Quality Control and Safety Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Engineering

The Key Elements of Quality Control and Safety in An Engineering Project

Contents

Introduction.

Quality control measures.

Total quality management

Quality assurance.

Cost of quality.

Roles of Safety.

Safety Management

Requirement of safety.

Current application of safety.

Factors that affect safety.

Conclusion.

References.

Introduction

The system of quality management is a set comprising of business processes that are implemented in assisting the organization in delivering the offerings that constantly accomplish customer satisfaction (Low & Ong, 2014). This is one of the most effective systems used for managing quality by translating the goals and purpose of the company into resources and policies thereby helping every member of the firm in adopting standard operating procedures known as SOPs. Some of the major elements of quality management are quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and continuous improvement.

This report is going to discuss about the major elements of quality control and safety in an engineering project. There will be a detailed discussion about quality control and safety along with the various quality control measures and roles of safety. The quality control and safety are considered to be the two most essential parts for successful engineering project.

Quality Control Measures

As per Yang (2016) quality control is a procedure wherein a business makes certain that the quality of the product is maintained or enhanced. The process of quality control requires every project to establish an environment where in both project manager and workers strive for excellence (Mitra, 2016). In order to manage quality of the engineering project, it is quite crucial to understand in depth about quality and its relation with the project. As per the project management institute quality can be defined as the level at which a set of intrinsic characteristics accomplish requirements.

Through the process the products can be assessed as well as the project is validated. Another aspect of quality control is about the recommendation for updating quality assurance for correcting the process and minimizing the defects. Moreover, quality management when effective can be regarded as tool that enhances competitiveness as well as performances relating to the project.

Total quality management

Total quality management is a process of continuously detecting and alleviating or eradicating any errors in the process of manufacturing, enhancing customer experience and streamlining supply chain management (Attakora- Amaniampong et al., 2014). It is regarded as the structured approach towards the entire management of the organization. It is that technique of the project management that is applied to make sure that responsiveness of quality is entrenched at every phase of the project beginning from commencement to completion. There is a careful requirement of reviewing all the stages of a project along with the coordination of the effort indulged.

The major emphasis of total quality management and its implementation in the engineering projects is the creation of high-quality facilities and improvement in the level of performance within the engineering projects. TQM is process which is led by the senior management for obtaining participation of all the employees in the process of continuous improvement of the performance of all kinds of activities (Mallawaarachchi & Senaratne, 2015). In the contemporary era various organizations have been using the concept of TQM for acquiring success. The aim of implementing TQM is to offer a product of high quality to the customers thereby improving the productivity along with the customer satisfaction.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance is a method of preventing errors and mitigating issues in the products being manufactured while delivering products or services to the consumers (Joyce & Ross, 2018). The prevention of defect in quality assurance varies deviously from detection and rejection of defect in quality control which has been regarded as a ‘shift left’ due to its focus on quality in the preliminary process.

The process of quality assurance constitutes the activities related to administrative as well as procedural that are implemented within a quality system in order to fulfill the goals and requirements for products or services. It is a systematic process of measuring, comparing with the standard set, process monitoring and a connected feedback loop conferring prevention of errors.

Quality assurance involves managing the quality of raw materials, products and components, assemblies, production services and production, management and inspection processes. Moreover, quality assurance is vital in the engineering and construction industry due to the risk that is engaged within the project. The risk that is involved in the project is not accomplishing the project on the estimated time is high as numerous external factors can have an impact on the project’s performance (Borri et al., 2014). Therefore, it is crucial to develop a built-in quality assurance system for the purpose of avoiding any kind of inefficiency resulting in poor quality of the products or services required to be delivered to the customers.

All those who are involved within the business of engineering and construction, in distinct ways, have gained from widespread approach to quality work. The quality work when systematic minimizes the costs of failure in the work as well as in the final product. Furthermore, the standards set can be useful in making the quality work more perfect and efficient with the creation of uniformity. One of the quality assurance system standards is ISO 9000 standard that a large number of countries have adopted across the globe and has been applied in numerous industries that include engineering and construction.

Cost of quality

Cost of quality is regarded as the measurement of cost faced by an organization due to production of poor quality products or services (Mir & Pinnington, 2014). It constitutes majorly four components such as prevention, appraisal, internal failure and external failure. In simple words, cost of quality is considered as the total expenses that are incurred by a firm in order to accomplish and maintain the good quality as well as manage poor quality all through its line of operations aiming at obtaining the greatest level of customer satisfaction.

Establishment of a model for cost of quality makes it easier and possible in expressing the quality-related activities in terms of cost-related activities. The key aim is facilitating quality in terms of parameter of business objective for influencing business decisions as well as strategic decisions (Potts & Ankrah, 2014).

Figure: End to end process of cost of quality

Therefore, costs of performing a quality work, carrying out quality improvements and accomplishing goals requires careful management in order to have long-term effect of quality.

Quality control measures are applied for analyzing and evaluating the quality of the various processes that are involved into an engineering project against the standards set as per the requirements specified at the time of planning for the project management.

Roles of Safety

Health and safety is one of the most important aspects that need to be taken into consideration while working on any engineering related projects (Muiruri & Mulinge, 2014). For this purpose safety engineers are responsible for ensuring the well-being of the workers and all those people involve in the project. Safety engineers are the professionals having combined knowledge in relation to the engineering discipline along with the health and safety regulations with respect to the related discipline for maintaining the work environment, people and sites safe and secure from any kind of danger.

Safety Management

Safety management are considered to be an integrated processes which requires the involvement of individuals for setting up a plan, systematize, implement and control activities which are directed with respect to the targets set (Cheng et al. 2015). It is all about protecting the health and safety of the employees that requires integration all through the organization.

Adopting the framework of Safety Management System and attentive execution of distinct facets can tend to have crucial impact on the protection of the workers and improvement of the profitability and performance of the organization. Some of the facets of safety management are mentioned below: (Yi, Zhang & Calvo, 2015).

People- people are most essential facets of a project as nothing can be implemented without them and real safety cannot take place in the absence of skilled workforce.

Planning- half the battle of implementation gets completed with thinking ahead. Effective planning can yield smoother rollouts for foreseeable hazards and administrative sections of the management system along with fostering the measurement of success for safety management success.

Programs- EHS programs are used by various companies for the identification and controlling of hazards, monitoring and measuring operational effects to the performance of EHS and eliminating discrepancies from the management system.

Progress- for avoiding complacency, there is a requirement for the organizations to sporadically evaluate their compliance along with legal and regulatory requirements, auditing their safety management system and reviewing performance with the topmost management.

Performance- measures need to be for the performance and involve both leading indicators and lagging indicators.

Requirement of safety

The framework f safety management which is universally accepted involves four major components and twelve components that are considered to be the basic requirements of safety management system. The requirements are mentioned below: (Kontogiannis, Leva & Balfe, 2017).

Safety policy and objectives

• Management responsibility and commitment

• Safety accountabilities

• Safety management implementation

• Appointing key safety personnel

• Safety documentation

• Third party interfaces or contractors

• Coordination and management of emergency response planning

Safety risk management

• Risk assessment and mitigation

• Risk identification

Safety assurance

• Safety performance measurement and monitoring

• Internal safety examination

• Continuous improvement of safety management system

• Management of change

Safety promotion

• Safety communication

• Training and education

Current application of safety

In order to apply safety, it must comply with the safety standards. Application of safety takes place within every industry wherein prevention of life as well as assets is considered to be of highest value (Bhoir & Esmaeili, 2015). The current safety applications provide more cost-effective tasks and innovative in safety engineering. The technologies are incorporated by safety automation into the standard automation that ensures safe, reliable and efficient operation of machines. In order to apply safety following aspects are required to take into consideration:

Step 1: Demonstrating commitment of company to workplace safety

Step 2: Assessment of workplace hazards and risks

Step 3: Establishing a written protocol for the workers and employees

Step 4: Emphasizing employee education

Step 5: Implementing and evaluating

Factors that affect safety

There is a wide spectrum for the safety in the engineering projects that begins with the planning, development, implementation and control covered by safety management system. Distinct scope of work is covered in this that include safety and health training, safety inspection programs, in-house safety rules, incident investigation programs, job hazard control and analysis, health assurance programs, preparedness programs and so on. Some of the factors affecting safety are mentioned below: (Subramani & Lordsonmillar, 2014).

Safety commitment by senior management

• Joining regular safety investigations and safety committee meetings

• Allocation of ample and skilled manpower for completing the job tasks in a safe manner

• Spending enough cost in the procurement of suitable equipment and plant to carry work safely

• Provision of adequate time for completing the assigned tasks in a safe manner

Competency profiles

• Demonstration of safety leadership

• Appointment of competent and qualified safety manager

• Demonstration of appropriate concepts and knowledge about accident prevention by social media, society, governmental officers, politicians and union worker

Safety climate

• Participation by the employees and workers actively in the safety issues

• Demonstrating strong safety culture for the engineering project

• Recruitment of workers having higher awareness related to safety

Project management

• Well communicated and scheduled project meetings including participation of engineers in the issues related to safety

• Well-coordinated team work

• Effective communication system

Safety requirements and incentives

• Fulfilled legislations for safety

• Fulfillment if client and contractual requirements

Safe work environment

• Maintained and appropriate housekeeping

• Implementation and maintenance of suitable site physical conditions for ensuring safe work conditions

Key performance indicators

• Maintenance of high involvement rates in the safety and health activities by the workers

• Strong financial performance

Hence, safety management is all about the management of the processes that are involved in a project with the application of certain principles and framework.

Conclusion

With the understanding of the basic concepts of quality control and role of safety it can be concluded by saying that these two are the most essential elements for every engineering project. Quality control is mainly the process through which quality of the factors are reviewed by the entities indulged into production. Moreover, Safety Management System is regarded as a continuous improvement process aims at reducing risks and preventing incidents. Quality can be regarded as the integrationist concept whereas as safety is one of the attributes of quality and hence these two components have a major role in an engineering project.

References

Low, S. P., & Ong, J. (2014). Project Quality Management. Critical success factors for.

Yang, H. (2016, March). Analysis of Quality Control Measures in Highway Project Construction. In 2016 International Conference on Education, Sports, Arts and Management Engineering. Atlantis Press.

Mitra, A. (2016). Fundamentals of quality control and improvement. John Wiley & Sons.

Attakora-Amaniampong, E., Salakpi, A., & Bonye, F. (2014). Total Quality Management and its impact on the level of Customer Focus within Construction Project Management in Ghana. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 3(7), 36-48.

Mallawaarachchi, H., & Senaratne, S. (2015). Importance of quality for construction project success. In 6th Internafional conference on structural engineering and construcfion management 2015 (pp. 11-13).

Joyce, J., & Ross, T. (2018). Quality Assurance Project Plan.

Borri, C., Guberti, E., & Quadrado, J. C. (2014). Quality assurance of engineering education worldwide: The QUEECA TEMPUS project for Central Asia. In 2014 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL) (pp. 346-351). IEEE.

Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), 202-217.

Potts, K., & Ankrah, N. (2014). Construction cost management: learning from case studies. Routledge.

Muiruri, G., & Mulinge, C. (2014). Health and safety management on construction project sites in Kenya. A Case Study of Construction Projects in Nairobi County, Engaging the Challenges–Enhancing the Relevance, 16-21.

Cheng, E. W., Kelly, S., & Ryan, N. (2015). Use of safety management practices for improving project performance. International journal of injury control and safety promotion, 22(1), 33-39.

Yi, S. L., Zhang, X., & Calvo, M. H. (2015). Construction safety management of building project based on BIM. Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Development, 38(1), 97-104.

Kontogiannis, T., Leva, M. C., & Balfe, N. (2017). Total safety management: principles, processes and methods. Safety science, 100, 128-142.

Bhoir, S., & Esmaeili, B. (2015). State-of-the-art review of virtual reality environment applications in construction safety. In AEI 2015 (pp. 457-468).

Subramani, T., & Lordsonmillar, R. (2014). Safety management analysis in construction industry. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 4(6), 117-120.

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