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Construction quality management, "the performance of tasks, which ensure that construction is performed according to plans and specifcations, on time, within a defned budget, and [within] a safe work environment," is the system for achieving high quality within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).1 Construction quality management was the primary reason I applied for an internship with USACE. I wanted to determine how it produced such high-quality projects so that I could apply that knowledge to the Regular Army. I quickly learned that operational units in the Regular Army will never match USACE quality. The Regular Army mission and culture are not geared toward that level of quality. Engineer Soldiers train as infantry, deploy, conduct feld exercises, and sustain the normal functions of an Army unit. They cannot compete with the expertise of contractors, whose only requirement is to perform their specifc function.
Despite the differences between USACE and the Regular Army, an understanding of some of the key concepts of construction quality management can help operational unit leaders improve quality within their own units. Exact changes are outside the scope of this paper; different factors of mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations warrant varying levels of concern about quality. When quality is a top concern, however, the following fve concepts of construction quality management are a good place to start-
Relationship Between Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA). QC is the contractor's required internal system to achieve quality standards by meeting specifcations, fnishing on time, staying within budget, and maintaining a safe environment. QA is the USACE system to ensure that the QC program is functioning properly. To ensure that this relationship works, USACE mandates strict requirements for the contractor QC program, such as having a QC manager who is authorized to stop project work and maintaining a detailed QC plan approved by USACE. The take-away is that construction quality management requires a QC system to monitor construction and a QA system to ensure that the control system works. This multilayered system effectively pushes the responsibility for quality onto the contractor, while keeping a monitoring and tracking system at the USACE level. The QC/QA relationship may be a helpful framework from which to borrow...