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QUALITY AND PRACTICES FOR ITS ASSURANCE 10 Just as there are no generally accepted definitions for quality assurance and control, there is no general understanding of what the costs of these activities are or should be. Elements of QA and QC are performed as part of planning and design, and even in the construction stage are not all clearly distinguished in the cost accounting. Even when QA and QC activities are explicitly identified, practices vary so much among projects and contexts that no reliable base of information exists for making general judgments about costs in general construction. INSPECTION FOR QUALITY CONTROL AND ASSURANCE QA and QC systems include management reviews, on-site surveillance, and tests. Inspectionâspecific examination, testing, and overall appraisal of a process, product or service to ascertain if it conforms to established requirementsâis standard practice for quality assurance and control in all major construction. However, the degree to which inspection can be successful as an assurance and control method is limited by the established requirements. If the established requirements are not right, inspection cannot make them right. Most construction contractsâparticularly those issued by public agencies âspecify that all work is subject to inspection by the owner or the engineer or architect representing the owner. The contract specifications may then enumerate a list of specific inspections that will be required during construction. These inspections are called controlled inspections . Contractors offering to construct facilities know what inspections will be required, before they enter into a contract agreement, because they are listed in the specifications. Controlled inspections include examination and approval of products prior to their installation (for instance precast concrete structural members) and activities incident to the construction (such as dewatering and wastewater discharge). The contract documents may authorize the architect or engineer to review and approve the
