Study of achieving quality assurance on building sites in SriLanka

Abstract

Quality of any product in any industry is the most important factor as it draws the customer's attention by fulfilling their needs. Quality of the construction project simply means the ability to satisfy the client's need, meet specifications and achieve project objectives. Like any other commercial customers, construction clients always wish to get their products in terms of value for money, conformance to specifications and fitness for the purpose and this can be defined as achieving the quality of the construction projects. Quality management systems available in building construction in Sri Lanka were studied in this research in order to observe and compare their applications in actual practice. It was found that International Standards of Organization (ISO ) 9000 specifies the more effective method for quality assurance and in this study only one construction company was found which maintains this standards. The quality management in construction contracts under this study is governed by the conditions given in the Institute for Construction Training And Development (ICTAD) documents which specify the limited scope of quality requirements. Its application in actual practices in building construction was found very unsatisfactory. Quality measures activities involved in construction sites were mostly carried out on the basis of visual inspection of the work gang and site staff without following any acceptable guidelines. This study has revealed the necessity of implementing the systematic quality control system or quality assurance system according to the size of the building construction Projects in Sri Lanka in order to assure the quality of Buildings.