Late one night, the project manager of an EPC company,  along with his structural design team from HO and site execution team, was struggling to identify the correct construction drawing to be used for setting the template for foundation bolts for a stub column. This template is essential for the casting of the anchor bolts into a stub column that serves as a connection between foundation concrete and transmission tower steel structure above. The work that was to be carried out 24X7 for meeting the tight schedule, had come to standstill due to confusion about the construction drawing.  On one hand the cost of idling of machinery and manpower was high, and on the other hand, the consequences of using a wrong drawing and a possible mismatch between the steel structure and foundation were also equally high. The problem was noticed when two drawings with the same drawing number but showing different details were found by two members of the project team.

The issue was finally resolved by manually measuring the dimensions of the steel structure and back calculating dimension for foundation structure. This took more than 12 hours of effort of the construction and design team. This confusion wouldn’t have arisen if there was a proper Drawing control system in place. Drawing control is a part of the overall quality management system(QMS). If the potential, often hidden, cost of such inefficiencies and rework is properly accounted for, the QMS will normally pay for itself and save some money as a bonus.

This is one real-life example of how the QMS can contribute to the Quality and reliability of any work. Implementing a QMS can help businesses achieve greater consistency in the activities involved in providing products or services. Following are some major benefits of a quality management system:

• A quality-approach ensures that the business is aligned, well-rounded, and sets goals for monitoring and evaluating performances.
• A quality management system plays a central role in keeping the customer satisfied by specifying what business needs to do to deliver the products and services fit for purpose.
• An effective quality management system encourages the organization to systematically address risks and opportunities.
• Continual improvement, which is an essential part of QMS is the only way to sustain above-average growth and profitability.
• A quality management system with a quality-focused approach helps to analyze the root cause of the problem and implement lasting solutions.