Preventing rework with a first-installation inspection
On the Wednesday walk of level 4, the superintendent stops at a window where the sill membrane is lapped opposite to the drawing detail. The installer has set 38 windows the same way since Monday. Each one has to come out, and the crew that did the work has already moved to level 5.
Repeated work multiplies its first mistake. A misread detail or a skipped step costs one unit when it is caught at the first installation, and every unit after it when it is caught a week later. The remedy is a planned inspection of the first installation of each repeated element, with the trade's foreman, before production continues. The US Army Corps of Engineers builds the same step into its quality system: an initial phase at the beginning of each definable feature of work that establishes the level of workmanship and is repeated for each new crew.
It is not a mock-up. A mock-up, usually approved by the consultant before work starts, sets the agreed appearance; the first-installation inspection checks that the real, installed unit meets the drawings, the specification and that agreed standard — see mock-ups and samples.
- List the repeated elements in the three-week look-ahead — windows, doors, anchors, fixtures, suite finishes — and put each first installation on the schedule as an inspection.
- Bring the references to the first unit: the drawing details, the specification section, the approved submittal and any approved mock-up.
- Inspect the first unit with the trade's foreman before the crew starts the second, item by item against those references.
- Record what was accepted: the result, anything that must change, and photos of the accepted unit the crew can refer to.
- Correct and re-inspect any failed item before production continues.
- Repeat the inspection when the crew, the product or the detail changes, or when the work stops matching the accepted unit.
Common mistakes
- Inspecting after the crew has finished a floor, when the first mistake has been repeated many times.
- Inspecting without the trade's foreman, so the findings arrive as a list rather than an agreement.
- Treating one first inspection as enough when a new crew or product arrives.
- Not recording what was accepted, so the standard lives in one person's memory.
Action list
This week
- List the repeated elements starting in the next three weeks
- Schedule an inspection of each first installation
- Bring the details, specification, submittal and mock-up to it
- Inspect with the trade's foreman before the second unit
- Photograph the accepted unit and share it with the crew
- Repeat for each new crew, product or detail
Check your understanding
A new crew from the same installer arrives on level 6. Is another first-installation inspection needed?
