UPGRADING QUALITY OF HOUSING CONSTRUCTION IN CHINA CONTRACTORS' VIS-A-VIS SUPERVISORS' VIEWS

摘要

Contractors' and project supervisors' views and observations on the factors that influence quality of housing construction in China are obtained by means of a structured questionnaire, which are ranked by a relative importance index. The consistency of the factors ranked by the two groups is analyzed. 'Commitment and conscientiousness to quality of the project manager' and 'quality of material and components' are ranked consensually the two most important factors out of the thirty-four factors influencing construction quality. 'Type of project' and 'labour turnover' are tallied the least important. The last factor is obviously affected by the low labour mobility under the Chinese planned economy. In addition, the relative difficulty of the ISO 9000 clauses are compared and studied. It shows that 'management responsibility' and 'process control' are difficult to adhere to. The clauses 'control of customer supplied product' and 'handling, storage, packaging, preservation & delivery' show rather small relative difficulty indices. This reflects that the two clauses may not be that suitable for the construction industry in China.