Assessment of Project Quality management Practices: the Case of Oromia Engineering Corporation (ECO)

Abstract

In today's extremely difficult and competitive engineering market, project quality management is crucial for a construction company to survive and achieve or exceed stakeholder needs. Many journals and Ethiopian media reveal that quality issue is the major constraints in many construction projects. No study investigated the project quality management of The case of oromia Engineering corporation (ECO). The purpose of this research is therefore to describe the project quality management practice in The case of oromia Engineering Corporation to identify potential gaps and offer suggestions to fill those gaps. The is a descriptive study involving 300 randomly selected employees of ECO using both primary and secondary sources of data, Questionnaires are used as a tool for primary data collection structured to address the three aspects of project quality management namely: quality planning, quality control and quality assurance. Secondary sources of data were obtained from relevant literature that covered thesis related to the case study. The finding shows that the management of The case of oromia Engineering corporation (ECO) is committed towards implementation of projects quality management. But it is revealed that the management is more committed to project quality planning processes than assurance and control. Furthermore, as per the analysis there is better communication of project quality information within the project team than between sections and with customers. Finally, it was found out that employees are trained but their involvement in project quality programs was not evident. Based on the findings the researcher recommends that organizations who are implementing project quality management to give equal emphasis to participation of top management to project quality planning, project quality assurance and quality control. Top management needs to ensure that employees at all levels of the organization are aware of project quality management and their contribution to it. The researcher also recommends that top management develop communication systems that allow free flow of quality information at all levels in the organization and between the organization and customers. Allow free flow of quality information at all levels in the organization and between the organization and customers.