How Does the Quality of a Project Affect those Involved?

By: Alberto Munguia, PMP

Consistently seek to find ways to meet the requirements in the specifications and contract documents. Especially when our position in the organizational structure of the company allows us to directly impress the policies already in place and foremost in the thinking of our subordinates and associates by personally leading by example.

That being said we must be aware of the way we are living and acting so that it is in line with what we are thinking and promoting. Otherwise we will eventually come to think and act in a manner not consistent with the way we have chosen. If our style is to comply with the requirements and we commit ourselves to do the job right the first time, we will satisfy our clients and ultimately diminish unnecessary costs due to redoing the work of removing defects in our product found by those responsible for the inspection and verification of specifications. If our style is to allow the relaxation of specifications and contractual obligations, we will undoubtedly continuously expose our company and client to risky situations. This combined with the lack of commitment will result in the loss of trust and confidence by our present and future clients.

Once lost, the trust we worked so hard to establish with our clients is a difficult hurdle to overcome. Thus losing the one thing that set us apart from our competitors we will hardly survive in modern times where competition is intense and customers have many options to choose with whom to do business.

An example of this is where two concrete structures that were built on a project by a contractor under the same specifications and conditions, using the same materials and erection techniques were evaluated. Only one was accepted by the client as is after the forms were removed. The other structure required to be reworked to meet the finish specifications called for in the plans. You may wonder then, how come the result of the product and the consequences were different?

The answer is simple, the crews who built them were different. While the accepted structure was built under a construction supervisor implementing all the procedures outlined in the specifications including sealing the formwork, ordinary finish with the understanding that the work must be done right the first time. The other structure was built under a construction supervisor that cut corners to speed up the production process ignoring the requirements set forth in the specifications for this Item of work. In fact, when asked if he could pay more attention to sealing grooves in the formwork to improve the finish of the structure being built, he simply stated that generally those particular type of structures were painted so they did not need to spend much time sealing joints on the formwork nor repairing imperfections in the forms that may have caused the inferior product. He said he was more interested in maintaining a high production rate which generally affects the quality of the work. In conclusion, the difference was the mindset of the supervisor in charge.

So I leave for your consideration the following questions: In your opinion, which of the two supervisors produces more? And who is ultimately responsible for the quality of a project?

Meanwhile let’s continue building high quality roads that will take us and our families quickly and safely back home. Visit www.cs4highway.com for free training

Alberto Munguia Mireles is the author of Highway Construction and Inspection Fieldbook, Highway Construction and Inspection Notebook and Field Book for Quality Control in Earthwork Operations. If you want him to be part of your network all you have to do is invite

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