Two Quality Ducuments That a Quality Engineer Can Issue to Construction Team

In the ongoing construction of any civil engineering projects, you will definitely use the two quality documents. There will be problems we encounter at the site and we cannot avoid them. For example mistakes of the width of the footing not as per approved drawing, the material used for the footing like steel or spacer, size of the door openings not as per drawing, etc. But these problems sometimes happen on-site and we can’t control them due to various kinds of reasons. And then the two quality documents will come into the picture.

If the quality engineer noticed the problems or issues on site he may write or issue either of the two documents depending on the status of the problem. Here are the two quality documents that a quality engineer can issue to a construction team.

Here are the two quality documents that you need.

1. Site Observation, SO

• Site Observation is an issue or problem that a quality engineer noticed during the activity on a site like for example “concrete casting of foundation without an extra number of concrete vibrator”  the quality engineer may write a Site Observation for that problem because maybe during casting there will be technical problem occur then alternative shall be required.
• Another example is “pouring concrete during hot weather or during high ambient temperature,” he may write a Site Observation if the ambient temperature is above the maximum limit during concrete pouring.

2. Non-conformance Report, NCR

Non-conformance report meaning is “A failure to comply with a requirement of a company’s quality system.”

With the meaning itself, you can easily identify the non-conformance on and after, and during the activities at the site.

Here are two types of non-conformance that you can notice:

a. Non-conformance during the work

• An example of this nonconformity is “adding water on fresh concrete during pouring.” Standard or Specification says “no water shall be added to the fresh concrete.” So quality engineers must prevent the people to add water, this act sometimes site crews do during concrete pouring.

b. Non-conformance after work

•  In many instances, the non-conformance of this nature is sometimes hard to close or it can be closed by structural calculation when it comes to the non-conformance on structure, the closure of such non-conformity is depending on both client and contractor internal arrangement .  The example of this nonconformity is the “Structural beam off-set 20cm from Gridline.”  This NCR happened when I was in my previous company in Dubai. So the beam was already cast and we cannot demolish or break that beam due to the interconnection of the slab with it and it cast monolithically. The proposed corrective action is “To submit structural calculation for the off-set beam” in order to verify if the structure is still safe with the new location of the beam.

There are many instances of Site Observation and Non-conformance that can be shown here but I just made the above in order to give everybody an insight on how to figure out and show the difference between the two.

Did you use the above quality documents? If you do, please write down your experience and suggestions in the comment box below.

If you have supplements to the above please comment your thoughts below.

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