Quality, scheduling, safety, administrative challenges and also, especially, how you can always keep your client content. These really are the key considerations you have to conduct a pre-construction meeting. A well organized pre-construction meeting helps you to make certain that your construction project flows in a smooth manner. In addition, it does away with uncertainty and frustration whenever you are presented with all the almost predictable complications that crop up during the course of a construction project.
For this particular discussion, we will concentrate on dealing with the QA/QC aspect of your pre-construction meeting. I will provide you some basic suggestions, and thereafter talk about the vital subject areas you need to touch upon.
In case you are developing a quality control plan, you ought to reference how to utilize your pre-construction meetings as a part of your QA/QC measures.
In order to provide you an understanding, we feature a chapter on pre-construction meetings (also called project startup meetings) in the Process Controls portion of our ISO 9001 Quality Management Plans. In our simpler Essentials Quality Control Plans we talk about this subject in the Project Coordination and Communications section. Also, in our comprehensive Construction Quality Control Plans we cover some discussion in both the areas.
Basic QA/QC Pre-Construction Meeting Principles
Set an agenda
Give everyone a copy of your agendaahead of time. Defining the lines of communication, the coordination of inspections, the handling of nonconformances and the chain of command are all items you should include on your agenda.
Although in many cases these topics can be handled as your project progresses, the pre-construction meeting is your chance to handle these important issues in a more formal, less haphazard and less painful way.
If your client prefers to run the meeting, you and your client should talk beforehand to ensure that your agenda items are covered.
Include the crucial players
Make sure to involve all the key QA/QC players including sub-contractors, the project owner, managers, and representatives. And, try to conduct the meeting so that all of your participants have a voice.
You can have a flip chart and note down the suggestions and opinions getting talked over. This would keep your meeting on the focused topics and enable the participants understand that their voices really are getting listened to.
After the meeting, send the minutes (including your talking points) to each individual.
5 Essential Subject Areas to be Discussed
1. Identify QA/QC roles and responsibilities
An individual could be a quality manager in his organization, however that title can signify a different role for this particular project. You ought to be certain every person is really clear on her or his function and the project quality responsibilities that go along with that position.
2. Establish troubleshooting measures
Precisely how would you manage issues? Concerns would come up; they invariably do. Your pre-construction meeting is actually the time when you ought to very clearly establish the methods you desire adhered to for solving them.
For instance, in the instance of nonconformances, what's the hierarchy of command you like adopted in order to bring them into specification. Simply put, as soon as your inspector or superintendent identifies a nonconformance, who decides its disposition, who will get the clearance from the project owner to go forward, and so forth...
3. Develop a schedule for regular project QA/QC meetings
Scheduling the regular weekly or monthly project meetings to go over any quality concerns, status reports, or perhaps something of an administrative nature are things you can talk about at the preconstruction meeting. You need to establish guidelines for these preconstruction meetings, determine where and when they would take place, and who must take part.
4. Coordinate prepatory meetings
Soon after you break up the project into different phases, set an agenda for conducting a prepatory meeting before each new phase commences. During these prepatory meetings, you will have to coordinate precisely how each participant would handle her or his function such as putting together "job-ready" specifications, conducting reviews of specifications and inspection and test results.
The prepatory meetings really are the moment to point out probable quality issue areas. Let us assume you are particularly concerned with the flatness of a foundation. Consider such possible problem areas like a specification and perhaps actually itemize all of them on an inspection checklist.
The prepatory meetings actually are excellent forums for detecting and forestalling any quality issues of concern. Hence, utilize your pre-construction meeting to let every person understand to commit time for the prepatory meetings during the course of the project.
5. Establishing quality expectations
Put in place your quality philosophy and policies of the construction project. Perhaps your entire focus is really on first-time quality. In such a case, you need to point out your expectation that job be executed right the very first time rather than rely on audits to discover complications.
The preconstruction meeting is really your chance to fortify a shared philosophy that every person is part of a team completely focused on different quality functions in order to complete a successful construction project.
Conclusion
Establishing an agenda, aiding a conversation between all the significant players, and coordinating quality assurance and quality control assessments will make certain that your pre construction meeting establishes the course for a successful construction project.
Take the time to plan ahead and get all of your key quality personnel involved.
For this particular discussion, we will concentrate on dealing with the QA/QC aspect of your pre-construction meeting. I will provide you some basic suggestions, and thereafter talk about the vital subject areas you need to touch upon.
In case you are developing a quality control plan, you ought to reference how to utilize your pre-construction meetings as a part of your QA/QC measures.
In order to provide you an understanding, we feature a chapter on pre-construction meetings (also called project startup meetings) in the Process Controls portion of our ISO 9001 Quality Management Plans. In our simpler Essentials Quality Control Plans we talk about this subject in the Project Coordination and Communications section. Also, in our comprehensive Construction Quality Control Plans we cover some discussion in both the areas.
Basic QA/QC Pre-Construction Meeting Principles
Set an agenda
Give everyone a copy of your agendaahead of time. Defining the lines of communication, the coordination of inspections, the handling of nonconformances and the chain of command are all items you should include on your agenda.
Although in many cases these topics can be handled as your project progresses, the pre-construction meeting is your chance to handle these important issues in a more formal, less haphazard and less painful way.
If your client prefers to run the meeting, you and your client should talk beforehand to ensure that your agenda items are covered.
Include the crucial players
Make sure to involve all the key QA/QC players including sub-contractors, the project owner, managers, and representatives. And, try to conduct the meeting so that all of your participants have a voice.
You can have a flip chart and note down the suggestions and opinions getting talked over. This would keep your meeting on the focused topics and enable the participants understand that their voices really are getting listened to.
After the meeting, send the minutes (including your talking points) to each individual.
5 Essential Subject Areas to be Discussed
1. Identify QA/QC roles and responsibilities
An individual could be a quality manager in his organization, however that title can signify a different role for this particular project. You ought to be certain every person is really clear on her or his function and the project quality responsibilities that go along with that position.
2. Establish troubleshooting measures
Precisely how would you manage issues? Concerns would come up; they invariably do. Your pre-construction meeting is actually the time when you ought to very clearly establish the methods you desire adhered to for solving them.
For instance, in the instance of nonconformances, what's the hierarchy of command you like adopted in order to bring them into specification. Simply put, as soon as your inspector or superintendent identifies a nonconformance, who decides its disposition, who will get the clearance from the project owner to go forward, and so forth...
3. Develop a schedule for regular project QA/QC meetings
Scheduling the regular weekly or monthly project meetings to go over any quality concerns, status reports, or perhaps something of an administrative nature are things you can talk about at the preconstruction meeting. You need to establish guidelines for these preconstruction meetings, determine where and when they would take place, and who must take part.
4. Coordinate prepatory meetings
Soon after you break up the project into different phases, set an agenda for conducting a prepatory meeting before each new phase commences. During these prepatory meetings, you will have to coordinate precisely how each participant would handle her or his function such as putting together "job-ready" specifications, conducting reviews of specifications and inspection and test results.
The prepatory meetings really are the moment to point out probable quality issue areas. Let us assume you are particularly concerned with the flatness of a foundation. Consider such possible problem areas like a specification and perhaps actually itemize all of them on an inspection checklist.
The prepatory meetings actually are excellent forums for detecting and forestalling any quality issues of concern. Hence, utilize your pre-construction meeting to let every person understand to commit time for the prepatory meetings during the course of the project.
5. Establishing quality expectations
Put in place your quality philosophy and policies of the construction project. Perhaps your entire focus is really on first-time quality. In such a case, you need to point out your expectation that job be executed right the very first time rather than rely on audits to discover complications.
The preconstruction meeting is really your chance to fortify a shared philosophy that every person is part of a team completely focused on different quality functions in order to complete a successful construction project.
Conclusion
Establishing an agenda, aiding a conversation between all the significant players, and coordinating quality assurance and quality control assessments will make certain that your pre construction meeting establishes the course for a successful construction project.
Take the time to plan ahead and get all of your key quality personnel involved.
About the Author:
About the author: Ed Caldeira writes quality control plans for construction. He specialized in contractor quality control plans for USACE and NAVFAC construction projects.
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