An assessment of critical success factors for the reduction of the cost of poor quality from construction projects in South Africa

The cost of poor quality (COPQ) in the construction industry are cost associated with the prevention, discovery, and resolving of defects. These are caused due to failure in preventing defects and wastages during construction work. They arise whether the product is at design stages, manufacturing plants, or in the customer's hand. The main purpose of this research is to identify the critical success factors (CSF) which have the potentials to reduce the COPQ during planning and execution stages of construction projects in South Africa. This study is descriptively designed to obtain the views of construction professionals in regard to the CSF for the reduction of the COPQ in construction projects. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 60 construction professional to identify the CSF for the reduction of the COPQ in construction projects. This study identified 10 CSF for the reduction of COPQ in construction projects from a list of 41 different CSF classified under five themes. The ten most important CSF were: defining quality objectives (standards and specifications); providing effective leadership; defining quality control mechanism; team development and deploying skilled work force; team work; providing effective leadership; fulfilling health and safety requirements; measuring performance of activities on critical path; improving the productivity of resources and initiating accountability process. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on the subject of the CSF for the reduction of COPQ in construction project in South Africa.