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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 41 THE ROLE OF INSPECTION Inspection, only one of several elements in an effective quality management program, is nevertheless an important means for controlling conformance to requirements and an essential part of any quality management program. However, the value of inspection has limits and over-inspection wastes agency resources, adds to the cost of construction, and establishes unproductive adversarial relationships among owners, designers, and constructors. Agencies should avoid excessive controlled and superfluous discretionary inspections. A systematic review by each agency of its inspection practices, conducted within the context of cost and schedule protection planning, can reveal when inspections are being called for out of proportion to the importance of the inspected items to overall quality. COORDINATED AGENCY QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS The currently independent quality management programs of individual agencies can be made more effective by joint action. Agencies should join in specific programs to share information and centralize selected inspection activities. Broad participation in a contractor performance monitoring system (such as the Army's Construction Contractor Appraisal Support System) would increase the importance of the system to contractors and enhance its contribution to quality of agency construction. Establishment of a cadre of trained inspection professionals, based at federal district or area office levels and serving all agencies constructing facilities within that district or area, would enhance the government's ability to maintain adequate personnel and provide these professionals with greater career opportunities within their field of expertise. These centralized quality management resources can be expanded to include data analysis support and purchasing of testing services and training of managers to be open and responsive to workers' proposals.
