Who is responsible?

Who is mainly responsible for quality in construction?

Traditionally, the answer would be: quality is everyone’s responsibility. You may be surprised when I say your answer isn’t accurate! The question asks for who is mainly responsible. So you might answer: top management. Again, not quite accurate. Top management strategically directs quality and holds the overall responsibility — they are mainly responsible for providing resources.

To answer this question, we need to know how quality is achieved. It’s achieved simply: when we deliver a project that meets applicable requirements and exceeds customer expectations.

To meet this, the project must conform to its design requirements and fulfil the business needs. Therefore, three main groups are responsible for quality:

• the marketing (business) group,
• the design (engineering) group, and
• the site execution (construction) group.

Marketing and business experts must make sure their understanding of customer needs and requirements is complete, and that they convey this information to engineering. Engineering must translate those business requirements into designs and processes that construction can execute. Construction must ensure the end product delivered to the customer conforms to the facility’s design and engineering requirements.

You may be asking, “Where does the quality department fit into this picture?” First, we must agree that the quality department — or any of its people — should not be held responsible for the quality of the project the organization delivers. How can they be, if they did not market, design, or construct it?

The quality department’s function is to facilitate continuous improvement by providing services to marketing, engineering, construction, and their support groups. Its role is similar to another service group: the accounting department. Few people would suggest that accounting is responsible for the organization’s profit-and-loss statement — those results are only a report of what actually happened.

So too with the quality department: they report on what took place and, like accounting, help identify opportunities for improvement through measurement and communication. The quality department also holds experts in quality engineering, inspection and testing — inspectors and technicians who assist every function in conformity, improvement, and the early detection of non-conformity.

Do you agree?