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Quality

Alongside Health and Safety and Environment, Quality is of critical importance to Crossrail. Every instance of poor quality compromises safety, takes time and effort to resolve, increases cost and distracts attention from driving the programme forward.

The Crossrail Management System (CMS), accredited to ISO9001: 2008, provides the framework for the planning, design, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning and bringing into service of Crossrail. The Quality Policy sets out Crossrail’s approach to quality, which is implemented through the CMS:

Apply the principles of ‘right first time’ and continual improvement to our performance;
Ensure compliance with legislation, regulatory requirements, and relevant codes of practice and standards;
Place accountability for quality with those best placed to act;
Set realistic, measurable objectives and targets for all activities, to assist delivery of performance and progress; and
Implement review, surveillance and audit programmes to monitor compliance with requirements and assess the effectiveness of the arrangements.

Crossrail roll these requirements down to the supply chain through the following requirements which are embedded into the Works Information Vol 2B – Section 20 -Quality Management:

All contractors are required to:

Have a Quality Management System (QMS), which meets the requirements of ISO 9001 and is certified by a UKAS accredited certification body (or equivalent);
Provide a Quality Plan which is compliant with the quality arrangements in the contract;
Appoint a quality manager, who is a chartered quality professional (or equivalent) and will act as the principal point of contact for quality Management issues.
Develop and implement ‘Inspection & Test Plans’ that when implemented provide evidence that the specified requirements have been met;
Develop and conduct a programme of internal audits appropriate for the works;
Ensure that all sub-contractors comply with the contractual quality requirements that are relevant to their scope of works;

The requirements in the Works Information are over and above the industry norm and are intended to ensure that contractors are resourced correctly and have established systems to deliver quality. A learning legacy paper on Supply Chain Quality Requirements reviews the quality resources and systems used in Crossrail, the supply chain requirements within the Works Information, management of quality during construction, the self-certification process implemented and the quality culture across the programme.

One of the early concerns faced by Crossrail was the lack of skilled quality professionals in the construction industry. Hence the Crossrail Quality Professional training programme was developed in partnership with the CQI to address the skills gaps. A learning legacy paper on Quality Professional Resourcing and Development shares details of the training scheme, the results and lessons learned for use by future projects. A one day training course was also developed on non-conformance reporting and root cause analysis. Details of this ‘Spot-On’ training can be found here.

Crossrail’s approach to ‘getting the quality right’ was in the use of Inspection and Test Plans (ITPs) and self certification. All contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers were required to produce and maintain ITPs signed off by the Crossrail NEC Supervisor.

The Quality dashboard is how Crossrail reports quality performance across the programme. Crossrail is the first construction project to implement a Quality Performance Indicator (QPI) similar to the Health and Safety Performance Indicator. The QPI is based on 6 existing leading and lagging KPIs:

work commencing without ITP
% Crossrail satisfactory observations
% Non Conformance Reports (NCRs) raised by contractors
%NCRs overdue
% certification completed on time
Corrective Action Reviews closed on time.

The QPI is published each period in a league table format for each Tier 1 contractor and is intended to provide visibility of performance to incentivise the programme the supply chain to improve through competition across which is an approach that has generally been successful as part of the performance assurance framework.

Crossrail has captured the cost of rework of each non conformity by estimating the cost to rectify defective work against the total cost of work completed across the programme and per contract. Analysis of the cost of rework reviews the overall cost and the importance of providing visibility of this cost on the programme. Crossrail also regularly undertakes trend analysis to identify improvement initiatives. The dataset of all NCRs on the programme has been published for the benefit of future programmes.

Crossrail communicates quality trends and improvement initiatives using Quality Alerts which are shared across the programme and it runs a Quality Week which is a means of engaging with the supply chain on quality matters.

Quality Documents:

Summary	Publication date	Document Type
Completion Readiness Assessment Framework (CRAF) Procedure Topic area: Quality Completion Readiness Assessment – Framework (CRAFs) are Quality assessments geared towards ‘completion activities’ and with pushing Tier 1s and Project Teams to gain NEC3 Contract Completion. These independent assessments are carried out by discipline leads and scrutinise the planning and progress in ...	18/05/2023	Good Practice Document
Crossrail Management System – 2023 Addendum Topic area: Quality This paper is an addendum to the original Crossrail Management System Learning Legacy paper (April 2017) which examined Crossrail’s concept of establishing and implementing a management system that ensured key processes were mapped, describing the approach taken and outlining how the management system was developed....	18/05/2023	Technical Paper
Technical Surveillance – lessons learned Topic area: Quality This report provides the Crossrail technical surveillance methodology that can be adopted on future projects of this nature. The surveillance process is important as it provides an independent check of on-going works, risk-based sampling of works to ensure its conformance to the works information and relevant specifica...	18/05/2023	Micro-report
Crossrail Project Non-conformance Reporting Data Topic area: Quality Non-conformance reports (NCRs) were a key part of Crossrail’s quality management system. They were used to record non-conformities (defects) in the works (product, workmanship, or electronic systems), and provided a disposition and documented information of the agreed resolution. NCRs could be initiated by any me...	17/05/2023	Dataset
Managing Contractor Self-Certification on Crossrail Topic area: Quality Based on processes and lessons from High Speed 1, the requirements for Self-Certification were written into Parts 13, 20 and 29 of the Works Information 2B and supplemented with procedures and templates specific to civils, fit-out, MEP and Routeway systems. Each contractor was responsible for providing contemporaneous ...	17/05/2023	Technical Paper
The Importance of Planning in the Production of Construction Deliverable Records Topic area: Quality Planning with the end in sight is crucial in the delivery of all successful projects, and is especially true in the construction industry, where both the works and personnel involved can change at such a rapid pace. It is hence crucial to ensure robust pans are in place from the outset, at planning phase of any packa...	10/05/2023	Technical Paper
Crossrail approach to Contract Completion – The Employer’s Completion Process Topic area: Quality This report discusses the approach taken by the Crossrail programme to ensure due diligence before certifying construction contracts as complete under the NEC contract. The Employer’s Completion Process (ECP) was introduced to define all essential checks necessary to achieve completion based on the Works Informat...	05/05/2023	Technical Paper
Crossrail’s Non-Conformance (Defect) Reporting System Topic area: Quality The construction industry has historically been reluctant to proactively identify defects due to fear of cost and reputational impact, which unfortunately resulted in latent defects being discovered far too late. Crossrail acted upon lessons learned from the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project and ensured defects were ide...	20/04/2023	Technical Paper
Crossrail Management System Topic area: Quality This paper examines Crossrail’s concept of establishing and implementing a management system that ensured that all key processes were mapped, describing the approach taken and setting out how the Management System was developed. It discusses the challenges encountered throughout the lifecycle of the Programme and how...	04/04/2017	Case Study
Project Technical Requests Procedure Topic area: Quality The Project Technical Requests Procedure is part of the Quality Management System of the Crossrail Delivery function. The procedure outlines the controlled identification, notification and resolution of: Project initiated technical questions, Request for Information, between parties under the control or interface mana...	14/03/2017	Good Practice Document
Crossrail Management Plan Topic area: Quality The Crossrail Management Plan, documents the arrangements adopted by Crossrail for the delivery of the Crossrail Programme in accordance with the Delivery Strategy. It is arranged into four volumes as follows: Volume 1: Corporate, Support and Specialist Function Directorates Documents the governance arrangements and re...	14/03/2017	Good Practice Document
Quality Professional Resourcing and Development Topic area: Quality This case study describes Crossrail’s approach to resourcing the client and supply chain teams for quality. Early on there were concerns that, in terms of quality, the construction industry is playing catch-up in relation to other industries. Recognising that many sectors are reaping huge benefits from the impl...	27/09/2016	Case Study
Quality Management Principles, Policies and Requirements Topic area: Quality The purpose of this document is to formally set out and communicate the quality management principles, policies and requirements to be deployed by CRL in managing the Central Section Works (CSW) project. This document is applicable to procurement, manufacturing, design and construction field based activities of the Cen...	27/09/2016	Good Practice Document
Quality Policy Topic area: Quality The Crossrail Quality Policy sets out Crossrail Limited’s commitment and approach to Quality.	27/09/2016	Good Practice Document
Quality Training Material Topic area: Quality Crossrail worked with the British Quality Foundation to develop a’ Spot-On’ training course to improve the effectiveness of the Non-Conformance Reports (NCR) process across the programme and create a culture where issues are reported allowing them to be dealt with in a controlled, transparent and efficient manner. ...	26/02/2016	Micro-report
Works Information Study (Supply Chain Quality Requirements) Topic area: Quality The key quality requirements for the supply chain quality included in Crossrail contracts were over and above the industry norm and were intended to ensure that contractors were resourced correctly and established systems to deliver quality. This case study covers the quality resources and systems used in Crossrail...	26/02/2016	Case Study
Quality Dashboard Topic area: Quality ‘Right First Time‘ is a key factor in the success of any project. As part of its quality management process, Crossrail developed a quality dashboard with meaningful metrics that enabled trend analysis and informed decision making to rectify problems and prevent recurrence. This learning legacy page describes the co...	26/02/2016	Micro-report