Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Quality Assurance Program
Quality Assurance Program
White Paper
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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.
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Crawling
Walking
Running
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.
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Start Here
If No was answered to any of the above questions, you do not have an effective quality assurance program.
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Example #2
Example #3
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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 lets just get it built mentality. Overcoming 60s style construction mentality, where its only wrong if we get caught. Getting everyone in the company involved (quality is everyones 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.
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Six Sigma!
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.
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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. or logon to our website at www.perfval.com.
References
The European Way to Excellence in Construction. Final report (August 1999) http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/construction/quality/quafi1.htm Construction Quality Assurance http://www.toolbase.org/secondaryT.asp?TrackID=&CategoryID=679
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