Page 109 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

Civil Engineering Project Management
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a design manual for formwork; this is his ‘quality standard’. His QA system
then only stipulates the actions required to ensure conformity to such stan-
dards. Such actions may include:
(a) designers must use the design manual;
(b) must have their designs checked by the firm’s formwork specialist;
(c) the specialist must check and sign the design as approved;
(d) the signed design sheets must be filed, indexed and kept;
(e) the agent or his site engineer must check and sign that the formwork is
erected as designed;
(f) the contractor’s safety supervisor is to inspect and sign that the formwork
erected is safe for use.
A QA system can cover a few or a whole range of a firm’s operations, but
to ensure that it meets the intended objectives (which have to be defined) it
has to be audited. Audits can be carried out internally by a member of the firm,
or by a client proposing to employ the firm, or by an independent authorized
certifying body who can issue a certificate of approval (see Reference 2). In the
last case the QA system is said to be certified. Repeat auditing is required
from time to time.
A supplier may say he runs a QA scheme to the current standard of ISO
9000, but this has nothing to do with the standards he adopts for his products
which need not conform to any quality standard. Also a contractor can have a
QA system but people may fail to follow it. A QA manager can be appointed
to see the system is operated; but he will not know when checkers have signed
without actually checking, nor may he know when checks have been missed.
On site a QA system can be difficult to run because most instructions will
be given verbally, checks are visual, and much work is sub-contracted or done
by temporary labour. Thus a QA system can exist, but it may not be effective.
A 1994 report on seven major projects for the UK Concrete Society gave many
instances of defects observed in concrete design and construction despite QA
systems being run (see Reference 3).
A further difficulty is that the engineer must have the contractor’s QA
system checked. This involves ensuring that

(i) check procedures cover all necessary elements of work;
(ii) the procedures have a reasonable chance of providing the standards
required;
(iii) auditing such procedures on an irregular and selective basis gives assur-
ance they work effectively.
Setting up QA procedures and auditing are specialized activities and many
companies have staff trained to carry out these tasks. A useful publication is
the ISO 9000 pocket guide (see Reference 4).
There has been extensive debate as to whether a contractor’s QA scheme
could permit reduction of the engineer’s role in supervising the contract for
construction; the idea being that the resident engineer would then only need
to check that the contractor’s QA checking system was being properly applied