N°184. 1988. Quality Assurance for Building - Synthesis Report.

Quality Assurance (Q .A. ) is a rat her recent theme . It has been first deve­loped for industrial prod uction . However , it has also been recognised that for construct ion works Q.A. is a major element for reliability . In particular only Q.A. makes it pos sib le to assess rat her precisely statistical distributions (main parameters and ext rem values ). For this reason Q.A. is one of the main subjects of interest for Commission I. 

The progress made during the last ten years for the application of Q.A. to construction activities has shown that met hods , terminologies (which are not completely fixed ) and even some concepts used for industrial production need in this case some adaptations. 

Q.A. cannot be completely codified . In particular it s part relating to human behaviour is intrinsically widely subjective. Besides the degree at which Q.A. can be applied in practice depends to a large extent not only on the magnitude and complexity of the individual projects but also on the professional organi­sation and qualification in the various countries; improvements may be wished for in this respect . 

At international level , for const ruction activities , Q.A. has been studied on several occasions out si de of CEB; the IABSE symposia of RIGI (1983) and TOKYO (1986) may be especially mentioned in this respect. F.I.P. has also developed applications of Q.A. for the production of prestressing steels . Wit hin JCSS, however, the discussions have remained very limited; for this reason the new Volume 1, alt hough considering the concept of Q.A. as a fundamental one , has not brought much for the applications. 

Within CEB are to be mentioned , besides a detailed application by Commission VII for the production of reinforcing steels , Bulletin 157 ( 1983) establis hed by TG 1/1 and Bulletin 17 1 giving the conclusions of the Special Session IV B held in Rotterdam (1985). Pr . A.G. MESEGUER has been the main author and one of the main contributors to these Bulletins , respectively. 

These Bulletins were mainly conceptual . The present Bulletin represents a step towards operationality and practical quality management , and alt hough not fully developed in this sense, may be considered as a guide . 

It has been established by TG I / 3, chaired by Pr . A.G. MES EG UER , and is in­tended to be presented and discussed during the next CEB Plenary Session in Dubrovnik. A previous draft (not yet complete) was discussed by Commission 1 during its 14th meeting in Treviso . For practical reasons (time-table and num­ber of available copies ) the last version was examined only by some members of the Commission , acting individually