InfoTown™
Priya's journey · Assurance · Lesson 1

The inspection nobody planned

Before you start

In the story

The steel was probably fine. Nobody could prove it.

Back to the story

The right way

Week one

Priya and Dave put every inspection in the client's plan on the parts list, and every hold point into the programme, like a concrete delivery. Nothing pours until the record exists.

Thursday afternoon

The Clerk of Works inspects the steel and signs it off on the site app, against the right drawing, with photos.

Friday, 7am

Six trucks. Pour. On Monday the Clerk of Works nods. Very nearly smiles.

"It looked fine"A pour nobody inspected, cores through a new slab, and three weeks lost.
Planned in week oneEvery hold point on the plan, a signed record, and a pour on time.
Think like Priya

Every inspection is a piece of information you owe someone. In week one, ask: which inspections, who does them, how much notice, and where does the record go? If it isn't planned, it won't happen. If it isn't written down, it didn't.

Continue Priya's journey

Story 2: The briefing on C01

The method statement went to C02. The copy on the cabin wall is still C01.
The right way, explained

The right way, explained

Some roads in town have a toll booth you can't drive round. A hold point is a toll booth: it goes on the map before anyone sets off, not after they've driven through it.

If you're the site manager

If you're the site manager

Book inspections the way you book concrete: with a date, a name and notice. Nothing pours until the record exists. "It looked fine" is not a record.

In the town See it in the town: the steel was probably fine. How much does "probably" cost?

Priya's view: the parts list isn't only drawings. Every inspection record the client needs is on it too, with a name and a date.

Show:
The need, travelling from the client to the design team and the site team On the left, the Client Town asks "What are we building?". The need travels to the project site. From there it splits: up to the Design System, where Alex plans 40 drawings and starts designing in the work-in-progress room, and down to the site cabin, where Dave lists detail drawings, RFIs and inspections to prove the work is right. CLIENT TOWN "What are we building?" THE NEED PROJECT SITE PROJECT CDE DESIGN SYSTEM WORK IN PROGRESS WE NEED: ☐ 40 drawings☐ 3 models☐ 1 design report Who · by when "OK, we need 40 drawings. Let's plan it." SITE CABIN WE NEED: ☐ 6 detail drawings☐ RFIs for any issues☐ 9 inspections to prove it's right "Details, RFIs and inspections to prove it."
The need, turned into a plan. Who makes what, and by when.

Inspection records are information too!

Each one is owed to someone, planned in week one, and on the parts list like any drawing.

Sam's Heads Up It might not be called an inspection plan

InfoTown good practice: Plan what you owe, with an owner and a date.

On your job: Your job might call it an inspection and test plan, a quality plan or a hold-point schedule. Whatever it's called, it sits next to the delivery plan, not in a drawer.

For the audit What the auditor will ask
  • Show me the inspection plan, and where the hold points sit in the programme.
  • Show me the record for this pour.
For the audit What good evidence looks like
  • An inspection plan with hold points, owners and notice periods.
  • A signed record for each hold point, against the right drawing revision, dated before the pour.
From the standard
ISO 19650 Planning what's delivered

ISO 19650 expects the information a team has to deliver to be planned up front, each piece with an owner and a date. That inspection records belong on that plan is InfoTown's advice; how you run inspections is your quality system, not ISO 19650.

Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.