Regardless of the type or size, all construction projects need to be completed on time, within budget and – crucially – to the required quality standards.
Construction management software can help in maintaining quality control. A cloud-based solution records the information necessary to effectively ensure the highest standards in a project from beginning to end of the construction stage.
The software does this by providing a web-based platform to automate processes while capturing real-time, trustworthy data for all of the project’s stakeholders.
Quality control should be one of the pillars of any construction project. Ensuring quality work is essential to the safe and efficient operation of both the site itself and the completed building after handover.
Planners must look at specific aspects of a project that may affect the quality of the final job – and then outline how those potential issues will be controlled.
The contractor’s quality management programme is a written document defining the contractor’s processes, practices and procedures, which are to ensure the project’s quality requirements are met or exceeded.
The programme has two elements: the quality control plan and the quality assurance procedures. Improper maintenance of the quality control procedures causes a project to incur additional expenses and results in project delays.
Having to redo this work increases the maintenance and opportunity costs as well.
Digital technology has proven a very efficient tool in managing quality control in construction. It offers more efficient practices that lead to better work. It saves time, which means more focus can be put on solving pain points if and when they do arise.
The ease it brings to inspections, through collaboration and information sharing, means greater accountability and higher quality standards.
Cloud-based software helps minimise the potential for error and ensures that work conforms to the standards and functions demanded in the contract. Software platforms can help with relevant observations and inspections in line with current legal regulations as they apply to different trades.
This minimises errors that may occur – and so minimises the final snag list for project owners.
Zutec’s platform allows a team to collect data while completing their tasks. This data can then be used to mitigate risk, track performance and continuously improve their quality and safety processes.
Technical Director Ray McCaul says, “If you have a cloud-based solution where everybody can log in and see information easily, and can find information very quickly, it creates this environment of transparency and that’s very, very important. It also means that knowledge is never lost.”
As an example, one of the many formal communications that a contractor is obliged to submit is their daily report. The daily report is used to record details of the completed works and resources, labour and non-labour, employed on the construction site. The daily report will even detail the weather status.
In addition, the daily report will detail on quality control activities, including field calibrations. For this, Zutec’s cloud-based platform can be used to capture all these details, along with progress photographs of the project’s development or important incidents.
As soon as a quality issue is noticed on a project site, the contractor can photograph and document the exact location and make notes to request that the defect be addressed.
As subcontractors log into Zutec’s cloud-based platform, they will be immediately alerted about these quality concerns. Making necessary adjustments to technique allows for subsequent work to be completed correctly the first time, rather than having to re-do more below-par work.
Extra Information:
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