The poor quality of public buildings in the Botswana construction industry has been surrounded by controversy and strongly held opinions. The work reported here attempts to indicate some salient issues affecting the quality management system, with particular reference to the construction phase. Three propositions are addressed by the work. First that quality problems related to public building processes in Botswana are primarily due to an inappropriate project organizational structure. Secondly, that the traditional building procurement system provides a poor quality management system. The third proposition is that the traditional building procurement system does not facilitate derived quality levels as defined by the contract drawings and specifications. Five objectives of this study are identified and various issues which are fundamental to the research are reviewed. The first is the way in which the Botswana public building sector is organized, focussing on the building construction process. The second is the review of quality management theories both in the manufacturing and construction industries. The third is the relationship between the project management structure and project quality management, and the quality of building. The fourth is the proposal of a conceptual framework of an appropriate quality management system. Finally, recommendations about how to deal with organization of public building projects in order to select appropriate quality management systems are given.
Information is obtained on the research areas through the use of the following methods:
1. Consultations with quality management practitioners and review of the Quality Management literature.
2. Questionnaires to architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, construction firm executives, contracts managers, site managers, trade foremen and skilled tradespersons, on quality management problems and procurement systems.
3. Case studies investigating approaches to site quality management in general and the adequacy of quality management documents.
4. Semi structured interviews investigating public building clients views on the quality management system and project procurement systems.
The data collected are analysed using triangulation (qualitative and quantitative methodologies) methodology and the main results are reported below. The primary conclusion to be drawn is that the quality management system purported to be in use in the Botswana public building sector differs significantly from that recommended in the theory, resulting in poor quality buildings. This is primarily due to the use of an inappropriate building procurement system. In general the traditional building procurement system in the Botswana public building sector is used as a 'default system'. There are indications to suggest that it is used merely because the clients and consultants have failed to consider the issue of appropriateness. An appropriate quality management model for the construction phase is proposed with a proviso that the Botswana public building sector should establish appropriate methods of selecting appropriate procurement systems as a prerequisite in formulating appropriate quality management systems for various projects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/31854 |
| Date | 02 April 2020 |
| Creators | Rwelamila, Pantaleo Mutajwaa Daniel |
| Contributors | Boaden, Bruce |
| Publisher | Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Department of Construction Economics and Management |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral |
| Format | application/pdf |
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