Quality Control & Coordination

Introduction

Given the complexities of the construction industry, and the increasing ability for mistakes to happen, many Architects have developed methods to manage quality. A lot of Architects and designers will refer to this by the acronym QAQC.

Definitions

QAQC: Quality Assurance Quality Control

QC: Quality Control

• Procedures, which involve carefully checking the work (a contract, a set of drawings, a design sketch) before it is distributed to the user (an Owner, a Contractor, etc)
• Quality control identifies errors late in the process.

QA: Quality Assurance

• Supplemental to quality control. Quality assurance requires that in design documenting, and constructing a building, the proper resources and scrutiny are applied to each part of the process in order to prevent errors before they are made.
• At the very least the goal is to correct errors early on in the process
• Limitation of quality assurance is that it looks at problems segmented rather than holistically

TQM: Total Quality Management

• Incorporates quality control and quality assurance together, but also includes all aspects of service to achieve the goal of “customer satisfaction”.
• The customer = client, user, public, and the Architectural profession