Construction Quality Assurance/Quality Control Blog

A Guide to Building Your Construction Quality Control Team

Posted by Ed Caldeira

The first step in ensuring quality construction after a new contract has been awarded is to set up your quality control team (or quality assurance team, which ever you'd prefer). This consists of management personnel reporting to the head office (via the president or a vice president, depending on your company organization).

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Tags: quality management team, quality manager, construction quality management, organization chart, superintendent, project manager

8 Elements to Building a Better Quality Plan

Posted by Ed Caldeira

The first job of the quality management team is to design a construction quality plan for your project. Your plan has two goals. First, it should explain the company’s QA/QC policies. Second, it should identify any requirements that are unique to the project and the procedures for making both the general and the specific policies work.

While exactly what is in the quality plan will vary from project to project, there are some common elements.

1. Responsibilities of all personnel with regard to quality.

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Tags: construction quality management, construction quality control plan

Infographic: Improve Construction Quality through Better Information

Posted by Ed Caldeira

Do you know enough about what's happening on your construction jobsite to improve quality, reduce rework, decrease build time, and lower construction costs?  If you're like most senior managers, you don't.

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Tags: construction quality management, infographic

How-to Guide for Doing a Construction Site Quality Control Review

Posted by Ed Caldeira

There are lots of activities that quality managers need to be doing. But, near the top of the list are regularly scheduled construction site quality control reviews in the form of field walks. The reason you should do these QA/QC reviews is to perform an independent check-up on the quality of your constructed product.

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Tags: quality control, quality assurance, construction quality management

8 Essential Steps for Doing a Construction Project Quality Audit

Posted by Ed Caldeira

Your Project Quality Plan is in place. You think all contingencies are covered. You assume inspections are being conducted correctly. You figure your plan is being followed, your customer is happy, and your project is flowing smoothly, right?

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Tags: project plan, construction quality management, quality audit

How Successful are Your Pre Construction Meetings? The 5 Key Areas You Need to Cover

Posted by Ed Caldeira

Quality, safety, scheduling, administrative issues and, above all, how to keep your customer satisfied. These are the principal reasons you should hold a pre-construction meeting. A well-structured pre-construction meeting helps ensure that your project proceeds smoothly. It also eliminates confusion and ruffled feathers when you're faced with the inevitable issues that arise during a project.

For this discussion, we’ll focus on handling the QA/QC part of your preconstruction meeting. I’ll give you a few general guidelines, and then discuss the key topic areas you should cover.

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Tags: construction quality management, pre construction meetings

A Successful Quality Management Plan Requires Effective Leadership

Posted by Ed Caldeira

If you find yourself complaining about field personnel not taking construction project quality seriously, then this article should help you find some solutions.

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Tags: best-practices, construction quality management

General Contractor Quality Control Plans: Qualifying Subcontractors

Posted by Ed Caldeira

Here’s a general contractor quality control plan best- practice: include a subcontractor and supplier qualification process in your quality control plan.

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Tags: quality plan, best-practices, construction quality management, general contractor

How to Use a Construction Quality Plan to Improve Quality Management

Posted by Ed Caldeira

Many of my customers say they’re glad their client demanded?(required? asked for?) a construction quality plan. Well, that's not exactly what they say at first.

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Tags: quality plan, best-practices, construction quality management

Construction Quality Management: The Franchise Approach

Posted by Ed Caldeira

One of the most common problems I find with construction quality management is a lack of consistency from project to project.

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Tags: quality control, quality assurance, best-practices, construction quality management, framework