Improving quality of delivery of public construction projects in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In construction industry, quality of construction projects on delivery is essential for the companies seeking competitive advantage. In Saudi Arabia, different factors affect the quality of delivery of public construction projects. These factors are of major concern for the government and for the construction professionals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate these parameters in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, opinions of 50 Saudi construction professionals are collected using questionnaire. The research sample includes participants of different ages, jobs, education and experience.
The results show that the companies of 60% of the sample adopt clear definition of quality. This finding was reported by 88% of the older participants. Similar opinions were reported by 70% of consultants, 65% of contractors and 52% of site engineers. Same finding was reported by 71% of high school, 67% of high education and 55% of university educated participants along with 80% of the experience participants. The results show significant relationship between age, and education level, and the adoption of clear quality definition. The results also show that 52% of participants’ companies have quality development plans. In addition, 29 participants (58%) reported that top management in their companies support quality development plans.
The results also show that the most important main factor affecting the quality of construction projects on delivery is the labour followed by site staff. Meanwhile, the lowest important main factors are the project, design of the project, and materials. Insignificant difference between age and the importance of these factors is found with significant relationships with job, education and experience were established. The most important sub-factors related to the project is the project location, related to materials is the relations with material suppliers, related to labour is the use of experienced labours, and related to sub-contractors is the evaluation of sub-contractors performance.
Based on the results, recommendations are proposed. These include improvement of the tender prices to encourage contractors to hire skilled labour and to improve the harmonisation between the main contractors and the sub-contractors. It is also include collection of data from other cities for wider understanding of the quality issues.