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White Papers
Construction Quality Assurance
February, 2005
Jon Harrison, CQE Senior Quality Engineer
White Paper Overview
The construction industry has been struggling with quality issues for many
years, and the cost to our economy is dramatic. The cost could potentially be
reduced significantly if the industry were to embrace the concept of quality
assurance that has been used with great success by many other sectors of the
economy.
Various case studies and initiatives have succeeded in successfully
introducing quality assurance to the construction industry on a small scale,
but as a whole, it has mostly been ignored by the industry. The construction
industry is unique, and therefore, the application of quality assurance
requires an approach that meets the needs of the industry.
Building owners also need to be educated as to what is quality assurance so
that they can begin using their voice to encourage adaptation of this
approach to protect their investments and reduce the cost of construction.
Construction Quality Assurance Pilot Program
In 2003, a pilot program was initiated with a large pharmaceutical and
biotechnology company to assess the current state of quality assurance in the
construction industry. The concept was developed, in large part, to address
the many cost overruns, project delays, and other cost of quality issues that
have become the norm on recent projects. The pilot program assessed 21
construction companies that were to bid on a major new biotechnology
facility.
We started out the program, asking the following questions:
Are we using contractors who do not have a quality program? For those that do, what is the current state of their quality programs?
How do the quality programs compare to industry standards?
Are their quality programs effective?
What can we do to assist contractors in improving their quality
programs?
What will be our expectations for contractors in the future?
THE RESULTS AND DATA FROM THE PILOT PROGRAM
REVEALED THE FOLLOWING:
Approximately 50% of the contractors did not have Quality Manuals.
Many contractors did not know what a Quality Manual was and
confused it with a Safety Manual, Operations Manual, or an
insurance investigation.
In general, construction contractors did not know what was expected
in a quality program.
Some quality plans and/or quality manuals were merely window
dressing and were not implemented at all.
“Cost of Quality” In Construction
The need for construction quality assurance is easy to demonstrate due to the
high cost of quality related issues in the industry. Those who are familiar
with the construction industry are most likely already aware of this. For
those who are not, think back over the last several months at lawsuits,
project delays, finger pointing, lost time, and other cost of quality issues in
newspapers and industry journals on a routine basis. More information is
provided in a separate white paper.
What Is Quality Assurance?
Quality assurance is about being “in control” of all major areas of your
business (“key processes”) so that you can assure quality. Being “in control”
also reduces variation, which improves quality. “Control” and “variation
reduction” is accomplished using various methods.
Numerical Data:
Control and variation reduction is established by statistically evaluating the
process capability and then controlling the process via process control charts
using SPC (statistical process control).
Non-Numerical Data:
Control and variation is also reduced by instituting systematic methods (i.e.
quality procedures). This is also referred to as “systematizing”,
“standardizing”, or “proceduralizing” your key business processes.
Quality
Procedures
However, systematic methods (quality procedures) have little value if
they are not properly managed by a quality system that includes:
Document Control: To ensure employees have the correct procedures
and the procedures are properly maintained.
Audits: To verify quality procedures are being followed.
Non-conformance Tracking: To monitor and track quality issues to
ensure that defects are kept from your customer.
CAPA (corrective action and preventative action): To correct flawed
processes (i.e. quality procedures) when detected via audits and non-
conformance tracking to prevent defects from reoccurring.
Management Review: Reviewing quality system data (performance)
(quality metrics) to determine if the quality system is working and if
it is not, taking the appropriate action to improve the system.
c. Deming Cycle
Quality assurance is oftentimes explained by the “Plan, Do, Check, Act”
(PDCA) Cycle seen below
Do I Have A Quality Assurance Program?
Oftentimes the phrase “quality assurance” is mis-used and mis-understood.
To avoid any confusion, the following table can be utilized as a tool to
assess if you have a quality assurance program.
Construction Industry Needs
The construction industry has unique requirements for developing a quality
assurance programs. This assessment has been validated by an exhaustive
study conducted by the European Union (EU) Construction Quality
Assurance Commission. To be effective, a quality assurance program
designed for construction must be streamlined, user-friendly, not overly-
burdensome, and geared for the intended audience. In addition, it must strike
the right balance between added cost and added value.
Unfortunately, the only quality assurance “standard” that is currently
available to the construction industry is the “ISO 9000” quality system,
which is well known due to high levels of publicity. This standard has for
the most part been completely ignored by the construction industry in the
U.S. as only 42 construction companies are certified. The reason for this is
not difficult to understand as demonstrated in the following table:
Construction Contractor Quality System Audit
Checklist
Due to the lack of a basic construction quality assurance program for the
construction industry, a construction contractor, quality system audit
checklist was developed to assess a construction contractor’s quality system.
The checklist was developed utilizing the following steps:
1) Using the ISO 9000: 1994 standard as a guide.
2) Stripping those elements from the standard that are not essential to
construction.
3) Adding quality elements that are unique to construction.
FOR BUILDING OWNERS:
The Construction Contractor Quality System Audit Checklist can be utilized
by building owners to compare the strength of a contractor’s quality
program relative to another company that is submitting bids on a new
project. The checklist can also be utilized to evaluate the quality system of
construction contractors and companies that are already being utilized.
FOR CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES:
The Construction Contractor Quality System Audit Checklist can be used by
construction contractors to assess the strength of their current quality
system.
Implementation:
The Construction Contractor Quality System Audit Checklist has already
been utilized to evaluate the strength of construction contractor quality
systems and in fact, was utilized, and played a key role in, the awarding of a
$100 million contract at a pharmaceutical company. Example results are
shown below.
Construction Quality Assurance Jobsite Audits
In general, building owners have not realized the importance of jobsite
quality audits. Audits are essential in order to keep you from “flying blind”.
Audits also protect both parties. Due to the need for construction quality
assurance jobsite audits, an appropriate checklist, including quality metrics,
was developed.
Construction Quality Assurance Job Specific
Quality Plans (JSQP)
The most critical element of all is to ensure that job specific quality plans
(JSQP) are developed for each job to ensure that quality is being managed.
To ensure that quality plans are written CORRECTLY and to assist in
mistake-proofing the process, a JSQP template was developed.
Corporate Construction Quality Assurance
Program
Due to a lack of a standard quality assurance program that meets the needs
of the construction industry, a back-to-basics and streamlined construction
quality assurance program was developed. The goal was to develop a system
that captured the essence of quality assurance, including:
Assuring quality
Adding value.
Utilizing a risk-based approach (to minimize the cost of a quality
system)
Reducing the cost of quality (and increasing profit).
Providing the tools required to successfully:
o Get the job done right the first time.
o To find & correct defects before your customer finds them.
o revent defects from re-occurring.
Note: THIS more than anything is really what a quality assurance
program is all about.
a. Quality Assurance Manual
Quality Assurance Manuals are NOT used to perform a job activity, and
therefore it is unnecessary and unproductive to spend an excessive amount
of time on this document. It should merely state your companies overall
vision with a quality policy, describe the major areas of your business (“key
processes”) that will be controlled systematically via quality procedures, and
be signed-off by senior management.
Quality Manuals in general are designed to “say what you do” and then “do
what you say”, which means, if you don’t do it, don’t say it! Quality
Manuals are not sales brochures!
b. Quality Procedures
Quality procedures were written to define each key process using a risk-
based approachto minimize complexity. To further add value and to make
the system user-friendly, a “Key Concepts” section was added to the
beginning of each procedure to explain why the procedure was necessary to
assure quality, manage risk, and enable the ability to keep defects from your
customer.
c. Quality Checklists and Forms
Quality checklists and forms were developed. Each was developed with
mistake-proofing techniques in order to allow a construction company to
begin building quality into the process. Using these techniques will allow
you to provide a better quality product to your customer and be a more
profitable company at the same time.
Overcoming Obstacles
Implementing a construction quality assurance program is not always easy.
There can be many obstacles along the way, but being aware of some of
them ahead of time can make you better prepared to overcome them. Here
are a few:
Changing the company culture to learn how to work
systematically.
Gaining executive buy-in and commitment.
Overcoming the “let’s just get it built” mentality.
Overcoming “60’s style construction” mentality, where “it’s
only wrong if we get caught”.
Getting everyone in the company involved (quality is
everyone’s responsibility)
Training project managers how to manage quality.
Getting building owners to recognize the criticality of quality
in addition to safety and lowest bid.
Achieving more accountability in the management of
government contracts.
HOW CAN CONSTRUCTION QUALITY
ASSURANCE HELP ME?
Fact: Quality assurance and quality tools add value wherever they are
applied! The key to unlocking this value is to determine what level of
investment is needed in quality assurance for your business.
BUILDING OWNERS:
Building owners can utilize construction quality assurance to assess the
capabilities of the construction companies with whom they conduct business
by ensuring that a quality system audit is conducted by a qualified quality
assurance professional (if the person is not qualified, the value of the audit
will most likely be significantly diminished).
Building owners should also ensure that jobsite quality audits are
periodically conducted to ensure that quality is indeed being managed and
that unnecessary risk is not accumulated that could jeopardize the project
delivery.
CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTORS:
Construction contractors can utilize quality assurance in many ways,
including:
Standardizing best practices to maximize productivity.
“Systematizing” work methods to ensure that the job is “done
right the first time”.
Managing quality to assure quality and to keep defects from
customers.
To reduce the cost of quality to increase profits.
To protect the business from liability risk.
To become a smarter company.
Six Sigma & Quality Assurance
Six Sigma is a popular program that has received much attention, but it
should not be confused with quality assurance. Six Sigma is essentially basic
quality engineering (applied statistical methods) that has been simplified and
re-packaged to gain broader acceptance. It involves process mapping,
statistical analysis of data, and so on in order to improve and/or correct
flawed processes. Control charts are then used from that point on (when
needed) to monitor the process and to sustain the gains.
Bechtel Engineering has published several articles about how Six Sigma
helped them. One example went like this: “Black belts undergo five
months of training … a team … studied the process for testing 49 waste
tanks for corrosion … based on statistical analysis of the data … the
process was revised to reduce unnecessary testing … saving millions
$$$.” (Note: “Five months of training” does sound like an excessive amount
of time to learn process mapping and basic statistical methods.)
This sounds good, and it is good, however, if you have a strong quality
assurance program, you should already be “mapping out” your key
processes to gain better understanding & control, and should already be
collecting & analyzing data from your quality system (quality metrics)
(statistical analysis) to improve and/or fix flawed processes, and should
already be controlling them via the quality assurance program in general
(quality procedures, document control, training, quality metrics, internal
audits, management review) and/or specifically with control charts (where
needed). Admittedly, “Six Sigma” does have a better “ring” to it.
Do I Need A Quality Consultant?
Quality assurance in and of itself is not that difficult, particularly for a
company which may have a staff of civil engineers and/or certified project
managers. Nevertheless, there is much more to quality than most people ever
realize.
The fact is, canned; right-off-the-shelf, just-add-water-and-stir, or
downloaded-off-the-internet quality systems just don’t work.
Quality assurance is a thought process as much as it is a system, which must
be learned. Quality assurance is about control, applied systematic methods,
assuring quality, applied due-diligence, risk management, keeping defects
from your customer, mistake-proofing, continuous improvement, and so on.
Therefore, it is a worthwhile investment to periodically utilize a qualified
quality professional to impart the knowledge and to assist the company in
developing and maintaining the quality system and “quality toolbox”. Stick
to the basics that add value, because the essential elements of quality
assurance and quality tools have been known for several decades, and they
are not going to change anytime soon. The result will be a much smarter
company
Summary
The value of quality assurance and quality tools has been demonstrated for
many years. The construction industry could clearly benefit from mastering
these skills. By utilizing quality assurance and quality tools in the correct
proportion these benefits can be realized with significant return on
investment for all parties.
To learn more about how construction quality assurance can benefit you,
please contact Performance Validation, LLC.
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References
The European Way to Excellence in Construction. Final report (August 1999)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/construction/quality/quafi1.htm