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Inspection and Other Strategies for Assuring Quality in Government Construction (1991)

Chapter: APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO CONSTRUCTION QUALITY

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Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO CONSTRUCTION QUALITY." National Research Council. 1991. Inspection and Other Strategies for Assuring Quality in Government Construction. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1847.
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Page 51
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO CONSTRUCTION QUALITY." National Research Council. 1991. Inspection and Other Strategies for Assuring Quality in Government Construction. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1847.
×
Page 52
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO CONSTRUCTION QUALITY." National Research Council. 1991. Inspection and Other Strategies for Assuring Quality in Government Construction. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1847.
×
Page 53
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO CONSTRUCTION QUALITY." National Research Council. 1991. Inspection and Other Strategies for Assuring Quality in Government Construction. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1847.
×
Page 54

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APPENDIX B 51 APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS RELATED TO CONSTRUCTION QUALITY There is considerable disagreement and in some cases confusion about terms used in connection with quality assurance and control in construction. The following definitions were adopted by the committee, primarily from federal agency and Construction Industry Institute sources. ACCEPTANCE Specified limits placed on characteristics of a product, CRITERIA. process, or service defined by codes, standards, or other requirement documents. APPRAISAL. Activities employed to determine whether a product, process or service conforms to established requirements, including: design review, specification review, other documentation review, constructibility review, materials inspection/tests, personnel testing, quality status documentation, and post project reviews. AUDIT. A formal, independent examination with intent to verify conformance with established requirements. An audit

APPENDIX B 52 does not include surveillance or inspection for the purpose of process control or product acceptance. CHANGE. A directed action altering the currently established requirements. Changes may address design, fabrication, construction. and materially affect the approved requirements, the basis of design, the existing scope of the contract plans and specifications, or operating capability of the facility. CORRECTIVE Measures taken to rectify conditions adverse to quality, and ACTION. where necessary, to preclude repetition. Corrective action includes rework for non-conformance and deviations. COST OF The cost associated with quality management activities QUALITY. (prevention and appraisal) plus the cost associated with deviations. CRITICALITY. A measure of the significance or impact of failure of a product, process or service to meet established requirements. DEFECT. A deviation with a severity sufficient to require corrective action. DEVIATION. A departure from established requirements. A deviation may be classified as an improvement, an imperfection, non- conformance, or defect, based on its severity. DEVIATION The sum of those costs, including consequential costs such as COSTS. schedule impact, associated with the rejection or rework of a product, process or service due to a deviation. ERROR. Any item or activity in a system that is performed incorrectly, resulting in a deviation, e.g., design error, fabrication error, construction error, etc. An error requires an evaluation to determine what corrective action is necessary. IMPERFECTION. A deviation which does not affect the use or performance of the product, process or service. In practice, imperfections are deviations that are accepted as is. INSPECTION. An activity involving the appraisal of a process, product or service to ascertain if it conforms to the established requirements. An activity which the contractor has an obligation and the government has a right to perform.

APPENDIX B 53 ITEM. An all-inclusive term used in requirements documents in place of any of the following: appurtenance, assembly, component, equipment, material, module, part, structure, subassembly, subsystem, system, or unit. NON- A deviation that occurs with a severity sufficient to consider CONFORMANCE. rejection of the product, process or service. In some situations the product, process or service may be accepted as is; in other situations it will require corrective action. OMISSION. Any part of a system, including design, construction and fabrication, that has been left out resulting in a deviation. An omission requires an evaluation to determine what corrective action is necessary. PREVENTION. Activities employed to avoid deviations, including such activities as: quality systems development, quality program development, feasibility studies, contractor/subcontractor evaluation, quality orientation activities and certification/ qualification. PROJECT. All those elements and activities associated with a facility from initial concept to final disposition. PROJECT The major phases of a project, including preplanning, design, ELEMENTS. procurement, construction, start-up, operation and final disposition. QUALITY. In construction, conformance to established and adequately developed requirements. QUALITY Those activities in a project directly associated with problem ACTIVITIES. prevention and appraisal. QUALITY All those planned or systematic actions undertaken to provide ASSURANCE. adequate confidence that a product, process or service will conform to established requirements. QUALITY The person who performs inspection for quality assurance. ASSURANCE INSPECTOR. QUALITY Inspection, test, evaluation or other actions to verify that a CONTROL. product, process or service conforms to established requirements.

APPENDIX B 54 QUALITY The person who performs inspection for quality control and, CONTROL after appraisal, recommends corrective action. INSPECTOR. QUALITY The process of optimization of the use of resources for quality MANAGEMENT. activities; includes prevention and appraisal activities. QUALITY The sum of those costs associated with prevention. MANAGEMENT COSTS. QUALITY A management tool providing data for the quantitative PERFORMANCE analysis of certain quality-related aspects of projects by MANAGEMENT systematically collecting and classifying quality management SYSTEM. costs. REQUIREMENT. A contractually established characteristic of a product, process or service. A characteristic is a physical or chemical property, a dimension, a temperature, a pressure, or any other specification used to define the nature of a product, process or service. SURVEILLANCE. The act of monitoring or observing to verify whether an item or activity conforms to established requirements. VERIFICATION. The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise determining and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to established requirements.

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This book reports on the costs, effectiveness, and risks associated with agency and private sector inspection practices. It provides advice to senior and mid-level agency managers on the relative merits of alternative strategies in the range of projects typically encountered in federal construction programs.

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