QUALITY INSIGHT 02
QA/QC Cannot Own Quality Alone
Quality is not the responsibility of one department. It is a shared project responsibility that depends on everyone understanding, performing, and controlling their role.
Who Owns Quality on a Construction Project?
A common statement on construction projects is: “Quality is the responsibility of QA/QC.”
At first, this may sound reasonable. QA/QC teams are responsible for inspections, testing, quality records, NCRs, ITPs, and monitoring compliance with project requirements.
But there is an important distinction between managing quality activities and owning the quality of the work.
The people who plan, procure, supervise, execute, and manage the work have a direct influence on whether the required quality is actually achieved.
Quality Is Built by the Project Team
Construction quality is the result of many decisions and actions taking place throughout the project.
A drawing may be technically correct, but the final work can still fail if the procurement process selects an unsuitable material, the construction method is unclear, supervision is weak, or the workforce does not understand the requirements.
This is why quality should be treated as a shared responsibility with clearly defined roles.
Project Management
Establish the importance of quality, provide the necessary resources, resolve quality-related priorities, and ensure that quality requirements are integrated into project decisions.
Construction Management
Ensure that work is planned and executed according to approved requirements, methods, sequences, and quality expectations.
Engineers & Supervisors
Translate requirements into controlled site activities, provide effective supervision, identify deviations, and correct problems before they become larger issues.
Procurement & Commercial Teams
Support quality by purchasing approved materials and services from suitable sources and ensuring that quality requirements are considered during procurement.
Subcontractors & Workforce
Perform the work according to approved requirements, methods, drawings, specifications, and instructions, while taking responsibility for the quality of their work.
QA/QC
Establish and monitor quality controls, verify compliance, identify risks and nonconformities, support problem solving, and provide objective information to management.
What Happens When QA/QC Becomes the "Quality Police"?
When an organization treats QA/QC as the sole owner of quality, an unhealthy pattern can develop.
Construction teams may start thinking: “QA/QC will inspect it.”
Supervisors may wait for the inspector to identify problems. Engineers may assume that quality requirements belong to the quality department. Subcontractors may focus on passing the inspection rather than producing compliant work.
The result can be a reactive quality culture where the main objective becomes passing inspections instead of preventing defects.
A Warning Sign
If the project team says, “QA/QC rejected it,” but nobody asks why the work was allowed to reach the inspection stage in that condition, the organization may have a quality ownership problem.
QA/QC Should Enable Quality — Not Carry It Alone
A mature QA/QC function should not attempt to perform every quality activity itself.
Instead, it should help establish a system in which the people responsible for performing the work understand what good quality looks like and have the resources and controls necessary to achieve it.
This changes the role of QA/QC from simply finding problems to helping the project prevent problems.
How Can Quality Ownership Be Shared?
Shared responsibility does not mean that everybody is responsible for everything. Each role should have clear responsibilities, authorities, and interfaces.
- Define quality responsibilities clearly within the project organization.
- Make quality requirements part of construction planning.
- Ensure supervisors understand inspection and acceptance requirements.
- Give subcontractors clear quality expectations before work starts.
- Include quality considerations in procurement and material selection.
- Encourage early identification and correction of deviations.
- Use QA/QC findings as information for improvement, not only as reasons for rejection.
- Hold the responsible function accountable for correcting the cause of a quality problem.
A Practical Example
Poor Installation of Door Frames
During inspection, QA/QC identifies several door frames installed out of tolerance.
If quality is considered the responsibility of QA/QC alone, the response may simply be to reject the installation and request correction.
But a stronger approach asks what happened before the inspection.
Was the installation method clear? Were the installers properly briefed? Were the required tolerances understood? Was the work supervised? Were the frames checked during installation? Were the correct tools and setting-out information available?
QA/QC has identified the nonconformity, but solving the underlying problem requires the involvement of the construction team and the responsible subcontractor.
The Real Objective: A Quality Culture
The strongest projects are not those where QA/QC finds the highest number of defects.
They are the projects where people at different levels understand that quality is part of their own job.
A supervisor should not need an inspector standing beside the activity to know whether the work is acceptable.
A subcontractor should not wait for an NCR before taking responsibility for defective work.
A project manager should not see quality as a separate department's concern.
Final Thought
QA/QC plays a critical role in construction quality. It establishes controls, verifies compliance, identifies problems, provides objective information, and supports improvement.
But quality cannot be delegated completely to the quality department.
When project management, construction, engineering, procurement, subcontractors, supervisors, and QA/QC all understand their roles, quality becomes part of the way the project operates — rather than something checked only after the work is completed.
Quality is a team outcome.
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