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Alshehri, A R (2016) Quality management system for building maintenance, Unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot-Watt University.

  • Type: Thesis
  • Keywords: communication; focus group; interview; maintenance; quality management; roles; Saudi Arabia; total quality management
  • ISBN/ISSN:
  • URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10399/3092
  • Abstract:
    Quality management (QM) is viewed as concepts, principles, or practices within which prescriptive views and empirical facts play roles in constructing and operating the industry to improve the performance. The growth of Building Maintenance (BM) as a proportion of the construction industry’s output has led to increasing awareness of the need to manage buildings effectively. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the cost of construction projects in Riyadh City 2014 is around SR 181 billion, and that figure does include the operation and maintenance projects that cost SR 10 billion in 2014. However, this segment of the industry faces several challenges in the Kingdom. This work draws on five Quality Management Concepts (QMCs) (Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean Management, Lean Six Sigma, and ISO 9001) to underpin the research principles, methodology, and implementation. From this research, The primary aim of this research is to investigate the Quality Management System (QMS) required to improve Saudi public Building Maintenance (BM) practices through the implementation of the most suitable and effective Quality Management Concepts (QMCs). The nature of BM is examined in detail in the literature review, to ensure the subsequent collection of appropriate knowledge and information from the empirical interviews and focus group discussions. The first qualitative exercise relates to interviews conducted to collect information to examine the current BM processes in public departments, with a view to ascertaining underlying problems and assess awareness and implementation of QMCs. This was followed by a second qualitative technique, the focus group, intended to explore the most suitable and effective QMCs for implementation in BM departments. After that, the QMS was developed and then validated by focus group method a second time. In this study, thematic analysis is used for both qualitative methods. The most significant problems facing the public BM sector were identified and then categorised into three major groups: (1) top management problems, (2) human resource problems, and (3) technical problems. The main results of the study emphasise that ISO 9001 is the most suitable foundation for quality management of BM and it is found to be an effective baseline on which the BM process can be improved. It was established that there should be specific guidelines for QM in BM (quality management system) which have been developed in this research. The QMS is customised to provide the information required to improve current practices in BM industry. It was confirmed by the evaluation and validation that the developed quality management system can generate positive outcomes, lead to better management, clear responsibilities and improve communication.