TOPIC 9(a) (Student

self review?)
Quality Assurance and
Quality Control (QAQC),
Quality Cost concept and
procedures for
infrastructure
development
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Lesson outcome
At the end of this chapter, student should be able to :
• Illustrate and plan for QA/QC element on a construction project.
(CO2:PO11)
• Illustrate the importance of QA/QC in construction industry.
(CO2:PO11)

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Quality control (QC)
• review the quality of all factors involved in production.
• emphasis on three aspects:
a) Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well managed
processes
b) Competence, such as knowledge, experience, qualifications
c) Soft elements, such as personnel, integrity, team spirit.
• Controls include inspection, examined visually
• emphasizes on products testing to uncover defects; report to
management to make the decision, to ALLOW or deny product
release.

• Quality Control (QC) is a system of routine technical activities, to

measure and control the quality of the inventory as it is being
developed. 4
Quality Assurance (QA)
• attempts to improve and stabilize processes to avoid, or
minimize, issues which led to the defect(s) in the first place.

• activities include a planned system of review procedures

conducted by personnel not directly involved (independent
third parties) in the inventory compilation / development
process.

• http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/quality-assurance-quality-control/overview/
overview.html

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QC Vs QA
• Some definition / elaboration:
• Control: evaluation to indicate needed corrective responses
• Quality Control: The observation techniques and activities used
to fulfil requirements for quality.
•
• Assurance: The act of giving confidence, the act of making
certain.
Quality Assurance: The planned and systematic activities
implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements for
a product or service will be fulfilled.
•
• Quality control is product oriented and focuses on
defect identification, while Quality Assurance is process
oriented and focuses on defect prevention 6
Total Quality Control (TQC)
• also called Total Quality Management (TQM)
• an approach extends beyond ordinary QC techniques and quality
improvement methods.
• complete overview and re-evaluation the specification of a product
/ project, rather than features within an existing product.
•
• e.g., design of pressure vessels should not limited to material
and dimensions, but operating, environmental, safety, reliability
and maintainability requirements, documentation of these
requirements findings, etc
• e.g., a construction project would not only consider financial issues
but the aspects of sustainability and continual development, job
opportunity, etc 7
Total Quality Management (TQM) – Origin

• late 1970s and early 1980s, North America and Western

Europe suffered economically from Japan's (ability to produce
high-quality goods at competitive cost).
• UK became a net importer of finished goods, first time since
Industrial Revolution
• USA television broadcast …If Japan Can... Why Can't We?
• USA re-examining the techniques of quality control (invented
over the past 50 years) employed by the Japanese.
• TQM took root in the midst of this economic turmoil

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_quality_management
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Total Quality Management (TQM)

• a comprehensive management approach, works horizontally across

an organization, involving all departments and employees;
extending backward and forward to include both suppliers and
clients/customers.
• provides a framework for implementing effective quality and
productivity initiatives
•
• Other acronyms include CQI (continuous quality improvement), SQC
(statistical quality control), QFD (quality function deployment),
QIDW (quality in daily work), TQC (total quality control), etc.
• permanent continuously improvement in quality and services.
• no widely agreed-upon approach
• derive on the previously-developed tools and techniques of quality
control.
• widespread attention during the late 1980s and early 1990s
• overshadowed by ISO 9000, Lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. 9
ISO 9000
• family of standards related to quality management systems
• to meet the needs of customers, other stakeholders, statutory and regulatory
requirements
• published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization
• deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems
• eight management principles :
1) Principle 1 – Customer focus
2) Principle 2 – Leadership
3) Principle 3 – Involvement of people
4) Principle 4 – Process approach
5) Principle 5 – System approach to management
6) Principle 6 – Continual improvement
7) Principle 7 – Factual approach to decision making
8) Principle 8 – Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000 10
Lean Construction
• Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, lean production, lean
construction, often simply called as "Lean"
• management philosophy from the Toyota Production System (TPS)
(aka Toyotism); focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven
wastes
• identified as "Lean" only in the 1990s.
•
• consider any expenditure without creation of value to be wasteful,
thus target for elimination.
• from the perspective of end users / customers, "value" is any action
/ process / product customers would be willing to pay for.
• Essentially centered on preserving value with less work
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• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing
Six Sigma
• developed by Motorola in 1986.
• a set of strategies, techniques, and tools for process improvement.
• uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical
methods
• identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and
minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes
• each 6 sigma project follows a defined sequence of steps with
quantified value targets, e.g. reduce process cycle time, reduce
costs, increase customer satisfaction.

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Six Sigma (cont.)
• terminology originated from manufacturing, terms associated with
statistical modelling
• maturity of manufacturing process was described by a sigma rating,
indicates by its yield value or the percentage of defect-free products
it creates.
• A six sigma process is one in which 99.9999998% of the products
manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (0.002
defective parts/million)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma

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