As a civil engineer and a licensed professional engineer, I found your article "Rethinking Wrench Time" to be of great interest. I also have a master's degree in industrial engineering, specializing in quality control, and am a longtime member of the American Society for Quality.
For many years, I have been promoting the application of quality-control principles to construction work, and I think this article gives an example of how it may be accomplished. To its credit, the [New York City Transit Authority, or NYCTA] now requires contractors to provide a quality-control manager on major projects. I have personally served as a quality-control manager on two NYCTA projects in recent years, including a $40-million bus maintenance and office facility in Maspeth, Queens, for Granite Construction.
To paraphrase your concluding paragraph, just as with safety, applying quality-control principles to construction is a team approach and will take some leadership for government agencies to push forward.
Allen Parmet
Principal
Parmet Engineering LLC
Springfield, N.J.
