects are an extremely complex process, involving diversified construction activities and a heterogeneous mix of materials and components. There are many factors affecting the quality of construction, such as design, materials, machinery, topography, geology, hydrology, meteorology, construction technology, methods of operation, technical measures and management systems. Because of the fixed project location, large volume and different location of different projects, the poor control of these factors may produce quality problems. Clients will not be satisfied if the project fails to meet their price, quality, time frame, functionality and delivery performance standard. In view of this, the construction manager must be employed, having the skills and knowledge or make the effort to design and manage processes of project construction. Therefore, the contractors and suppliers may deliver good products and resources to accomplish a quality construction project. The construction manager applies flexible skills to attain the quality requirements of a project by working hand-in-hand with all different stakeholders to ensure they produce spectacular results. A mixed concurrent triangulation design which consists of both quantitative and qualitative approach was adopted for this study. For quantitative data, survey questionnaires were designed via Google forms and 119 responses were from construction managers around South Africa. A stratified sampling was used and the data collected was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS-v27). For qualitative data, a purposive sampling was used, and the semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 construction managers and the data obtained was analysed using NVivo analysis (v12). Ethical issues were taken into consideration. The findings of the study showed that the participants understood quality in general and when used in construction. The participants agreed that for construction projects, the goal and desire of all project stakeholders, construction managers in particular, is to ensure that projects are delivered according to acceptable and agreed standards. The construction managers focus on the skills and knowledge employed to the construction of the project. Namely, they look at the material, labour, equipment, tools and methods to producing the end-product of quality. Construction managers use their skills which are inclusive of effective communication, leadership and negotiation to construction projects which will be fit for its purpose, meet or exceed client’s expectations and conform to both project specifications and regulations. It is essential to mention that if all the other stakeholders play their roles on the project, it makes it easier for the construction managers to perform their responsibilities which indeed lead a project to success. Construction managers use quality management systems to ensure the projects are of quality and eliminating any factors affecting quality. They begin with quality planning, quality assurance and quality control. Construction managers ensure quality by working with the project team to define a practical approach to managing quality, including applicable standards and quality processes. These are driven by standards and quality processes contained in the project blueprint. They also perform quality assurance by executing quality management plans using the standards and processes defined in the project blueprint. Perform a quality audit to evaluate how well the team is following the plan and meeting customer’s expectations. Lastly, construction managers control the quality by ensuring the deliverables are correct and free of defects and focus on quality from the beginning to the end of the project. In conclusion, it is essential for construction managers to be open to learning on a daily basis to improve knowledge and have a variety of solutions to any quality-related issues. To avoid issues, it is essential to deal with any of the factors affecting quality as soon as it arises. It is very important also take into consideration ISO 9000, ISO 14000, SANS, NHBRC, CIDB and NEMA which are quality regulations. Regular site inspections are advised where a construction manager visits a site to check if materials and construction methods used conform with the quality standards. This information is useful for having a general understanding of quality and explore factors affecting quality of construction projects. It also assists construction managers on what skills to focus/improve in order to be competent and deliver quality projects. Lastly, it reminds construction managers to quickly attend to any factor that might jeopardise the project quality.