AS 2012 Volume 19 Issue 1
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Browsing AS 2012 Volume 19 Issue 1 by Author "Emuze, Fidelis"
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Item Open Access Perceptions of the quality of low-income houses in South Africa: defects and their causes(University of the Free State, 2012) Zunguzane, Nyameka; Smallwood, John; Emuze, FidelisEnglish: A number of low-income houses recently built in South Africa are reportedly defective. The sheer number of low-income houses that failed to conform to quality expectations, especially in certain provinces, has become a source of concern for the national Department of Human Settlements (DHS) and other construction industry stakeholders. This article assesses issues related to non-conformance to quality requirements in low-income houses from the perspective of both owners and contractors. A quantitative survey was conducted among housing beneficiaries in a post-1994 township in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. The initial findings were further complemented with the perceptions of contractors registered with the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC). Selected findings suggest that the principal causes of defects in low-income houses is perceived to be related to the use of emerging contractors who are presumably not experienced enough, and to the use of unskilled labour by the contractors. By implication, the respondents were of the opinion that poor workmanship could be the primary cause of defects in low-income houses. It can, therefore, be argued that, apart from adequate monitoring and inspection of projects, stakeholders in the form of emerging contractors and their labour should endeavour to improve their competencies pertaining to quality.Item Open Access Qualitative content analysis from the lean construction perspective: a focus on supply chain management(University of the Free State, 2012) Emuze, FidelisEnglish: The performance of projects in terms of targeted objectives has always been a very contentious issue in the construction industry. The constant issue at stake is the inability of projects to satisfactorily meet agreed delivery targets. In order to address this quagmire, performance improvement tools such as supply chain management (SCM) were introduced into the industry. The central theme of this discourse is thus concerned with the need to promote performance improvement in construction through the exploitation of the concepts inherent in SCM from the perspectives of lean construction researchers as documented in the annual International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) conferences. The methodological approach adopted for the discourse is qualitative in nature as recent SCM literatures available on the IGLC web portal were subjected to a qualitative content analysis. The research outcomes, which have implications for South African construction, attempt to offer solutions to the mirage of performance-related project management and/or supply chain problems, especially in terms of improving ‘how organisations working together’ overcome complexities and deliver value to stakeholders.