Every project needs a quality control plan. Without a quality plan, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) processes are simply made up by every project team as they go along – a sure recipe for chaos and disaster.
Instead, you need a detailed and fully documented quality control plan in place for each project.
Plan documentation should specify precisely how you are going to control quality and quality issues in the project at hand, and describe the actions (inspections, quality checks, responsibilities, etc.) required at each stage of all processes to ensure that outputs conform to industry standards and project-specific requirements.
Though it’s true that there will be similar elements to every quality control plan, all projects are of course unique, and will contain factors that are dependent upon the precise specifications of the individual project.
Nonetheless, there is no need to waste a lot of time for no reason for each project undertaken. With a good company QC plan template, project teams can be presented with a clear and consistent approach to developing project-specific control plans that meet the unique requirements and quality standards of individual projects.
What is a Quality Control Plan?
Quality Control Plan (QCP) is a set of procedures to deliver products that meet quality objectives. These procedures are written and are aimed at meeting the requirements as stated in contract documents, guidance and manuals.
What is the purpose of the quality control plan in a project?
The purpose of Quality Control Plan is a document that anticipates sources of poor quality and lays out ways to identify and prevent them.
Building Your Quality Control Plan Template
The beauty of a Quality Control Plan (QC) plan template is that it is a reusable framework that can be easily edited and adapted to each project – like a fill-in-the-blanks form. Of course, project teams must create a project-specific quality control plan for each project – the company QC plan template, however, provides the necessary guidance for what the plan should include.
Project Personnel
Who’s on the project quality management team? Every project should have a designated quality manager, who has overall responsibility for the quality of the project, as well as project superintendents who are responsible for day-to-day site operations.
There will also be the project manager, as well as inspection officers, foremen and subcontractors.
An organizational chart will help you determine who is responsible for what – and who reports to whom – when it comes to quality planning, implementation, and management of your project. It will also help you define the quality roles and responsibilities of key project personnel.
(Image source: firsttimequality.com)
Quality Control Processes
The quality plan template should also outline requirements for overall quality processes that should adapt to project specifics.
For example, the template may state that critical building products and materials received on the jobsite must be inspected before use – the finished, project-specific quality control plan, however, will identify precisely which products and materials will receive inspections, and who will sign them off.
Similarly, the QC plan template may state that the plan must include compliance inspections at all project milestones – the finished plan, meanwhile, will indicate what those milestones are that will be inspected and by whom.
Inspection Plans, Tests and Correction of Deficiencies
All construction projects will require inspections at various phases of work. Here, the template will indicate that acceptance criteria must first be defined, and an inspection plan created to ensure all requirements are met.
The inspection plan will identify what will be inspected, when inspections will take place, and who is responsible for carrying them out.
In this vein, the template will indicate that quality inspection checklists must be drawn up – though it will be the project team that decides on the specific items that will be included on the checklists of the finished plan for the specific project.
The team will also determine who is responsible for following up on the correction of deficiencies, as well as the roles, responsibilities, and processes for verifying acceptance criteria against those corrections.
Create Consistent and Robust Quality Control Plans with FTQ360
A well-defined quality control plan is essential for ensuring that company-wide quality processes are faithfully implemented on each project undertaken. Building a QC plan template that can be adapted to each project will simplify the process and ensure consistency across all work carried out.
There is no need to start from scratch when it comes to project quality plans.
An array of samples for various specialties can be downloaded at www.firsttimequality.com – and a winning combination is to pair your plan with quality management software like FTQ360 that is specially designed to address project-specific aspects of QC plans and streamline quality control activities.
A serious quality management system like FTQ360 has the capabilities to support the creation of project-specific quality control plans in a structured and consistent way.
Quality management software plays a key role in rolling out successful QC plans not only by automating standardized quality control processes, but also by functioning as a management tool to look ahead and then monitor compliance with the quality control plan.
Over to You
Achieving a consistent quality process across projects is only achievable when you have clear guidance for your project team to follow and the software tools to make it easy to carry out.
At FTQ360, we’re serious about quality. If you are too, download your free Complete Guide to Achieving First Time Quality Excellence eBook, or get in touch to find out more and request a software demo today.
