Controlling the quality of construction projects is essential for company reputation and business growth. Therefore, a reasonable quality control (QC) plan defines the success of the construction project.
In this article, we will discuss the following:
What is Quality Control (QC) in Construction?
Essential Elements of Quality Control
Final Thoughts
QC typically involves compliance with minimum standards that ensure the excellent performance of the building.
When writing a Quality Control plan, one should consider all areas of the construction project that may affect the quality. For example, materials, personnel, procedures, and subcontractors. These aspects feed into the quality management expectations set for the project.
It is the job of the contractor to define the quality control procedures in a construction quality management plan. Here, the contractor should clearly state how his team will manage construction quality. In the end, the client will look at this document and see if the quality met or exceeded the requirements.
Defining the QC process happens in three stages – pre-construction, construction, and the follow-up stage.
The pre-construction phase starts with meetings with the client, the design team, the project management team, and anyone else involved in the process. Altogether, they define the quality of the building or facility they want to have.
In the construction stage, the construction quality control manager verifies that the project-in-progress meets the quality control guidelines set at the beginning. To help maintain these standards, the manager uses a quality control checklist for regular reviews with the design and project management teams.
During the last follow-up stage, a series of reviews are conducted with all parties involved to ensure the quality met or exceeded the expectations set at the beginning.
In any case, the contractors need to make sure their designed QC plan gives confidence to the clients.
Let’s go over several elements which will help ensure the quality of any construction project.
The Right Personnel
One may hear a lot that there is a shortage of skilled construction workers in the industry.
According to the survey done by the National Association of Home Builders, the top concern of homebuilders is labor. Four out of five builders think they are going to face labor availability issues.
If you are a construction project manager or company owner, you need to assign suitable supervisors to the crews who will be skilled enough to find the right workers very quickly.
Furthermore, supervisors should understand whether there is a need for training for their workers. Additional investments in training the workforce may be necessary to ensure the quality of the projects.
Finally, the supervisors need to explain to their teams that the work must be done correctly and encourage them to take pride in their actions.
Pre-employment medicals are also essential. For instance, many construction companies conduct drug testing to screen employees for safety reasons.
Having the right personnel with a clear understanding of project quality requirements is part of construction quality control.
The Right Materials
It is your responsibility to tell your client what materials you are going to use for your project. Clients should know what subcontractors they are working with and if the materials correspond to project requirements.
To ensure the quality control and management of materials, you need to consider the following factors:
Supervisors of the crews or project managers should have all the answers to the above questions.
Regular Checkups
If you want to avoid extra work and construction deficiencies, it is worth conducting regular checkups at the job site.
To stay organized in this stage, create a Work-In-Progress (WIP) schedule, where construction team supervisors regularly provide reports to track KPI-s.
This will help track figures such as:
Regular checkups in the form of reports will help companies adjust accordingly while the project is still in progress.
Testing and Repairing
Following the WIP reports, the buildings need to be tested as a part of the quality assurance control plan. These tests may include inspection of the materials used or a specific function of the building.
Here is a guide to creating an Inspection Test Plan.
Sometimes tests fail when the construction industry has deficiencies. In this case, some parts of the project need to be reconstructed.
Quality control is vital for any quality construction company. Simply put, this is what will make or break your business. Make sure your quality control plan considers all of the elements mentioned above.
You should also note that reasonable quality control process is based on good communication with the client and the team. Therefore, having a communication plan where everything is reported on time to the right person is crucial.
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