Material Management System of Government Building Construction Projects in Kathmandu Valley

Material management is an essential element in construction projects. Improper material management systems lead to adverse impact on time, cost and quality of the construction projects. Most of the construction projects have not been completed on time, partly due to the poor material management system. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess status of material management system (MMS) of building construction projects. Sixteen government building construction projects were selected in Kathmandu Valley for determining existing practices of MMS. Questionnaires survey, field visit and key informant interviews (KII) were used to collect the primary data and related literatures and documents available at site were reviewed for collecting secondary data. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were used as data collecting tools. MS Excel tool was used to analyse the data. From the study, it is found that manual record keeping system was used for MMS. About 71.43 % of projects did not use automatic loading/ unloading system and did not give priority to the quality of materials for MMS. Nearly 75 % of projects have implemented well managed store house in site as per material type and also focused on centralized storing system. None of the projects used any new technology of MMS in Building Construction Projects. It leads to the cost overrun on Building Construction Projects.