“Quality isn't about catching somebody doing something wrong. It's about giving people what they need to do it right the first time. If we're finding the problem after it's built, we're already too late.” — Dustin Mather
After more than three decades in construction, I've worked on just about every side of the work. I started in the field and worked my way through roles including laborer, equipment operator, foreman, superintendent, inspector, project manager, and now Quality Manager. That experience has taught me one lesson about quality that I believe our industry sometimes forgets:
Quality is not inspection.
Inspection is an important part of quality, but by the time an inspector finds a problem, the work has often already been performed. Concrete may have been placed. Pipe may have been buried. Equipment may have been installed. At that point, we're no longer preventing a problem—we're managing one.
True quality begins long before the inspection.
Quality Starts Before the Work
On a successful project, quality should begin during planning.
Before a crew starts work, we should already understand the contract documents, specifications, drawings, submittals, testing requirements, hold points, acceptance criteria, and potential risks associated with that activity.
One of the most valuable tools we have for accomplishing that is the Inspection and Test Plan, or ITP.
I don't believe an ITP should be a document created simply because the quality program requires one. If it gets written, uploaded somewhere, and forgotten, it has very little value.
A good ITP should answer practical questions for the people performing and managing the work:
What are we building? What are the requirements? What needs to be inspected? When does it need to be inspected? What testing is required? Who is responsible? What documentation do we need? And what needs to happen before we move to the next step?
When those questions are answered before construction begins, quality becomes proactive instead of reactive.
The Craft Has to Be Part of Quality
One mistake our industry can make is treating quality as the responsibility of the Quality Department.
It isn't.
The people performing the work have the greatest influence over its quality.
That means our craft professionals need to understand more than simply what they're being asked to build. Whenever possible, they should understand why the requirement exists and what successful work looks like.
That's where training becomes extremely important.
I regularly conduct training with both craft and staff because I've found that people are far more likely to meet an expectation when the expectation is clearly communicated.
But training doesn't always need to mean putting people in a conference room and reading specifications from a PowerPoint presentation.
On one project, I developed a computer-based Harpool Jeopardy game using actual project information and requirements. We turned training into a competition.
People laughed. They competed. They talked trash. More importantly, they learned.
If someone remembers a specification requirement six months later because of a ridiculous Jeopardy question, I'll take that over a training presentation they forgot before they walked out of the room.
Ask the Question Before It Becomes a Problem
Another major component of proactive quality is technical review.
On a complex construction project, questions are inevitable. Drawings may conflict, field conditions change, details require clarification, or different disciplines may need additional coordination.
As part of the CMAR process, I review Requests for Information before they are submitted to the Engineer of Record. My first question isn't simply, “How quickly can we send this RFI?”
It's “Do we already have the answer?”
I review the drawings, specifications, contract documents, submittals, applicable requirements, and field conditions. If the existing documents provide an answer within the CMAR's authority, we may be able to resolve the question internally.
If engineering interpretation or design direction is required, then the Engineer of Record absolutely needs to be involved. But when we submit that RFI, it should clearly identify the conflict or question and provide the information necessary for the design team to make an informed decision.
An RFI shouldn't simply transfer a problem from one person's desk to another.
Good quality management means helping define the problem before asking someone else to solve it.
Stop Measuring Quality by the Number of Problems We Find
There can be a tendency to measure a quality program by activity.
How many inspections did we perform?
How many observations did we write?
How many deficiencies did we identify?
Those numbers can be useful, but I believe there's a more important question:
How many problems did we prevent?
That number is much harder to put on a dashboard.
You don't see the concrete that didn't have to be demolished because somebody caught the issue during a pre-pour inspection.
You don't see the pipe that didn't have to be removed because the team reviewed the drawings before installation.
You don't see the schedule delay that never occurred because someone asked the right question two weeks earlier.
Some of the best accomplishments of a strong quality team are the problems nobody ever hears about.
Accountability Without the “Gotcha”
Quality professionals sometimes have to have uncomfortable conversations. I've certainly had my share.
Something doesn't meet the specification. Work needs to stop. A condition needs engineering review. Something may need to be repaired or replaced.
But there is a major difference between holding someone accountable and trying to catch someone doing something wrong.
Most people in construction want to do good work. They take pride in what they build.
If I walk into every situation looking for somebody to blame, I'm eventually going to create an environment where people hide problems from me.
I want the opposite.
I want the superintendent, foreman, project engineer, or craft professional to call Quality and say, “Something doesn't look right. Can you come take a look?”
That phone call is a success.
Because now we have an opportunity to address the issue before it becomes something bigger.
Quality requires accountability, but accountability works best when it's combined with trust and respect.
Culture Matters
There's another part of quality that doesn't appear in many specifications: culture.
I happen to carry an unofficial title on my current project in addition to my quality responsibilities: CFO—Chief Fun Officer.
I've helped organize everything from team gatherings to extreme paintball, project competitions, community events, and I've even put on the costume of our project's Aoudad mascot.
That may seem completely unrelated to QA/QC.
I don't believe it is.
Construction is demanding. We work long hours, solve difficult problems, operate under schedule pressure, and spend an enormous amount of our lives with the people on our projects.
Teams perform better when people trust one another.
When a project engineer knows the superintendent, when management respects the craft, when departments communicate instead of protecting their own territory, and when people genuinely feel like they're part of the same team, difficult conversations become easier.
You can hold people to an extremely high standard and still create a workplace where people enjoy coming to work.
In fact, I believe the two often reinforce each other.
Build People, Not Just Projects
Our industry is facing a shortage of skilled people while many experienced professionals and craft workers are approaching retirement.
When those men and women leave the industry, they can take decades of knowledge with them.
We can't spend the next decade complaining that there aren't enough qualified people if we aren't willing to help create them.
That means training.
It means mentorship.
It means letting younger people ask questions.
It means allowing someone to make a mistake, holding them accountable for it, and then making sure they learn from it.
Someone took the time to teach me when I was young. As I've progressed in my career, I've come to believe that passing that knowledge to the next generation isn't optional.
It's part of the job.
Getting It Right the First Time
No construction project will ever be perfect. People make mistakes. Conditions change. Designs evolve. Unexpected problems occur.
A strong quality culture doesn't pretend otherwise.
Instead, it creates an environment where people plan before they build, understand the requirements, ask questions early, communicate problems openly, learn from mistakes, and continuously improve.
That's why I don't want Quality to be known as the department that shows up after something goes wrong.
I want Quality at the table before the work begins.
I want us involved in planning.
I want us developing ITPs with the people who will actually perform the work.
I want us training craft and staff.
I want questions asked before materials are installed.
I want lessons learned shared before somebody repeats the same mistake.
And I want people to feel comfortable raising their hand when something doesn't look right.
Because ultimately, quality isn't about producing more paperwork, writing more observations, or finding more deficiencies.
It's about building something we're proud to put our names on.
And if we're doing our job correctly, we're not just building better projects.
We're building better builders.
