Abstract
The continued project delays, cost overruns, poor quality, scarce resources and scope creep, combined with a dismal inability to reach set delivery targets are a major contributing factor locally and globally in terms of the successful delivery of any project, it does not matter how small, big or complex. Poor performance by the architectural, engineering and construction industry is characterised by lack of collaboration within project teams and across different functional areas, poor management of projects and below-par specialist technical skills. This has been observed around the world in recent times, particularly on Capex projects. Project failure worldwide is currently at 60% in terms of meeting costs and quality or schedule targets (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Project and Communications,2015). Management best practices in operations management should, therefore, be adopted and implemented by companies, i.e. Total quality management (TQM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) (Heizer and Render, 2004). These methods can assist organizations to identify changes in the dynamic setting and how to be proactive by continuously improving operational tasks in order to obtain the best efficiency (Chase, Richard, Nicholas, Aquilano and Jacobs, 2005). The aim of this study is to determine the application of TQM on the Branch Project delivery in a South African Bank. This will assist decision-makers in the South African bank sector to manage the issues surrounding branch project delivery. This in return will improve the performance of the banking sector. Furthermore, the study will assist in determining the existence of TQM principles within the Branch Project delivery life Cycle. It will simultaneously identify critical factors preventing implementation of TQM in-branch project delivery and help determine TQM Tools and Techniques necessary to improve such delivery. The techniques used to gather the data, including semi-structured interviews and a well-structured questionnaire which were distributed to the study participants (respondents) by the researcher. In order to explore thoroughly, a literature search, face to face interviewing of experts in TQM and Project delivery was conducted and in-depth individual and focus group interviews were done. The additional use of factor analysis and its application addressed the gaps identified in the critical assessment of literature...
M.Tech. (Operations Management)