2018

Abstract
Construction industry is one of the most booming industries in the whole world. Building
is one typical area of construction industry and consists of an assembly of materials and
components, joined together in such a way as to allow the building to fulfill its primary
purpose.
Concrete is one of the most commonly used construction materials in building
construction. It is a mixture of cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water, combined
together in the correct proportions to give a strong, dense, homogeneous material. When
we are dealing with concrete for building project works, especially by contract, the need
for a Quality Management System (QMS) is consequential. QMS embodies, in the
appropriate organization, specification development, process control, product acceptance,
training, communications, and laboratory and technician certification.
Our thesis is designed to solve the problems that can arise when the product is in test
design stages, manufacturing materials, or in customer’s hand. It should be reminded that
all professionals and firms involved in the building construction industry have to give
special emphasis to quality control. Factors that bring variations on concrete quality are
quality of ingredients, variation in concrete production processes and quality of work man
ship and these bring quality problems such as low strength, poor appearance of completed
concrete sections, poor ingredient material, poor concrete casting etc.
Quality management is a method of scheming to transform qualitative user demands into
quantitative parameters, to organize the functions forming quality, and to organize
methods for achieving the design quality into subsystems and component parts, and
ultimately to specific elements of the built-up process. But there is no proper management
system that fit the required standards of concrete quality.
Therefore, the aim of the research focuses to identify this concrete quality management
and its assurance system related to quality implementation problems on building
construction projects in Dilla town (Dilla University Odaeya campus, Dilla municipality and
Ato Mesfine G+1 residential building). The research study would be carried out using the
construction document reviews, questionnaire surveys, interviews and construction site
observations. Then using analysis, the quality concrete problem will be identified and the
respective remedial measures will be suggested.
Keywords: concrete; quality; ingredients; Quality management system; building projects

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Table of Contents
Abstract...................................................................................................................................i
List of Table.........................................................................................................................iii
List of figure.........................................................................................................................iv
Acronyms...............................................................................................................................v
CHAPTER ONE.............................................................................................................1
1. Introductions...............................................................................................................1
1.1. Background..............................................................................................................2
1.2. Statement of the Problem........................................................................................3
1.3 Objective of the Research.....................................................................................4
1.3.1 Overall Objective...................................................................................................4
1.3.2 Specific Objectives..............................................................................................4
1.4 Research questions or hypothesis.............................................................................4
1.5 Significance of the Study.......................................................................................5
1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study.........................................................................5
CHAPTER TWO............................................................................................................6
2. Literature review........................................................................................................6
2.1 Definition of Concrete..................................................................................................6
2.2 Definition of Quality................................................................................................6
2.3 Quality Management................................................................................................6
2.3.2. Quality Assurance (QA).......................................................................................7
2.3.3. Quality Control (QC)............................................................................................7
2.4. Quality of Concrete.................................................................................................8
2.5. Responsibilities for Quality.....................................................................................8
CHAPTER THREE........................................................................................................9
3. Research design and methodology.............................................................................9
3.1. Research Design......................................................................................................9
3.2. Method of Analysis...............................................................................................10
3.3 Discussion and conclusion.....................................................................................10
3.4. Work plan (Time Schedule)..................................................................................11
3.5. Financial Requirement (Budgeted plan)................................................................12
REFERENCE.......................................................................................................................13

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List of Table

List of table Page No

Table 1……………………………………………………….11
Table 2……………………………………………………….12

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List of figure

List of figure Page No

Figure 1……………………………………..…….…………..1

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Acronyms

ACI ----------- American Concrete Institute

EBCS ----------- Ethiopian Building code of Standards
ES ----------- Ethiopian Standards
ESA ----------- Ethiopian Standards Agency
QMP ----------- Quality Management Plan
QMS ----------- Quality Management System
QC ----------- Quality Control
QA ----------- Quality Assurance
CQMP ----------- Concrete Quality Management Plan
SQC ----------- Statistical Quality Control
ASTM ----------- American Standard Test method
RQ ----------- Research Question
SNNPR ---------- Southern nations, nationalities, and peoples region
PDCA ---------- Planning, doing, controlling and acting

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CHAPTER ONE

1. Introductions
The study area is located in Dilla which is the administrative center of the Gedeo Zone in
the southern nations, nationalities, and peoples region (SNNPR), it is located on the main
road from Addis Abeba to Nairobi. The town has a longitude and latitude of 6°24′30′
′N 38°18′30′′E / 6.40833°N 38.30833°E, with an elevation of 1,570 m above sea level and
total population in 2012 is 79,892 it was a part of “Wonago wereda” and is currently
surrounded by “Dilla zuria woreda”.

The distance from Dilla to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa is approximately 356km. This
concrete related quality problems is limited with production process, materials and testing
in building construction projects in Dilla town ( Dilla University Oda aya campus, Dilla
municipality and private Ato Mesfine G+1 residential building).

Figure -1- Geographical map of Dilla

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1.1. Background
Concrete is a versatile and most popular construction material in the world. It is produced
by mixing fine and coarse aggregates, cement, water and additives in a certain prescribed
proportion (ASTM, 2002). It means, concrete is a stone like materials made up of inert
materials of varying sizes, which are bound together by a binding medium. The cement,
water, and air combine to form a paste that binds the aggregates together.
The word quality has become a very popular subject in recent years due to conceptual
changes in the construction industry. Concrete Quality in building construction projects
should also maintaining the quality of construction works at the required standard so as to
obtain customers satisfaction. There are plenty of factors affecting the quality of concrete
such as design, raw materials, machinery, production, technical measures, assessment
systems, and the like. Because of the fixed project location, large volume and different
location of different projects, the poor control of these factors may produce quality
problems with concrete.
The quality of concrete for building construction projects is based on the assumption of
certain properties of concrete such as workability, strength, but the actual strength of the
concrete produced, whether on site or in the laboratory, is a variable quantity (Neville and
Brooks, 1987). The sources of variability are; variations in mix ingredients, changes in
concrete making and placing process, poorly skilled workmen, unprofessional conduct by
team members, and also with respect to test results, the variations in the sampling
procedure and variations in the actual testing itself.
The word “control” represents a management tool with four basic steps, namely, setting
quality standards, checking conformance with the standards, Acting when the standards are
not met, and Assessing the need for changes in the standards. The concept of total quality
management is defined as the controls applied at each manufacturing stage to consistently
produce a quality product. In brief the objective of quality control is to provide the
customer with the best product at minimum cost. The purpose of quality control of
concrete is to measure and control the problem of those operations which affect the quality
or the uniformity of concrete: batching, mixing, placing, compaction, curing, and testing.
According to Falade (2000), a good quality concrete can be obtained by effectively
controlling both human and non-human factors. According to this source, human factor
refers to effective supervision and good workmanship while non-human factor refers to the
materials used in concrete production.

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Quality management and control in concrete building construction projects includes

the followings:
Properties of cement used in the concrete;
Properties of concrete the concrete mix designed for use in the building project;
Control of the aggregate and sand going into the concrete;
Effect and control of water additions;
mixing of concretes
Transport of concrete to the building site;
Slump of the concrete;
Pouring of the concrete; and
Vibration and compaction of the concrete
This research proposal is concerned with identifying concrete related Concrete quality
management and its assurance system problems in building construction projects in Dilla.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

In Ethiopia researches and studies have been conducted on construction materials
especially on concrete production, behaviour and on the behaviour of concrete constituent
materials and their sources as well as the standardization. However, no more research is
done in Dilla on the concrete related quality problem in building construction projects.
Various building construction projects have been undertaken in Dilla. These projects
consume large amount of resources and thus money. However, the quality of concrete in
building is generally not seen to be constructed as per the universally accepted quality
standards.
Statement of the problem is designed to respond the problems that can arise when the
product is in test design stages, manufacturing materials, or in customer’s hand. It should
be reminded that all professionals and firms involved in the building construction industry
have to give special emphasis to quality control. Factors that bring variations on concrete
quality are quality of ingredients, variation in concrete production processes and quality of
work man ship and these bring quality problems such as low strength, poor appearance of
completed concrete sections, poor ingredient material, poor concrete casting etc.
Therefore; identifying concrete quality management and its assurance system related
quality problems in building construction projects in Dilla and suggest solution in
improving the quality of concrete there by benefiting the users in; is the main target that
this thesis under taken.

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1.3 Objective of the Research

Study has its own general and specific objectives.

1.3.1 Overall Objective

The General objective of this research is to identify concrete quality management
and its assurance system related quality problems in building construction projects
in Dilla.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

1) To investigating practices of concrete quality testing in building projects and the
recommended scientific approaches stipulated on literatures and code of standards.
2) To collect the test result data from the site Engineer and to compare the selected
test result with the standard.
3) To give a reasonable recommendation on the assessment concrete related quality
problems in building construction projects for site Engineer.

1.4 Research questions or hypothesis

Hence, the gaps of understanding on the following questions are obvious and require
attention in the context of concrete quality in building construction industry in Dilla:
RQ1. How the quality of concrete is being practiced in building projects?
RQ2. What are the major sources and factors that affect quality in a building project?
RQ3. How can entertain building companies for QM, QC and QA and how to implement
quality concrete issues?
RQ4. What is the possible measurement to minimize quality problems in the industry?

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1.5 Significance of the Study

The outcome of this research will be of immense value to the success of Concrete quality
management and its assurance system in Building Construction of Dilla town, as well as a
contribution to the literature.

To identify concrete quality management and its assurance system related

quality implementation problems building construction projects in Dilla
Town.
In order to using analysis, the quality concrete problem will be identified
and the respective remedial measures will be suggested.
To make a reasonable recommendation on the assessment concrete related quality
problems in building construction projects.
This research expected to give benefits for designers, supervisors, construction
owners and researchers regarding to quality problems with concrete in building
construction projects.

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study area is located in Dilla which is the administrative center of the Gedeo Zone in
the southern nations, nationalities, and peoples region (SNNPR).In the following specific
projects:-

Dilla University Oda aya campus

Dilla municipality
Ato Mesfine G+1 residential building

Our research limitation factors are listed below:-

Workmanship skill problem

Remoteness of laboratory and unavailability of on time
Unwillingness of the professionals to help us
Insufficiency of necessary materials (like cement, sand, aggregate)
Unavailability of test equipments

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CHAPTER TWO

2. Literature review
As we know Construction industry is one of the most booming industries in the whole
world. Building is one typical area of construction industry and consists of an assembly of
materials and components, joined together in such a way as to allow the building to fulfill
its primary purpose.

2.1 Definition of Concrete

Concrete is a composite material composed of coarse granular material (the aggregate or
filler) embedded in hard matrix of material (the cement of binder) that fills the space
between the aggregate particles and glue them together (Harrison, UK, 2003).

2.2 Definition of Quality

According to Duncan, Thorpe and Sunmer (1990) Quality refers to standards and the ways
and means by which those standards are achieved, maintained and improved upon.
According to International Organization for Standardization (1994) quality is “the totality
of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to meet stated or implied needs.”

Zairi (1991) also defines quality control as “the use of techniques (mainly statistical) to
achieve, maintain and try to improve on quality standards of products and services.”
Requirements for quality design in concrete construction include conformance with
applicable codes, standards, guidance, regulations, laws, and statues referenced in the
specifications.

2.3 Quality Management

Quality management involves a continuous search for ways to prevent defects by “doing
the job right”. Quality management is concerned with preventing problems by creating the
attitudes and environment that make prevention possible. A critical quality management in
the project context helps to turn stakeholder needs, wants, and expectations into
requirements. Therefore the application of project management principles in concrete
production becomes mandatory since it is major part of any building construction projects

2.3.1 Quality Planning

Quality planning involves identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project
and determining how to satisfy them. It is usually one of the key processes when doing the
planning process and during development of the project management plan.

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2.3.2. Quality Assurance (QA)

Quality assurance (QA) is the application of planned, systematic quality activities to ensure
that the project will employ all processes needed to meet requirements.

2.3.3. Quality Control (QC)

Quality control in the production process is a major ingredient which involves checking
and reviewing work that has been done, inspection, testing and sampling to ensure good
product delivery.

Generally quality management system helps to provide a quality product that fits to its
purpose Hence it is crucial to use quality management processes in concrete construction
to obtain a good quality of concrete. Quality management shall be carefully planned in to a
quality management plan document and all stakeholders shall work in collaboration to
address the intended quality. It should be understood that quality management process is
not one time end process rather it should be carefully examined and revised based on the
actual problems and facts. It always needs the application of PDCA cycle (i.e. planning,
doing, controlling and acting). Therefore, through serious control of quality it is possible to
obtain the intended quality product.

According to EBCS 2, 1995, Tesfalem Kahsay (2014) has stated, “Quality control is
defined as an action and decisions taken to ensure the compliance of works with the
specification. It consists of two distinct, but interconnected parts, namely, production
control and compliance control.” Production control is a measure taken during production
to obtain a reasonable assurance that the specifications will be satisfied which compliance
control is a check which is made to ensure the compliance of the product with the
specification.

In the 1950s, researchers began to study quality issues, especially for the quality of
products, and a series of definitions, for example, quality is “the degree to which a set of
inherent characteristics fulfil the requirements” (General Administration of Quality
Supervision, 2008); “fitness for use” (Wang & Strong, 1996); “conformance to
requirements” (Crosby, 1988) were published. Later, with the rapid development of
information technology, research turned to the study of the concrete quality.

So, in the building construction industry, quality can be defined as meeting the
requirements of the designer, constructor, and regulatory agencies as well as the owner.

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2.4. Quality of Concrete

The quality of concrete can be defined in terms of the quality of raw materials, and
admixtures manufacturing process, tests and the performance of the constructed facility.
The design provisions and factors in the foreign codes are primarily based on the statistical
information, professional experience and construction practices in their regions of
application. These codes are regularly revised and updated as and when more information
becomes available regarding materials, design procedures, and construction practices.

Only a good concrete mix design is not sufficient in getting the intended concrete quality
product, rather the concrete placed in a structure must be of uniform quality, free of voids
and discontinuities, and adequately cured. Hence, the proper execution of the operations in
the production process, namely, batching, mixing, transportation, placing, compaction,
finishing and curing are important in attaining the desired quality.

Concrete may be the only construction material used in many parts of our country Due to a
number of factors. These factors may include the relatively lower cost of construction,
non-availability of other materials, and the strength and protection concrete structures are
expected to provide against natural disasters and extreme weather conditions.

2.5. Responsibilities for Quality

The client, design consultant, and contractor must work as a team to achieve the desired
quality in concrete building construction. The contractor must have a well-managed
program with adequate sampling and testing facilities, since the responsibility for quality
control rests with the contractor. Such a program must include tests on the concrete
constituent materials, fresh concrete and hardened concrete. The present codes provide a
clear-cut basis and provisions for the testing and acceptance of the materials to be used.

Generally, in the literatures, variables that related to the concrete quality problem in
building construction projects had been found out.

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CHAPTER THREE

3. Research design and methodology

3.1. Research Design

A comprehensive literature review is made to understand the previous efforts,
which include the review of textbooks, standards, academic journals, and research
papers. Test on compressive strength of concrete, slump test, and Silt test will be
taken to check concrete quality. Because the materials have a great factor to affect
the quality of concrete in building construction projects in Dilla. Collection and
testing of concrete test cubes from at least three sites to evaluate the strength of
produced concrete.
Case studies: This study will adopt in-depth semi-structured interviews which use
a combination of ‘open’ and ‘close-ended’ questions and will conduct with
representatives from building construction companies. The interview is a
predetermined set of questions with a flexible order depending on what the
interviewer perceives the subject matter by looking at the respondent capability and
exposure or experience.
Questionnaire Development: questionnaire will develop as a research tool for this
study. The questionnaire consists of a set of statements that examine current
concrete related quality problem practices in building construction companies and
identify the obstacles faced by those companies already certified.
Observation on site activities related with quality of concrete will made on
building projects.
Research Sample: population will consider in this study. The first population is
Contracting Companies. The second population is the Engineering Consulting
Offices and clients. The sources of the population and samples are planned from
local contractors and consultants. The sample will be selected using random
sampling method. Reliability of internal consistency is used to test the reliability of
the questionnaire. The sample will be selected using random sampling method.

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3.2. Method of Analysis

Analysis will be used description statistics method, show graphical and tabular analysis
and by using percentages. In this research both descriptive and inferential statistical
method will use for analysis of data collected from various sources.
A statistical approach provides the means to determine the actual properties of the
material. Normal distribution methods are used extensively and they provide mean values,
standard deviations, variance etc.

3.3 Discussion and conclusion

Discussion for the obtained results will be also made. Based on the outputs, conclusions
and recommendations will be provided and direction for further investigations will be
indicated.
Investigation is undertaken on randomly selected projects located in Dilla. The types of
constructions will be in existing universities and new constructions of office buildings and
others. When we generalise the research process it has the following steps:-
Topic selection and defining the problem to be studied
Literature review
Define factors
Questionnaire design
Conducted a pilot study
Sampling and data collection
1. Questionnaire
2. Interview
3. Direct observation
Preparing the data for analysis
Analyzing the data through statistical analysis
Discussion and interpretation
Conclusions and recommendation

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3.4. Work plan (Time Schedule)

Table -1 Time schedule

Mar-18 ----April--------------,2018 May -- 2018

Activities week week 2 week week Week Week Week Week4 Week Week 2 Week week
1 3 4 1 2 3 1 3 4

title selection
and approval

Literature
Review
Questionnaire
Preparation
Questionnaire
Distribution&
Collection

Data Analysis
testing
material,
discussion
and
interpretation

Paper
Complation

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3.5. Financial Requirement (Budgeted plan)

Table- 2 budgeted plan
No items unit quantity unit price total price REMARK
(birr) (birr)

1 Paper pack 2 80 160

2 Pen each 10 5 50

3 Pencil/fixer each 2 25 50

4 Lead each 2 5 10

5 Eraser pieces 2 3 6

6 Printing pages 150 1 150

7 Photo copy pages 100 0.5 50

8 Exercise book(70 each 1 30 30

sheet)

9 Transportation cost trips 8 30 240

10 Binder number 2 30 60

11 Per diem for data person*days 15 70 1550

collectors

12 internet use CDMA card 1 150 150

cost

13 CD/DVD each 2 15 30

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Total budget 2561

REFERENCE
1) Abebe Eshetu (2005) Concrete Production and Quality Control in Building Construction
industry of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa University press.
2) Abebe Dinku, (June 2002); Construction Materials Laboratory Manual, Addis Ababa
University press.made of locally available scoria and pumice aggregates, Journal of
3) EAEA, Vol. 18, 2001, pp. 1-10.Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete
(318-05) and Commentary (318R-05), American Concrete Institute (ACI), Farmington
Hills, MI. USA, 2002, 430 pp.
4) Mikias Abayneh, (June 1987) Construction Materials a Teaching Material Addis Ababa
University press.
5) Harrison, T, The new concrete standards – getting started: An Introductory Guide to
New Standards for Concrete BS EN 206-1 and BS 8500, The Concrete Society, Berkshire,
UK, 2003, 16 pp.
6) Nelson, A. H., Darwin, D. And Dolan, C. W., Design of Concrete Structures, 13th
Edition, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York, 2003, pp. 779.
7) Mahmood, K., Quality of Concrete Construction in Developing Countries (CIB 89),
Paris, Vol. II, 1989, pp. 131-138.
8) EBCS-2, (1995); Ethiopian Building Codes and Standards, Structural Use of Concrete.
9) CBM-CI International Workshop, Karachi, Pakistan Dr. K. Mahmood, 1989
10) ACI Committee 214. (1988). Simplified Version of the Recommended Practice for
Evaluation of Strength Test Results of ACI Committee 318. (2002).
11) Bungey, J. H. (1982).The testing of Concrete in Structures, Surrey University Press.
12) Neville, A. M., (1982).Properties of concrete, Pitman Books Limited.
13)George Earl Troxell, Harmer Davis & Joe W.Kelly, (1965); Composition and
Properties of Concretes, MC Graw Hill Book Company.
14) Annual books of ASTM standards, 2002, volume 04.02 and Volume 04.03.

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15) Alazhari M.S(2011) “Evaluation and acceptance criteria of compressive strength in

Libya.” Ashraf R.A Mohamed “Assessment of the current acceptance criteria for
concrete.”

Chapter Four
Findings and Results
4.1 Introduction
This chapter consists of the research findings and discussions. The findings here are based
on the analysis of collected fieldwork data for the Concrete quality management and its
Assurance System conducted on concrete production sites and responses from experts
through an organized interview questions.
A short description of general characteristics of the project and research respondents which
Participated in interview is presented at the beginning for clear understanding of these
findings and analysis. Following this, statistical analysis based on compressive strength
test result is done by the site Engineer and presented. Then, analysis of the data regarding
to the research interview questionnaires and observations done at the studied sites is
described. The analysis mainly deals with the current Concrete quality management and its
Assurance System practices in Dilla Town Building Construction projects and the Practice
to improve the current concrete quality to better level based on observations and
respondents opinion by comparing to the standards and scientific concrete production
practices.

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