Finalyear

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The construction industry is known for its complexity, with multiple stakeholders involved and numerous processes and activities taking place simultaneously. As a result, ensuring high-quality construction outcomes has always been a challenge. Quality management systems (QMS) have gained significant attention as a means to address this challenge. QMS refers to a set of procedures, policies, and practices implemented by organizations to ensure that their products or services consistently meet customer requirements.
The issue of quality management in construction projects cannot be over emphasized since building facilities contribute the largest to any nation’s development and economy (Farooqui, Masood and Aziz, 2018). The construction sector is globally considered to be a basic industry on which the development of a country depends. To a great extent, the growth of a country and its development status is generally determined by the quality of its infrastructure and construction projects (Wasiu, Aliyu and Modupe, 2012).
For an organization, a quality management is one in which everybody is responsible for quality improvement. With the help of this quality management, each organization develops a system of interrelated teams which provide inputs and outputs. Hence, the reputation of construction industry is relying on the expertise of implementation and management of work and also how it can be completed safely and meets the consumer’s requirements (Mills, 2011; Loosemore, 2013; Root, 2015; Goetsch, 2015).
To a great extent, the growth of a country and its development status is generally determined by the quality of its infrastructure and construction projects. Quality is contained in the tripod of construction management; it does not only impact appearance and durability but also the performance of a project.
Performance evaluation in construction project generally focuses on a limited number of performance elements which is the act of fulfilling the project goals related to the product, which are completing the project on time, within budget and with the required quality and to client satisfaction (Blismas, Sher & Thorpe, 1999). Apart from quality of work, a safe working environment is very necessary to erase the high risk image closely associated with construction industry. Construction safety is a standard of quality that is indicated in the contract and required by the client (Alves Dias and Coble, 2016). It equally has many features that set it apart from other industries and which accentuate the need for professional engagement.
Quality management is a holistic approach to managing a project. It includes continuous improvement, customer’s satisfaction, and top management support, defect-free product at first attempt, and elimination of reworks, safety of the personnel, cost effectiveness, training and re-training of staff. Quality management consists of all activities that managers perform to improve their quality and policy while working in a safe environment such as quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement,(Harris & McCaffer, 2012). It is a process of getting rid of poor quality from production rather than getting rid of poor quality products. Chase (2018) concludes that, “In the construction industry, application of Quality management to the jobsite has been proven to speed-up projects while increasing profitability”. When time and money are premium then, quality management implementation will be confrontational and adversarial because mostly contractors cannot afford to improve (Todd, 2013). The contractors varied in their definition or perception of quality by indicating: price (value), compliments, management commitment, measurement and improvements, repeat business, and finishing on schedule (Alfred & Patrick, 1999). In construction phase, “extent teamwork of parties participating in the construction process” was found to be very important and ranked 2nd by contractors and 4th by construction managers (David & Murat, 2017).
Quality management has increasingly been adopted by construction companies as an initiative to solving quality problems in a safe working environment to meet the need of final consumer (Kanji and Wong, 2018). Oakland and Aldridge (2015),suggest that if ever an industry needed to take up the concept of quality management (QM), it is the construction industry. Alfred, 2018 advances the view that construction very probably promises a greater pay back for performance improvement than any other service industry because of its magnitude.
In the construction industry; contractors are selected by owner on a competitive basis. Even though the bid is considered to be the major criterion of selection, especially private owners also consider the contractors’ safety record, technical support, equipment capabilities, and especially reputation regarding the quality of the work performed. Contractors with a bad reputation are not likely to be awarded many projects in the existing competitive marketplace. It therefore pays for contractors to invest in measures to achieve high work quality in order to increase chances of winning contracts. Quality of work is the cornerstone of competitive strategies for contractors seeking to widen as well as secure their clients. The global competitive arena has compelled contractors to constantly think of new ways to gain a competitive edge.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Despite the growing importance of QMS in the construction industry, there is limited research on the direct impact of QMS on construction performance. Understanding this relationship is crucial for improving construction practices and achieving better project outcomes.
For many years, quality management among workers has been a major issue of construction industry. The construction industry is being viewed as one with poor quality emphasis compared to other sectors like the manufacturing and service sectors (Kubal, 2014; Wong & Fung, 2019). According to (Mahmood, Mohammed, Misnan, Yusof, & Bakri, 2016; Sodangi, Idrus & Khamidi, 2010), many criticisms have been directed to the construction industry for generally shoddy workmanship. It is not only the final product that is subject to criticisms but among others include the processes, the people, the materials are also under tremendous pressure for better quality in construction. Failure of any of the parties will seriously affect the construction performance of the project.
Quality and efficiency have been identified as the major imperatives lacking in Nigeria’s construction industry (Udeh, Nwachukwu and Okere (2018). From a general knowledge, a number of construction firms in Nigeria under-pay their workers. With this poor salary package, Construction labours tend to focus more on the number of hours worked and quantity of work done rather than the quality of work executed.
In Onitsha some of the problems facing quality management implementations according to Udeh, Nwachukwu and Okere (2018) are; lack of proper supervision by the use of non-expertise personnel to supervise construction projects, non completion of projects within budget, untimely project delivery, non use of the right material specifications, compromise on the quality of works, etc.
According to Udeh, Nwachukwu and Okere (2018), the spate of building collapse in Nigeria generally and by extension in Onitsha is traceable to poorly constructed/substandard building projects. They opined that, the leading cause of building collapse is traceable to poor quality management during the construction process. Poor quality management of building construction projects is as a result of some observable constraints that hinders the construction process. They concluded that, a critical analysis of these constraints revealed that they are manifested in the three core areas of quality management: Quality planning, quality assurance and quality control. It is quite intuitive to assume that the key solution to poor quality management lies in an isolation of those individual constraints that weaken quality planning, quality assurance and quality control.
This study will therefore investigate the factors affecting quality management implementation and its effect in Onitsha with respect to improve construction performance.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the study
This research is aimed at investigating the impact of quality management on construction sites in Onitsha, with a view to suggesting ways to improve quality house development for the people.
The objectives that will aid the achievement of the aim include to:
i. Establish the current states of quality management practices in Onitsha.
ii. Rank in order of severity, factors affecting Quality management implementation in building construction sites.