Obstacles in Implementing Quality Management System in Construction sector

Quality management system (QMS) in the construction industry is conducted  to achieve the required levels of quality for clients. The goals of these quality levels can lead to  better customer satisfaction, which is essential in competitiveness for construction companies. However, the construction sector is still lack of QMS implementation due to the lack of understanding of the benefits of these systems among stakeholders, as well as obstacles to implementing QMS.  Therefore, there is a need to examine the implementation of QMS in construction sector in local region context.  Interviews and questionnaire survey were conducted to seek the critical factors influencing the implementation of QMS.  In the next stage of data collection, a Delphi questionnaire survey conducted to obtain consensus among top level management in construction sector stakeholders.  The consensus was adopted to  investigate the prime obstacles facing the implementation of QMS. Subsequently, case studies was undertaken to validate the real effects of these obstacles on QMS adoption.  This also evaluates the obstacles in terms of their impact on implementation success within the selected case studies. Using result from analyzing the data obtained from these various methods, several obstacles are identified in implementing QMS. The obstacles identified are placed into seven key categories namely managerial, organizational, communication, financial, cultural, educational, and auditing.