Abstract
Quality principles and supplier selection play an important role in projects especially where the customer is planning to outsource the work to an external organisation. The application of quality principles will help ensure that work that is going to be carried out is planned well in advance and the necessary measures are put in place to ensure that it is carried out as required.
Supplier selection is a process where potential suppliers and contractors are invited to submit their information in order to be considered for work that the customer has. With the invitation, requirements will be attached and they need to show that they are capable of turning those requirements to actual output. The customer will have pre-defined criteria that will be used for evaluations and the best capable supplier or contractor will then be selected to execute the job.
It has been realised that as much as quality principles are defined and the supplier selection process is adopted on projects, failure can still be experienced. This research looked at two industry cases in the construction of electricity networks. One project was for the construction of four 132kV lines and the other project focused on the relocation of lines which were in the way of some township development.
The study adopted a questionnaire as a data collection tool, which was sent to the team members of both projects to complete. The results show that much as the customer was the same organisation with projects in different locations, there were slight differences in the way the projects were handled. From both projects, team members were aware of the level of quality required, requirements were put in place and the evaluation criteria used for the selection of contractors were utilised.
The differences that led to project ABC failing and project XYZ being a success, were in the implementation of contract quality plans that were agreed upon before work commenced and in the performance monitoring as work was being executed. Project ABC failed due to lack of experience in enforcing what was agreed upon and not monitoring performance as stated within inspection and test plans.
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)