Senaratne, S and Jayarathna, T (2012) Quality planning process of construction contractors: Case studies in Sri Lanka. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 17(1), pp. 103-115. ISSN 1823-6499
Abstract
Within quality management efforts, modern organisations pay more attention to improving the quality planning process. However, construction contractors in developing countries such as in Sri Lanka still lag in their practice of effective quality planning. Thus, the key research question of this study was "how do Sri Lankan construction contractors approach quality planning?" Within this question, the study's primary objectives were to explore whether the Sri Lankan construction contractors practice quality planning effectively and the extent to which they are ready to implement strategic quality planning. The research method adopted for this study was qualitative and used three case studies representing three major contractors in Sri Lanka. The study revealed that ISO 9000 is the most popular quality management system practiced by Sri Lankan construction contractors. The contractors are not yet ready to implement strategic quality planning due to several barriers. Building on these case study findings, several prerequisites for the successful implementation of strategic quality planning are proposed that will be useful for contractors who operate in similar environments.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case studies; construction industry; contractors; strategic quality planning |
| Index terms: | case study, planning process, strategic quality planning, Sri Lanka, quality management system, implementation, quality management, construction industry, ISO, developing country, construction contractor |
| Subjects: | project delivery, contractual arrangements, standards development, practitioner, strategic management, data collection methods, quality assurance, industry analysis, project controls, development economics, Geography |
| Topics: | Time Control, International Construction, Quality Management, Procurement, Roles and Professions, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here