Some general observations on Quality Assurance
A short history ISO Standards for Quality Assurance in Construction Management
During the Second World War it was found that some ordnance factories were blowing themselves up at an alarming rate. Of course, it difficult to prosecute a modern war without ordnance, so investigations were set in motion to try to discover the source of the problem. Was it sabotage or some unrelated cause? Anyway, the investigations concluded that because of the urgency to fill rushed orders some corners in the safety provisions had been cut. For example, detonators had been stored in the same area as the explosives. Or, loose gun-powder had been allowed to accumulate on floors and machinery leading to conflagrations. The investigators even found that some operatives were using hammers to fit recalcitrant shell fuses into tight orifices, with predictable results.
Another concern was the high number of duds appearing in the battle area. Especially with high value items, such as torpedoes, that cost a lot of money to develop, manufacture and deliver to the intended victim only to fail miserably at the critical moment.
So was born the modern Quality Control Inspector. Of course, the Inspector needed some way of measuring the quality of the process and so the modern Quality Controls & Procedures manuals first appeared. The impact of the QC was almost immediate as the quality of the products leaving the factories improved dramatically and the accidental loss of the built assets, due to fire and explosion, declined.
After the war, some manufacturers saw the advantage of using good quality assurance procedures and the benefits it could bring. Most notably was the Japanese car industry that went from a standing start to world domination in a few decades almost entirely due to them embracing the culture of quality assurance and good quality control in all their manufacturing plants.
It wasn’t long then before standards started to appear, both in Europe and the USA. Although some standards were operating since the beginning of the twentieth century, standardisation was fragmentary and uncoordinated. The first truly global standard was considered to be the one implemented by the BSI, or the British Standards Institute, in the far flung reaches of the old empire. This Standard was known as BS5750 and was mainly concerned with Quality Assurance which is the supervision & control of the management systems employed in producing the final product.
Not long afterwards the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up to try to coordinate all the various standards that were in use in Europe such BSI (UK) and DIN (Germany).
The first attempts at producing standards for quality assurance of management processes were not particularly successful. Due mainly to the large amount of jargon filled heavy-weight procedures that took a lot of time to understand and manage and were difficult assimilate into companies existing arrangements as well as tortuous to use for staff training.
These problems were recognised and eventually a subsequent series of publications were issued bearing the revised title of ISO9001:2001(example). These standards were much lighter and less intellectually challenging. Also, for the first time, they incorporated a common head procedure that linked all the procedures under one umbrella document and were easier to integrate into companies existing controls & procedures.
Nowadays
Generally speaking, companies only need to comply with one standard and that is ISO9001 and its later revisions. However, many companies in the construction industry also use ISO14001 to cover the management of the effects on the environment of the companies’ activities as well as the OHSAS18001 standards covering Health & Safety at work.
If one word could be used to describe the ISO standards then it would be TRACEABILITY.
In order to demonstrate Traceability in the construction process, we can take as a simple example the erection of a steel structure.
Firstly, the History File, or Audit Trail, would begin with the materials certificate from the ore mine. We can then add further certificates from each stage of the process such as from the smelter, the rolling mill, the fabricators, the paint-shop, transport & storage records, the erection records containing the line & level protocols and the bolting certificates and finally the hand-over certificate to the Owner.
We can see that all these certificates are in fact summary documents and that the many other documents that are backing them up may stay with the partners in the process. However, the process is fully traceable and this provides the necessary assurance of the quality of the end product.
The three main topics that managers have to comply with in order to satisfy the requirements of the ISO standards are;
1. Ensuring traceability. (make sure all the necessary certificates are available and the trail is auditable).
2. Monitoring the process. (make sure that all the necessary controls & procedures are in place and are being complied with).
3. Making Improvements. (regularly review the current process and provide improvements to the quality, time & cost for the next project).
The QA process covers five main areas that project managers that have to take into account when dealing with construction projects;
1. The People
2. The Methods
3. The Materials
4. The Equipment
5. The Environment
A simple QA Plan can cover these five main areas and can be the basis of the company policy for showing Clients how you manage your business to good effect and providing a quality end product.
Definitions;
Quality Control is usually carried out by the operatives actually doing the work as well as by their immediate supervisors.
Quality Assurance is the management of the process controls & procedures and ensuring compliance with the company policy.
There are no statutory requirements for registration with ISO but most companies that do comply find a considerable advantage over non-registered competitors by advertising that they can assure the quality of their products with a recognised management system. Not to mention the savings obtained by being more efficient and offering improvements in quality, time & cost.
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