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O P I N I O N
I t’s my experience that too many firms give lip service to quality assurance and quality control. Quality assurance is the process or set of processes used to measure and assure the quality of a product, while quality control is the process of ensuring products and services meet consumer expectations. Believe it: Quality counts If a firm wants to succeed at a high level, it must keep a keen eye on the documents, and have an ear for what the client needs.
Ed Friedrichs
Do you have an active and thorough QA/QC program in your firm? If not, why? If you asked your clients, “How important is it that we have a QA/QC program?” how do you think they would respond? Probably with something like, “WHAT? How could we trust you if you didn’t?” While most organizations I talk to claim they have QA/QC processes, when I look deeply into the firm’s practices, the reality of any rigorous QA/QC program is virtually non-existent. I’ve pressed the firms I’ve worked with to query their insurance carrier about what the impact of a well- documented QA/QC, metrics-driven program could have on their insurance rates. Their jaws have dropped. Yes, QA/QC can pay for itself many times over – not just with reduced rates, but with reduced claims for errors and omissions and fewer claims
from contractors for time extensions, which usually find their way to your doorstep if an error in your drawing is the cause. In our business, quality assurance relates to the accuracy and completeness of the documents from which a project will be built. There are a few excellent methods to catch problems before your drawings get into the contractor’s hands. In 1976 when I opened an office for Gensler in Los Angeles, one of the young, aspiring architects I hired came to me one morning and said, “We need some grey hair around here,” meaning someone who had seen every flaw in a set of drawings that could be made and who would review and mark up the drawings for correction. Subsequently, we got a three-for-one package when we hired the senior architect the young architect recommended. See ED FRIEDRICHS, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER April 25, 2016, ISSUE 1149
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