Level Four is the pinnacle of First Time Quality excellence – getting it right first time with a very high degree of certainty. And the result? Build times are faster than ever, operating costs are lean, and customers are enthusiastically showing their appreciation.
Achieving Level Four in a construction project brings several benefits, including the ability to attract the best people and subcontractors, even in a scarce market. In addition, there will be a general confidence in your company's ability to survive a downturn. This is due in part to the implementation of a quality control program and a robust quality assurance process, which ensures that difficult projects are executed successfully with a high degree of quality.
If you’re already taking quality management seriously, you’ll already understand that taking your Quality Management Program to the highest level possible is the best way to reap of the benefits of First Time Quality excellence
- Save time
- Reduce costs
- Increase margins
- Ensure compliance
- Improve reputation
You can read more about these benefits in our e-Book Your complete guide to achieving First Time Quality excellence.
Building a Maturity Model
The FTQ360 experts have formulated a Maturity Model that classifies Quality Management Program performance on a four-point scale – from basic and professional to advanced and expert.
The ten groups that constitute an industry best practice quality program include organization, management, strategy, accountability, planning, processes, controls, measurement, improvement, and technology. These groups are developed by considering the most important activities and tasks, as well as incorporating quality management systems and construction quality management processes.
In this article, we are going to explain what you need to do to reach Level Four in the Construction Quality Management – Maturity Model but finding out what level you are already at beforehand might be a useful detour.
Take your own Maturity Assessment
We have created a powerful Maturity Assessment that will pin-point where you are on scale from basic to advances. By answering a few simple questions, you’ll be able to find out just how sophisticated your Quality Management program is today and how far you have already come on your journey to First Time Quality excellence.
Levels One – Three of the Maturity Assessment
Our previous blogs Construction quality excellence: Reaching level one, Construction quality excellence: Reaching level two and Construction quality excellence: Reaching level three focus on the basic foundations you need for a good quality program and what you will need to do to develop a more professional and advanced approach to construction quality – so, depending on your current maturity level and future aspirations, they may be worth a quick read too.
Level Four: Expert
By Level Four – the top level – achieving First Time Quality is all about identifying quality risks and proactively eliminating them. The lessons learned are systematically deployed on the job site and the scope of the Quality Program expands to pre-construction activities and commission in gas well as health, safety and environmental.
1. Quality external stakeholder communications
You can handle every aspect of your Quality Management Program on one single, cloud-based platform.
We recommend that you centralize the following functions.
• Requests for information (RFIs)
• Non-conformance reports
• Closeout punchlists
• Customer punchlists
• Access to project documents
• Deficiency and punchlist spreadsheets
2. Subcontractor self-document quality and safety compliance
You can streamline the review and approval of contract acted work and help improve quality and safety performance by documenting the completion of known risks.
We recommend that you specify the pictures and data required to document compliance, grant subcontractors tightly controlled access to your quality management systems and automate communications to notify field personnel when projects are ready for final review.
3. Commissioning suite of tools for equipment and buildings
You can keep organized and in control of detailed, multi-stage commissioning processes and plan the required inspections, tests, hold points and approvals by either equipment or asset serial number.
We recommend that you use specialized checklists for functional checks, record repetitive test data on dynamically expanding tables and submit completed commissioning plan-related reports by asset.
4. Extend quality to design, engineering and project administration
You can include pre-construction activities in your quality process and use specialized design and engineering checklists to set a standardized agenda for reviewing both accuracy and completion.
We recommend that you integrate quality performance measures and improvement processes into the company-wide quality management program, have field personnel report errors and omission deficiencies during construction, and require sign-off by multiple reviewers before final approval.
5. Pre-construction risk prevention
You can adapt quality controls to the relative importance of possible risks to help control the risks identified in the pre-construction and preparatory meetings.
We recommend that you embed drawing and specification details on checkpoints, evaluate total risks and actual exposure on dashboards and reports, and weight risk exposure values for quality and safety checkpoints.
6. ISO 9001 compliance
You can pass the most rigorous quality system audits with ISO9001 quality administration checklists and surveillance audits.
The FTQ360 Software Platform includes project inspection and test plans for ISO9001 administration activities, automatic posting of compliance within project quality plans, and visibility into compliance and full quality program deployment for certification auditors.
7. ISO 45000 safety compliance
You can pass the most rigorous safety audits with ISO45000 safety administration checklists and surveillance audits.
The FTQ360 Software Platform includes safety-specific inspection and audit plans, automatic posting of compliance with site-specific safety plans, and visibility into compliance and full quality program deployment for certification auditors.
Proactively Eliminate Quality Risks to Achieve First Time Quality – every time
The fourth and final step towards achieving First Time Quality excellence is to proactively eliminate quality risks by incorporating quality requirements and adhering to quality standards. This can be achieved through the implementation of a comprehensive quality management plan, which ensures that first-time quality is achieved consistently.
Here you’ll learn about the most important aspects of the FTQ360 Software Platform – the key features that will help you reach the pinnacle of First Time Quality excellence by pro-actively eliminating quality and safety risks.
Streamlined Communications
Serious software for fast and easy issue communication. Learn more
Consistent Processes
Serious software ensuring accurate inspections from the whole team. Learn more
Documented Compliance
Serious software providing the definitive proof of project compliance. Learn more
Integrated Safety
Serious software with built-in safety compliance and risk reduction. Learn more
Reduced Deficiencies
Serious software with advanced tools and functionality to proactively reduce defects. Learn more
If you want to find out more about our Maturity Model and learn how to measure your own maturity score, you find this to be a ‘must read’ article: How to assess the maturity level of your Quality Management program – good luck!
Over to you
At FTQ360, we're committed to helping you achieve quality excellence. If you have any questions about a great quality management process or different construction quality processes, please feel free to get in touch with us. Our team is dedicated to providing you with the resources and support you need to ensure that your projects are executed to the highest standards of quality. We're serious about quality, and we'd love to talk to you about how we can help.
