I recently received a report from one of our personnel performing a field audit of Quality Assurance (QA) activities on a particular job site.
Our role was simply to monitor the activities of the QA person performing their job throughout the day on geosynthetics projects. While listening to the list of observations from the audit, my mind transformed these events into a popular Bob Newhart skit performed many years ago.
In my version of the skit, the 10-year QA “veteran” being audited would walk in and sit down across from my desk and be held accountable for all the items we found during our field observation time.
Me: So, what brings you in here today?
QA: I need some geosynthetics therapy. I feel overwhelmed on the jobsite because no one listens to me.
Me: I’ve felt like that myself sometimes. The QA position is not for the fainthearted nor will you win any popularity contests.
QA: Oh, I’m fairly popular. I get along with everyone.
Me: Getting along with everyone is fine as long as the boundaries between contractor and QA remain intact.
QA: What do you mean by that?
Me: That you are still able to have authority on the jobsite with the contractor to ensure that specifications are followed.
QA: That would be my main complaint. The installers on my projects never follow the specifications.
Me: Please give me some examples from your last project.
QA: I mark a destructive sample to the specified length and the installer always tells me to make it shorter. So, I do.
Me: Stop It! Unless there is a perfectly good reason agreed upon by the owner, engineer, and installer for decreasing the size, it should be marked to the specified size.
QA: To tell you the truth, the installer is never happy with anything I do regarding destructs. Not only do they not like the size, but they also tell me many of the locations are “bad” locations, and that I need to move the destructs.
Me: Are you putting them at inappropriate places, perhaps somewhere that can not be easily repaired by an extrusion weld, locating them in the sump, and so forth?
QA: No, I avoid all those locations. I place them in suspect areas or areas adjacent to where repairs are already needed to minimize creating additional holes in the liner.
Me: Shame on the installer. You don’t move them do you?
QA: Well, I used to, and occasionally still do. I try to avoid moving the destructs by marking them in spots I know will satisfy the installer.
Me: Shame on you! Does the installer repair seam areas you know or feel are suspect or bad?
QA: No. Usually the installer says they will repair them, but then does not do it.
Me: Stop It! Your job as QA is to evaluate the seam integrity by using destructive samples to validate what you are seeing during seaming, and non-destructive seam testing. While there is no need to take a destructive sample on a known bad area when the installer is willing to repair it, sometimes it may be the only course of action available. The installer should never be dictating where samples are taken!
QA: I’m tired of talking about destructs.
Me: Well, we have more time available…is there anything else you would like to talk about?
QA: Specifications. Whenever I point out that the specifications say something, the installer tells me their interpretation is something different, usually more lenient.
Me: So, what do you do in these instances?
QA: I generally listen to what the installer has to say and move on.
Me: Stop It! Why don’t you pull out your copy of the specifications and show them what it says?!
QA: They do not listen to me anyways!
Me: Stop It! You need to talk to the certifying engineer and the owner about these issues and get them immediately involved! It sounds like you really need to go back and look up the definition of Quality Assurance!
QA: Now I feel like you’re picking on me.
Me: Sounds like it is a feeling you should be used to when you are in the field! The installer is walking all over you and your authority!
QA: I don’t feel like I have any authority. I’ve pointed out plenty of times that the installer needs to perform trial welds with the same equipment and personnel being used for production welding and they don’t listen to me.
Me: What do you mean they do not listen to you?
QA: Well, for instance, on my last project, not only did they substitute fusion weld operators without trial welds to keep machines running during lunch, but when they did break at lunch, the operators performed the trial welds prior to leaving for lunch. Then they shut off the generators, and refused to do new trial welds upon their return from lunch. There’s at least two violations of the specifications right there!
Me: So they performed new trial welds after starting up the equipment after lunch?
QA: (Laughing). Heck no! They just welded as usual! Hey, I didn’t notice that twitch earlier. Is that something you have had for a long time?
Me: (Twitching). O-o-per-a-a-a-tors need to be pre-qualified on their machines after any power interruption to help ensure the functionality and quality of the seam have not changed!
QA: By equipment, do you mean generators, too?
Me: Yes, the power supply is critical to thermal welding methods and must produce enough sustained uninterrupted power to provide sound welding.
QA: Well then. Maybe you should lie down on the couch as you’re probably not going to like this! This crew performed trial seams with large generators. After passing the trial seams, they switched to “production” generators for their welding activities.
Me: By switching, do you mean they unplugged the machine from the generator they passed the trial weld with, plugged in the machine to a different generator, and performed production seaming with that generator without a trial weld.
QA: Exactly! The installer says they get better welds with these production generators. And, they are much easier to carry out on the liner.
Me: I really hate to ask this question. Really I do. But here it goes. How do they “carry” generators out on the liner?
QA: Oh, that is relatively easy. They are hand held portable generators that they can carry to and from their work area. You know, the kind you see at Harbor Freight for $100 or less. The installer said they do this all the time and never have any problems.
Me: Do you know what a WATT is? Scratch that. I really don’t want to go there! Let me just say that such portable generators are likely not to meet the required output to properly run a thermal fusion or extrusion machine.
QA: Ouch! Their trial seams always pass, and their destructs usually pass!
Me: Of course they do. There is no real trial weld test, and you put the destructs exactly where they want them!
QA: Well, the installer is happy with me and that makes for easy days at work.
Me: What does your boss say about all this?
QA: We don’t talk much because if the client is not complaining he is happy with me. That, and I have the most liner experience out of any of the techs in the company.
Me: How much experience?
QA: Ten years, and I train most of the new technicians on liner. Glen. Glen! Your twitch is back, and it’s scaring me!
Me: You know what scares me? You Do!
QA: Hey, I’m out of here! I’ve got a new project starting up tomorrow.
Me: Finalizing session notes: This QA seems to have no idea what their true field responsibility is, yet surprisingly returns year after year to do the same quality work within the industry. Sadly, this QA is just one of many similar cases I’ve encountered over the past 20 plus years.
