MULTIVARIATE APPROACH TO BENCH MARKING QUALITY PREDICTION PARAMETERS IN BUILDING MAINTENANCE WORKS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Quality system formulating and compliance enforcement at all facets of works in construction industry have been areas with increased attention worldwide, over the decades. This has resulted in the awareness about finished products quality assurance in the construction industry, the kind that provides clients’ satisfaction and value on money invested (Chan & Tan, 2009; Roston and Amer 2006). Quality issues often arise from clients’ needs and specification, these often formed the basis of supervision as work progresses on construction sites (Lings, 2005; Bamisile, 2004). Likewise, clause on compliance with specified quality standard is often stated in building projects’ contract documents, commencing from brief stage to project commission stage, which has in no way different from other sectors of the economy. This fact has therefore turned formulating quality policy statement to a global best practice. However, certain school of thought believes quality to be work-state dependent, that quality can be described as conformity with specified instructions as project progresses.
Bamisile (2004) and Oakland (1984) submitted that quality is fulfillment of specified requirements. Another school of thought viewed quality from fitness for purpose point of view, that quality can be termed item of work that is rightly formed to perform intended purpose (Chan & Tam, 2000). Similarly, in another submission, quality can be seen from the perspective of agreement between goal, clients and builder (Fan 1999; Abdel-Rasek et al; 2001). However, non-alignment with the goals in facilities maintenance that formed the direction through which various plans and strategy should be driven could be linked to various failures often recorded in building maintenance sector. Huge monetary resource goes into maintenance annually without lasting solution proffered, which is often revealed through reworks. This trend however could be attributed to absence of standard procedure to be followed in facility maintenance. To this end this study is set at developing a model for parameter that should be follow to ensure quality maintenance work in Nigeria. There are institutions responsible for enforcement of standard and procedure, such as Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), British Standard Institutions (BSI) in Great Britain including International Organization for Standardization ISO. BSI in 1979 issued BS 5750 ‘Quality system’ ISO rolled out, ISO 9000 in 1987, all these are quality documents. Oladokun and Adegbenjo (2008) submitted that standard Organization of Nigeria officially adopted ISO 9000 for quality management in Nigeria, and since then widely publicized training workshop had been staged in an attempt to create awareness.