ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF GRADE ONE BUILDING CONTRACTORS IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

Quality Management has increasingly been adopted by construction companies as an initiative to solve quality problems and to meet the needs of the final customer. This research deals with the assessment of quality Management practices of grade one building contractors registered in Addis Ababa and renew their licenses. The objectives of the research were to investigate how the concept of quality and quality management is adopted in the construction process to identify grade one contractor’s quality management practice and to propose measures for effective quality management practice. Different literatures were assessed to show the concept of quality and quality management in the construction industry and the factors that affect quality management practices. Those issues were also assessed in Ethiopia situation by using interview and questionnaire. The interview was conducted with different professionals in order to help the questionnaire design. The questionnaire survey was performed on different selected Ethiopian contractors to assess their practices. A total of sixty-four questionnaire survey was distributed to different selected Ethiopian contractors. A total of fifty two questionnaire survey was returned 52 (81 %) from different selected Ethiopian contractors. In order to determine and rank the quality awareness and implementation level in building construction projects use relative importance index method (RII). The research finding indicated that most respondents were familiar with the concepts of quality and quality management but its application was relatively low. The majority of the contractors, (40%) don’t implement quality management system in their company and also Labors & Design related issues are the most important factors to reduce the quality problem issues in Ethiopia building construction projects. Finally based on the findings and results some recommendations were given.