Evaluation of Quality during Construction Projects: A Case Study of Pakistan

Achieving and maintaining quality values are indispensable for attaining organizational and customer satisfaction. This research investigates different aspects of operationalize quality culture and factors affecting the quality of building construction in under developed countries like Pakistan. A qualitative and quantitative survey was circulated among different stakeholders including Clients, Consultants and Contractors to assess the level of the contractor’s performance, the project monitoring and controlling techniques, proper health and safety requirements, client satisfaction and workers experience in construction industry projects. The practice of professional quality management in building projects is increasing, however, many flaws and negligence are still found in local practices. This analysis also indicates that political and socio-economic factors play a significant role in maintaining the quality level in local industry. Therefore, the allocation of sufficient resources, proper training of workers, and recruitment of quality control staff and the use of advanced technologies are recommended for proper implementation of QMS (Quality Management System).


INTRODUCTION
improvements with modifications [4]. Hence, it is pragmatic to inspect the sustainable performance from the capability of implemented management system and the authenticity of process throughout the building construction lifecycle [5]. The high level of the performance can only be achieved through quality control of each process. However, several flaws such as incompetence in contract management, lack of professional planning, deficiencies in control of project, slow decision capability, inefficiency in leadership and execution of non-standard methods have been indicated in construction industry [6][7]. So it is important to focus all phases of building construction to understand the factors that affect the quality of project [8][9]. It is also required to elaborate the role of management, quality assurance system and its applications in different aspects [10][11].
Several studies have focused on innovative tools [12], integration management capabilities [13] and project management factors [14] of construction firms. Chou et.
al. [15] proposed a model where the combined effects of quality, project scope, communication, time, risks, procurement management and human resources for success of construction projects in Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam are investigated. It is concluded that the effective use of knowledge of project management body assures the project success. A study [16] on the basis of BIM (Building Information Modeling) is conducted on urban complex construction projects in china. It is proposed that the quality of urban complex construction projects should be improved by using the BIM information sharing functions and features. Lukichev et. al. [17] discussed the facing problems of QMS implementation and certification body selection in Russia. It is suggested that the competitiveness in global market may be improved after obtaining the certificates of foreign certification authorities such as ISO-9001:2015. Poyhonen et. al. [18] described a real school project from Finland and developed PDS (Project Delivery System) using innovative management system. It is determined that the resources and competences, market input, development process and strategy are main parameters for developing PDS. Kozlovskaa et. al. [19] conducted a survey in Slovakia and concluded that not only the costs, quality and time are essential for construction management, but also the planning of construction equipment, safety factors and seasonal impacts must be included in documentation.
Memon et. al. [20] also circulated a survey in two major cities of Pakistan to know the level of QMS in construction projects. The results of this study show that both consultants and contractors are showing the negligence in implementation of QMS, although they understand the significance of QMS. However, the objective of this research is to perform a comprehensive analysis of operationalize quality culture and the factors governing the quality assurance during building construction in Pakistan.

BASIS OF LITERATURE REVIEW
QC (Quality Control) culture is the valuable system of any organization that encourages workers to establish quality environment. It promotes and improves quality with the continuous practice of attributes, procedures and traditions. The QC culture helps the contractor to meet the required competitive business performance, client satisfaction and social responsiveness [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The collective effect of several resources such as human, QC standards, material, machinery, procedures and environment defines the effectiveness of QC process or quality management system in construction industry [25][26].

Human Control
The most important factor of QC is human ability. More efficient and skilled staff can produce high quality work.
Human has ability to control himself and things such as

Evaluation of Quality during Construction Projects: A Case Study of Pakistan
quality can be controlled from him [27]. The momentum of whole management system depends on the combined effort or team work. The failure or success of any organization depends on caliber of leadership [28].

Quality Control Standards
It is considered that the important factor for the success of any organization is in implementing QMS as it has ability to integrate, translate and institutionalize the QC behaviors in everyday practices [29]. The implementation of any defined standard ultimately changes the culture, strategic priorities, process and beliefs of organization.
ISO provides world-class specifications for all types of products, projects and services to ensure safety, efficiency and quality [30]. ISO provides strategic guidance and tools that help organizations to minimize the errors, access the new market demands and increase the productivity [31]. The number of fundamental principles of quality management including implication and motivation of higher management, customer focus, continual improvement and process approach are used to achieve customer 's requirements and quality consistently [32].

Selection of Optimal Process and Materials
The selection of materials according to design and environmental requirement is most significant task that determines the quality of construction directly. It is important for each contractor to ensure selection of materials according to the application, design, cost, environmental conditions and performance before purchasing [33]. The procurement of materials needs to be completed before its implementation. The environmental conditions, dimensions of specimens, selection of tool, several loading and stress conditions, method of tests, objective of tests and consideration of particular use etc. are required for investigating the characterization of materials [34]. The selection of optimal alternative process and method is mandatory.

Other Parameters Influencing the Quality Management System
Health and safety assurance, planning and scheduling,

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A questionnaire survey is developed on the basis of factors as mentioned in section 2. Complete questionnaire is given in the Appendix-I. The description of questionnaire format and methodology for data collection and analysis is discussed in the following section.

Questionnaire Format
This research is carried out in the construction industry of Pakistan. For present study, the mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches have been adopted.
Quantitative research is used to collect and transform specific data that is used to evaluate.
After scrutiny of these 94 respondents four participants were observed biased and the responses of these four were discarded; this resulted in a total of 90 complete and robust responses. However, these remaining ninety questionnaires were satisfactory, so the results were evaluated on the basis of their responses.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The findings of the research are discussed below:
The statistical data of question 3 shows that the qualification of 65% participants was BSc. Engineering, 28% were MS Engineering and 7% were diploma holders.
It is investigated that most of the respondents were BSc Engineers having experience less than five years. The statistical data of experience is presented in Fig. 3.
Although they have less experience but they have more potential to face the work pressure. But the gap among experienced and highly qualified individuals could not minimized.

Common Quality Control Practices in Construction Sector
This section of questionnaire was designed essentially to assess the awareness about the already implemented QMS, techniques and standards. From question 6 and 7, it is concluded that majority of employees agreed that they are using QMS in construction field and they are advised to maintain it. However, further investigation shows that the only thirty-two respondents are using international standard, however, remaining are following the local approaches such as twenty are using the client based Performa, sixteen are using the checklist, and fourteen are using the specialist subcontractor system.
The more important finding is that three respondents accepted that they are not using any QMS and never received any instruction from higher management about it. Hence, we can conclude that the practice of QMS is increasing but few are still not interested in such activities.
The frequency of quality register is also determined in one question to examine the consciousness of respondents in QA (Quality Assurance). The statistical data shows that 52, 7, 16 and 3% are using quality register weekly, fortnightly, monthly and sporadically respectively.
The 22% respondents claimed that they never used quality register. From this data it is concluded that if they are not using this basic activity then the situation concluded from above question is probed. which is presented in Table 1. Fig. 5 shows that most of the statistical scores are greater than 20 points of mean value.

Experience of Respondent in Quality Management System
The

Evaluation of Quality during Construction Projects: A Case Study of Pakistan
two accepted that they are using 1-20% second class bricks of total bricks. However, 52 respondents claimed that they are not using second class bricks.
Remaining four accepted that they are using more than 20% second class bricks. Water absorption test is used for the inspection of bricks. 35% respondents claimed that they used the bricks even when the absorption power is greater than 20%, while 21% claimed t h at they never per for med t he water absorption test. From these facts we conclude that majority of our industry is not properly adopting the standards especially where they find any benefit related to money saving. It is not an easy task to achieve the 100% perfection in results when we   In my opinion the selection of good quality materials is the first and important step for the quality assurance. And then fair supervision of projects according to the standards is required. As construction projects are completed after the huge investment and long duration so any carelessness or corruption may not be acceptable from supervisors, contractors & client. However, I think the complete control of materials quality and implementation of quality control management system with seriousness and sincerity will be possible if the anti-corruption departments will take action against corruption.

CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions are made on the basis of whole research.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Following recommendations are concluded on the basis of result of present study.
(i) Training is required to improve the skills and increase the attention of workers.
(ii) The department of QC under the supervision of quality manager is necessary to manage all QC activities and issues.
(iii) It is required to approve the separate budget for quality assurance. It is the responsibility of regulatory authorities to play significant role for the implementation of standard methods.
(iv) It is need to establish the advanced testing labs and the contractors should be forced to use only recommended labs.
(v) Health and safety training program must be organized to ensure the safety of workers. Also, it is need to hire the safety engineer on construction site like other engineering sectors.
Innovative and recent quality management standards are supportive for QA. (ix) In future studies it is also need to consider the already implemented QC systems and approaches adopted in developing countries for the selection of suitable model.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors are thankful to the Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab, Government of Punjab, Pakistan, for providing necessary facilities to complete this study.