8 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 2 Featured Article Just two words used together that some consider bull. Books have been written about it. Seminars have been conducted on implementing it. Can you think of a project where quality control (QC) was successful? I know we have all seen it fail. How much control do we have to have to get quality? One friend had the QC policy of telling the survey crews to do a good job as they went out the door every day. That was it, nothing more. While that may have worked for some crews, it did not work well for others. Most surveyors I know take some pride in their work. I have even seen the survey crew come back with barely usable data and be proud of their production. Another crew came back with several photos of each photo control point they set and I must admit they were beautiful, but three of them were not visible on the aerial photos. We need to each have some level of QC. I like to think of quality control as follows: Me, asserting a little control to gain quality. Some like the “top down” system of quality control. Others think the “bottom up” system works better. I like a system that says each person does their share. Control what you can and give guidance to others so they can control their share. Is that controlling them? Maybe some would see it that way. But really those of us with lots of experience should be able to guide others through a project without them making each and every mistake. Those of us with less experience should be able to take guidance with the knowledge that we are going to be able to miss many of those mistakes that are waiting to trip us up. There are times that improvement is not just avoiding a mistake, it is using a better procedure. What could be better than all who work on the project watching out for each other to improve the end product? Can the office surveyor do something to make the field survey go easier? Can the field crew do something to make the office work come together better? Do we have room for improvement here? So thinking back to my friend, couldn't the PLS do a little more for the survey crew to offer them a better chance to be successful in their survey work for the day? How many times has the survey crew had to go to the field without all the research completed? Yeah, that works! What about showing up at the project that someone else has been working on and not having a control sketch and there are no lath baskets? Sure Boss, we will be out of here in no time! Or maybe the What is it? office just loaded you up with a file and when setting up on control, the stakeout points don’t match? Thank you, Office! A plot would have been nice and would have shown that it did not work. Well, we could make a long list here (really long). Instead, what I propose is to talk about some of the things we can do which will offer our survey teams a better chance of success on each project. Many of the items are small. Some of them seem insignificant until we look back on what really happened in the office or in the field. Looking back, we see that usually it was expensive to not have quality control. Let’s look at this and see if you can find an improvement for yourself. Remember: • Me, asserting a little control to gain quality. Luke out. James H. Luke, PLS, USMS, is a currently-retired surveyor living in Portland, Oregon. He started his career in forestry in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, then transitioned to surveying/engineering in Colorado. He held the U.S. Mineral Surveyor appointment by BLM and active registrations in Colorado and Maryland. By Jim Luke, PLS (Retired) Quality Control
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