The objective of this paper is to report an investigation on how construction contractors in Hong Kong establish and run their quality management systems, both at their head offices and on their project sites. Eleven main contractors who had been actively participating in local construction were selected for case studies based on the intention of covering a wide spectrum of construction works. Completion of questionnaires and interviews were arranged for the head office quality management departments and the project site quality management teams of these eleven contractors. The results of the case studies are presented in this paper. Based on the analysis of these case studies, three recommendations have been made: (1) incentive schemes should be devised by clients to pay contractors who have genuine intention to pursue quality and a separate measurement for quality management in the Bill of Quantities should be considered, (2) QMS should be implemented with correct concept and attitude and quality education/training is essential and should commence as early as possible, and (3) the tradition of pursuing lowest cost at the expense of quality has to be changed and the "lowest bid will win" concept has to be seriously reviewed by clients.
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