The New NRMCA Quality Certification Program

• Published in: Concrete International Vol. 36; no. 12; pp. 41 - 45
• Main Authors: Obla, Karthik H, Lobo, Colin L
• Format: Journal Article Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Farmington Hills American Concrete Institute 01.12.2014
• Subjects: Audits; Certification; Concrete construction; Concretes; Cost engineering; Deviation; Evolution; Hardening; Objectives; Quality control; Quality management; Quality standards; Repair; Responsibilities; Specifications
• ISSN: 0162-4075; 1944-7388

The NRMCA Quality Certification program started with a focus group of practicing designers convened to discuss the evolution to performance-based specifications for concrete.9 The group recognized a need for a prequalification process that would assure a designer that a ready mixed concrete company could furnish concrete to such a specification using the necessary resources and capabilities. Examples of measurable quality objectives are: * Maintain concrete strength deviation of the top two selling mixtures for each plant to less than 500 psi (3.5 MPa); * Maintain the amount of rejected concrete due to quality- related reasons to less than 1% of the plant's production; * Maintain cost to repair, replace, or mitigate hardened concrete issues because concrete did not meet the require- ments or expectations of the purchaser or did not satisfy the specification, to less than $0.50/yd3 ($0.66/m3); and * Limit the number of complaints that are verified to be quality-related per 100,000 yd3 (75,000 m3) of production to less than four annually.