Investigating the factors affecting the quality of sandcrete blocks on the market.

Abstract

According to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), the quality of materials in the construction industry continue to be under much scrutiny due to the collapse of buildings. Among the different materials tested for quality at the different material laboratories are sandcrete blocks. A challenge remains with non-complaint manufacturers who do not carry out simple quality control checks on the blocks they produce so as to meet the necessary required standards and in so doing compromise their quality. Users and known standards contribute largely to the quality of blocks. All these were put into consideration to draw conclusions for this research project. The study aimed at determining the factors affecting the quality of sandcrete blocks on the market. This was to be done by assessing the user preferences, investigating the effectiveness of simple quality control techniques and determining the factors controlling quality at the production point. The results showed that users have a contribution to quality as they normally have a predetermined idea of what they are looking for. The weight of a block was also related to the factors of input to ascertain overall quality of the block. Practical Implications of this study was that in order for quality to be achieved, all the key attributes that play a role must be aligning to each other, that is: users, factors of production and quality control techniques. Lack of access to all the information from different suppliers affected the study in that some of the investigated blocks did not meet the set standards but the reasons were due to production point factors. These specific factors were not explained due to inadequate information which would have affected the accuracy of the study. Answering the question of how to determine the lowest possible cost of attaining desired quality was also affected due to inadequate information. The results contribute to improving standards that the blocks on the market must adhere to as well an eye opener to users on what to look out for as they purchase these blocks.